Trepanier Creek Restoration
Posted April 11, 2006Restoration work in Trepanier Creek was completed by the PSA in 2005, including assessment of the former hydroelectric dam located above the lower reaches, along with creek cleanup and erosion mitigation in the upper portions of a Trepanier Creek tributary. The consultants report is available as a 1.5 MB PDF file, and the PSA's presentation to Peachland Council on April 11, 2006 is also online.
McCall Lake Access
Posted April 11, 2006The PSA made a presentation to Peachland town council on April 11, 2006 regarding improving access to McCall Lake for fishing and designating the area for recreation use. The full text of the letter is available.
PSA 2006 Game Banquet
psoted April 11, 2006Photos from the 2006 PSA Game Banquet are available at Webshots. Approximately 270 people attended the event, enjoying a silent auction, door prizes, live auction, displays of animal mounts, as well as a selection of various game meats cooked by PSA members. A more detailed report of the game banquet is available online.
Recreation Stewardship Panel - Final Report Issued
Posted April 5, 2003After many months of anticipation, the Recreation Stewardship Panel final report was released to the public on January 28, two months after being issued to the Minster. To the best of my knowledge, the Forests minister will not be adopting the panel's recommendations - a powerpoint document on the Forests site is still talking about "partnerships" for maintaining the sites. It is a rather unusual definition of "partnering" as any "partner" has to put in all of the money and effort to maintain the sites, with no possibility of compensation - a rather expensive proposition for local clubs and organizations. Given the lack of response by community groups to the ludicrous request for proposals from the Forests ministry, we can all look forward to seeing more people camping on the roadsides, firepits (and forest fires) everywhere, and more waste disposal in the wilderness.
Crystal Mtn gets Six Month Extension from RDCO
Posted August 17, 2002In spite of having a proposed development plan which does not conform with the OCP, the LRMP, or small footprint developments, the Regional District board voted to allow another application from the developers within six months(~200kb, PDF). Of course, then there is the lightly veiled threat, where the developer says that "We need to be able to attract investors and the window is only open so long", to pressure local government to ignore the views and concerns of local citizens in the pursuit of the almighty dollar.
Recreation Stewardship Panel
Posted August 17, 2002Appointed in May, the Recreation Stewardship panel has finally issued their public consultation plan and working principles document. The panel website includes some additional information. Their mandate includes a review of all recreation opportunities, from private business operations in parks, to wildlife resource management and programs such as the HCTF. They are accepting public comment until October 15.
Hunting Regulations
Posted August 17,2002The British Columbia Hunting Synopsis is available now. It is separated into general, province-wide information, and then into regions, so you only have to download the parts you need.
Grizzly Lake Family Fishing Weekend
Posted June 10, 2002The Family Fishing Weekend is a initiative sponsored by the BC and federal governments. Any Canadian resident can print a free three-day freshwater fishing license valid from June 14-16, 2002, available at their website. Peachland Sportsmen's Association members are camping at Grizzly Lake again this year from June 14-16. There are quite a few nice lakes within 15 minutes of the campsite, so come on up for some great fishing.
Ill blows the wind that profits nobody
Posted January 20, 2002'Twill be interesting to see how the effects of Thursday, January 17, 2001 manifest themselves. A few of the things that struck me as interesting:
- the overall budget of WLAP drops from $167 million to $127 million
- A new focus will be to "Increase opportunities for commercial recreation service delivery in appropriate parts of the park system".
- BC Assets and Lands will take over water management (water licensing) from SRM, with no additional staff resources. They are also expected to generate at least 75% more income from the sale of crown land each year with slightly less staff by 2005. While incorporating more community input. Somehow. A strategic shift for BCAL will be to Focus on economic development while applying sustainability principles to achieve balanced decisions that maintain key environmental values. Given their track record throughout the province, maintaining environmental values would certainly be a shift for BCAL.
- The strategic focus will switch from "Constraints on economic development" to "Economic development based on clear, reasonable outcomes, with discretion as to how to achieve these outcomes." The word reasonable has many shades of meanings, especially for a government which appears thus far committed to economic development at all costs. I hope that game farming is not considered to be reasonable? Same with increased fish farming on the coast.
- There is not much news yet on changes within the Okanagan. One rumor is that conservation officers will be spending more time working with environmental protection (i.e., industrial pollution), and less with wildlife issues.
Game Banquet
Posted January 20, 2002February 9, 2002. Tickets are available from Al Springer, Valley Glass in Westbank, and some club members.
December Potluck
Posted December 8, 2001The annual December potluck dinner takes place on Wednesday night, 2001 12 12. It is at the Peachland Community Hall, and starts somewhere between 6pm and 6:30pm. Call Martha Jenkins if you have any questions on what to bring.
Layout Changes
posted December 8, 2001You may have noticed that things look a little different. In fact, if you are using an older browser (version 4 or earlier of Netscape or Explorer), the site will now be pretty bland. I followed through on my threat to go to town with stylesheets, so almost all formatting information is in a cascading stylesheet.
This is the last structural change to the site that anyone should notice for a while - future changes will be either primarily cosmetic, or else behind the scenes on the server.
Crystal Mtn Open House
Posted Nov 20, 2001Yet another open house for the proposed Pheidias development, without any real mechanism for soliciting or incorporating public feedback. Go anyways, ask questions, and so on. November 28, 2001, 4-8pm, at Crystal Mountain (formerly known as Last Mountain).
November Meeting
Posted November 20, 2001Less than 24 hours from now, we wil be meeting at the Peachland Community hall, 7:30 pm, November 21. Fourth Street Place was unavailable. The agenda will include the game banquet.
Missed some stuff
Posted November 20, 2001One would think that September and October sort of flew by. Posting of the meeting minutes is on the to-do list. The October 2001 newsletter is now available as a PDF download.
Eneas Lake Project Completed
Posted August 31, 2001The Eneas Lake project was completed on August 25, 2001. Thanks to the volunteers who came out and made it possible. We completed the in-stream works, including construction of in-stream structures to improve fish passage from Finlay Creek to Eneas Lake.
A big thank-you goes out to the following local companies for donations of time, materials, and use of equipment:
- Lewis Trucking
- Team Construction
- Westlake Paving
- Peachland Transfer
- Gorman Bros. Lumber Ltd.
The structure will require a bit of fine-tuning to ensure optimal performance, which will be more easily done once stream flows are a bit higher. Photos and a project summary will be posted within the next month or so.
There are a lot of small dam structures elsewhere in the region which are similar to the one at Eneas. Fisheries staff have commented that they would like to use this project as a template, based on the design we submitted with the assistance of Geostream Consulting. I would like to ask any club member visiting Eneas to take a close look at the work, and give Al Springer or Darren Schlamp a call to update us on how it appears to be performing. Things to look for include:
- water level of Eneas Lake compared with the concrete dam;
- water depth in the pool we built immediately downstream of the structure, in relation to the surface of the concrete dam;
- water flow rate in Finlay Creek (approximate);
- number of fish / fry noted in the creek;
- is water flowing over, or through our in-stream structure (does the creek appear to dry up, and reappear downstream of the structure);
- whether fish passage is possible from the creek to the lake - could a 1 inch fry swim upstream from Finlay Creek to Eneas Lake;
- are fine sands exposed below the gravel and cobble used to build the in-stream structure, or is the gravel armouring intact;
- are there any signs of vandalism, or possible need to repair the structure;
The more information we collect, and the more monitoring we have will allow us to improve the design, correct deficiencies, and give fisheries more information about the effectiveness of the work we did. We made the changes to the creek to improve the habitat, and we should make sure that they are working.
Older StuffThis site was tested with Lynx. That should make the content visible on anything. It looks best on my browser. Your mileage may vary.