Home »
Residents show their love for the Elk River
Residents from Elkford, Sparwood and Fernie showed their love for the Elk River this past weekend at the Elk River Allianceâs (ERA) âOur River Rocks – Elk River Festivalâ events, held in conjunction with B.C. and World Rivers Day.
On Saturday night at the Our River Rocks social at the community centre was the crowning of the Elk River Fisher Skills Event.
âParticipants challenged each other in casting distance and accuracy, matched imitation flies to benthic invertebrates and even had to take a quiz,â said Tyler Carson, one of the judges for the event.
Liam Samycia took the youth award; Terron Bewski from Sparwood won the coveted handmade bamboo fly rod by master fly fisher John Poirier; and Dylan Forester who guides for Elk River Guiding Company won the Professional category and took home a shadow box of ornate tied flies again by Mr. Poirier.
âWe really wanted to engage with the fishing community who depend on a healthy watershed for their livelihood and were excited to host this skills demonstration,â noted Carson, who is also on the board of the Elk River Alliance.
Over the summer ERA promoted a Photo Contest #MyElkRiver and the entries were shown for judging at the social. The overall winner is Dani Haworth with a photo of her daughter in a âClan of the Cave Bearâ style image hanging out in the Elk River in Fernie (lead image).
Other winners were: Chantel Belanger (Recreation), Gentree Earl (River), Cliff Razzo (Fishing), Colleen Genteman (Wildlife).
âThe entries were amazing and show a real culture developing around our connection to the Elk River,â stated Graham Preston, ERAâs summer outreach educator.
Our River Rocks social evening was a showcase of partners promoting stewardship of the Elk River including Teck, Tourism Fernie, Canyon Rafting and Elk River Guiding Company. Local artists and businesses donated many silent auction items and an artist on retreat, Herman Mckenzie demonstrated painting fishers, his main subject area. âKids of all ages printed fish, doodled on rocks, and made river critters. Everyone loved all the great interpretive activities to learn about our watershed,â commented Lee-Anne Walker, Executive Director with the ERA.
Great Elk River Shoreline Cleanup
âSunday was the Great Elk River Shoreline Cleanup where 126 people cleaned up the Elk River from Elkford to Elko along trails, popular areas like Silver Springs, staging areas for fishing and paddling, and even the Elk River itself,â noted Walker. âFor sure the Elkford ATV Club will win the award for the largest piece of debris cleaned out of a âwaterway.â
âWith help from local contractors and companies Bearspaw Contracting, RMR Boom Truck Services, Transcendent Mining, Manitoulin, with assistance from the District of Elkford, they removed a 121-foot long bridge from the Elk River north of Elkford weighing over 25 tons.â
Murray Haight, Elkford ATV Club President said, âthe bridge was washed out by the 2013 flood and was buried by tons of sediments and trees. It wasnât an easy task and we had a very tight timeline, but it shows the power of people working together to care for the river.â
On another positive note, the Fernie Christian Youth Group, which cleaned up Silver Springs Lake area, commented that the site was the cleanest it had been in the last few years. High school students from Janet Kuijtâs Fernie Secondary School Grade 8/9 class, who cleaned up around Maiden Lake and the North Fernie Bridge, also noted it was cleaner this year.
A dozen of the Elk Valley Air Cadets really helped out this year in Sparwoodâs clean up. Altogether the keen volunteers cleaned up dozens of bags of garbage, tons of metal and trash from the over 20 kms of shoreline.
âMany thanks to all of the community volunteers and this years sponsors Teck, TD Canada Trust, Overwaitea, Independent and the Kootenay Market. A special thanks to the City of Fernie, Districts of Sparwood and Elkford for your support and cleaning up the trash,â noted Walker.
Lead image: Winning âoverall entryâ from #MyElkRiver.
Submitted