Better protection of Edmonton’s river valley needed
Kristine Kowalchuk writes in an opinion piece that between 2000 and 2015, Edmonton lost 6.4 per cent of our river valley natural areas, which translates to 75 acres each year. Since 2015, the losses have continued with another 200 acres lost to the Valley Line LRT and the E.L. Smith solar farm. As more people use the river valley for recreation, we need more land, not less.
She recommends creation of a Parks Department, as our city seems to be the only city anywhere without one. Currently, teams overseeing the river valley and parks are spread over other departments. In addition, Council needs to re-establish a Biodiversity and Climate Change Advisory Committee, that would reflect scientific consensus that the biodiversity and climate crises must be resolved together, and tap into existing community resources.
Kowalchuk urges the river valley planning modernization process prioritize the goal of greater ecological protection of the river valley as a biodiversity core area and a regionally significant wildlife corridor. Protecting this corridor is critical to the health of the system, and our city, and should be the starting point for river valley planning.
Finally, she suggests current operations funding be redirected so that the river valley is maintained as an ecosystem rather than a facility. Working with nature costs less than working against it and supports public health. There is opportunity here for Indigenous leadership. Read complete article at https://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-better-protection-of-edmontons-river-valley-sorely-needed-in-2022
River valley artifacts found this past summer
Andy Young’s photo shows a sampling of artifacts he found in river valley walks close to his home. They were collected in a responsible manner and in the case of embedded items the Royal Alberta Museum (RAM) was notified and came to the site to document.
He says the bison metatarsal (canon bone) on the left was put at 6-7000 yrs BP by RAM; the one beside it came from the same strata and shows indications of being broken open for the marrow by a stone tool similar to the scraper/basher type stone tool above it.
The two bison long bone splinters appear to be awls or piercing tools of some sort like those found at the Mitchell site in South Dakota and beside them is part of a bison pelvis which has a nice ergonomic feel to it which he bets is a hide scraper.
The horn core and partial skull at the top came out of the sediment when the river was low late in the year. The reverse side shows the brain case exposed to extract the brain to use in the tanning process.
The final artifact may be the most intriguing as it brings us all the way to the 1800’s. It is the concave end of a bison scapula that was clearly sawed off above the joint. It too was found at low water in the silt. Young believes that artifact is connected to the provisioning of meat to Fort Edmonton as detailed in an entry in John Rowand’s 1823 General Report (found on p110 of Archaeological Survey of Alberta Occasional Paper 39). Learn about RAM at https://royalalbertamuseum.ca/
Rusty Blackbird conservation a Canadian responsibility
The Rusty Blackbird breeds up to the northern tree line in Canada and is listed as sensitive in Alberta. Seventy percent of the bird’s breeding range is in Canada, so it is considered a species for which Canada has a major responsibility in terms of conservation.
It is a summer resident of northern Alberta and nests usually within 12m of water. The typical breeding habitat is forested wetlands, which can include slow-moving streams and rivers, peat bogs, sedge meadows, marshes swamps and beaver ponds.
The Rusty Blackbird has exhibited an immense population crash over the past 50 years. The magnitude of this trend has been estimated up to an 85% population decline since the mid-1960s. The species faces a multitude of threats both on its breeding and wintering grounds, which has resulted in the cumulative effect of a massive population decline.
Threats within the species’ breeding range include wetland conversion and alteration, pesticide exposure, acidification, and climate change. Learn more, and what you can do, at https://naturecanada.ca/discover-nature/endangered-species/rusty-blackbird/
A history of my father’s market gardens
My father was born in the impoverished county of Hoisan in southern Guangdong province in China and was chosen at age 13 in 1921 to go to Canada. By 1924, my father was in Alberta. In his farming village in China, Wong Bark Ging would have gained experience growing food – an advantage in becoming a market gardener here.
My father’s first market garden was south of the General Hospital near the High Level Bridge. The Royal Glenora Club sits on the site of the former Chinese market garden. By 1947 he gardened and lived in a house on the hillside near Government House where he befriended Ernest Stowe, the Chief Provincial Gardener. This friendship led to an advantageous arrangement to use city water for his garden.
The discriminatory Chinese Exclusion Act was finally repealed on May 14, 1947 making it possible for my mother to join my father in 1949, eighteen and a half years after they were married. In 1930, my father had returned to his ancestral village to marry Young See.
Before her arrival, my father’s dwelling was moved to his 10-acre market garden in Calder. This was where my parents started their family. In 1954 I came into this family and in 1956, with dreams of better prospects for his growing family, my father rented an additional 20 acres across the Clover Bar Bridge down on the river flats at the bottom of present-day Sunridge Ski Area.
When spring planting was done, an array of irrigation pipes delivered water to our major crop of cabbages and other vegetables. My most vivid memory took place in early autumn. Our Chinese vegetables like bok choy and gai choy matured into tracts of bright yellow flowers. Dwarfed by the lofty stalks, it was an adventure to romp between the rows. Read Ging Wei Wong’s full story of his father’s market gardens at https://citymuseumedmonton.ca/2021/12/13/wong-bark-ging-%e9%bb%83%e6%9f%8f%e6%8c%af-a-history-of-my-fathers-market-gardens/
Hotel Macdonald an iconic figure on Edmonton skyline
Carmen writes “This is the settler history. Prior to this, the land was where my great grandmother Victoria Callihoo had her teepee.” https://windspeaker.com/news/womens-history-month/victoria-belcourt-callihoo-metis-woman-painted-vibrant-picture-of-the-west?
Photo by Louisa Bruinsma who writes “Yesterday morning, January 19, I was wonderfully surprised to see a robin in my backyard, eating berries from our mountain ash tree. When our children were young, the first person in the family to spot a robin would receive a $2 bill.
Alas, the toonie, our aging children and inflation has ended that tradition However, I continued the tradition when I taught ESL, showed the students the $2 bill I had saved, and a toonie became the prize for the student who got a full card in word Bingo of spring vocabulary.
Comment or contribution
If you have a comment, concern, or question, contact us at nsrivervalley@gmail.com Please also email us river valley photos or event information. Your friends, neighbours and colleagues can sign up for this newsletter on our web site https://www.edmontonrivervalley.org/
Sincerely yours,
Harvey Voogd
North Saskatchewan River Valley Conservation Society
780.691.1712