River Valley News - Nov 28/24

How the goji berry bushes of Grierson Hill were saved

When Ken Gee was a child in the mid 70s, his grandparents would invite him and his brother to go collect goji berries in the river valley. Goji berries were used in traditional Chinese cooking and soups. To pick these berries, they would drive, at a certain time in summer, down to Grierson Hill.

Once they made it to this hill, Ken’s grandmother would step out of the car and swing her empty one litre milk carton over her neck. She’d then climb up the hill to collect as many berries as she could. When her makeshift container was full, she would take it home, put the berries on a straw mat, leave them to dry in the sun for a couple of days and then store them away.

Many others also took part in picking goji berries from Grierson Hill. And they were all worried when the announcement came that the convention centre was going to be built on this land. To save the goji berry bushes, many women went to the hill with their shovels and dug up them up. Some of these bushes are now at Ken’s parents place, as well as a lot of other Asian households in the Edmonton Area.

https://soundcloud.com/cjsrfm/ken-gee-on-picking-goji-berries

Keep your eye out for this winter raptor

Ryan Schain photo

Are you looking for a challenge this winter? Well then, you need to keep an eye out for the Cooper’s Hawk. This bird is one of Edmonton’s most common winter raptors. It has a large square head with a darker cap, a clean and organized patterned breast, and a rounded tail. When this bird is in flight, it is proportions are longer tail, bigger head, and less wing.

The cooper’s hawk flies fast, and often only offers brief looks. They tear through cluttered tree canopies at high speed while pursuing other birds. They are not easy to identify, even for experienced bird enthusiasts. But you are most likely to see them prowling above a forest edge or field using just a few stiff wingbeats followed by a glide.

Dashing through vegetation to catch birds is a dangerous lifestyle. In a study of more than 300 Cooper’s Hawk skeletons, 23 percent showed old, healed-over fractures in the bones of the chest, especially of the furcula, or wishbone.

An interesting fact about the cooper’s hawk is that they capture birds with their feet and kill it through repeated squeezing. Unlike falcons who kill their prey by biting it, the cooper’s hawk prefers to hold their catch away from their body until it dies. They are also known to hold their prey under water until it stops moving.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Coopers_Hawk

River Valley News needs your support

Kyle Schole photo

You and another 2,300+ people receive our free e-newsletter River Valley News. In 7 years, this newsletter has grown from a publication whose first issue was sent to 300 society members, to a weekly sent to 2,371 Edmontonians.

Though we are a completely volunteer run organization, we need $300 monthly to pay for distribution of River Valley News, our website, and to keep our social media feeds up to date. Our first request last November and December 2023, raised $4,256.50 from 48 donors. Donations ranged from $10 to $300 with $88.68 per person as the average. Donate now at https://www.edmontonrivervalley.org/donate

Our communication outreach is vital to NSRVCS and plays a key role in our work. It helped us in our successful campaign to create Big Island Provincial Park. It informs people of our current initiative to create a National Urban Park. It highlights our work with the City of Edmonton on enhanced protection of our river valley and ravine system.

Your support is critical to continuing publication of the River Valley News and our communication outreach. We know you are committed to our work to conserve, protect and preserve Edmonton’s river valley for future generations. Thank you for your financial support! https://www.edmontonrivervalley.org/

The Dos and Don’ts of winter in Edmonton

Welcome back to winter. We’re all seasoned experts in the season of blustery snow. But having a good list of activities to do when the flakes and temperatures drop doesn’t hurt either. Here’s your not-so-comprehensive list of Edmonton winter Dos and Don’ts

Do build a snowman. The best snowman temperatures tend to be just below freezing. Don’t stick your tongue to metal. Your tongue will freeze to it and you’ll be stuck. It hurts. Reeeaaally bad.

Do go skating. Edmonton has plenty of outdoor rinks to enjoy, many of which are in river valley parks. Try the Victoria Park or Rundle Park IceWay for a natural skating trail right in the river valley. Don’t eat yellow snow. It might look like lemon flavour, but it’s not. It’s for sure not.

Do spend time with people you love. As cold as it gets, winter has a way of warming hearts. Take advantage of the season with some of your favourite people. Don’t dress like its still summer. We get it. Some of us want it to be summer all year long. But you’ll freeze. Your skin will get angry. Your mom will be disappointed. Don’t disappoint mom. https://www.edmontoncommonwealthwalkway.com/winter/it-s-winter-what-to-do-not-do

Gold Bar Farm

Marilyn writes “After reading Carrie’s comments about Goldbar Farm, I was wondering if you could forward my email to her. I would be interested in forming a community group to try to save that parcel of land.”

Still Life by Studio F Minus, Grant MacEwan LRT station, YEG

https://www.edmontonarts.ca/public-art/still-life

Comment or Contributions

Please note articles may not reflect the position of NSRVCS. River Valley News is meant to be a clearinghouse for the variety of opinions and ideas about Edmonton’s River Valley.

Email river valley photos, event information, comments, or questions to nsrivervalley@gmail.com

Forward this link to anyone you think may want to sign up for this newsletter https://www.edmontonrivervalley.org/newsletter-signup

River Valley News - Nov 22/24

Metis ironworkers built Edmonton’s downtown

The people who did the most dangerous jobs in constructing the skyscrapers in downtown Edmonton in the 1960s and 1970s were almost all Metis men who had trained as ironworkers. That included the CN Tower, built from 1964 to 1966.

It was dangerous work. In just one year in this period, 12 ironworkers across Canada died on the job. Deaths occurred because when it came to health and safety procedures, there really wasn’t any to speak of. There were no safety harnesses. Tom Daniels explained that “We didn’t have the luxury of steel-toed boots, safety belts, nothing, not even snap-on hooks. We made our own. You come to the job. You got a hook? No. Here’s a piece of rebar; make one.”

Edmonton’s CN Tower, the tallest building in Western Canada from 1966 to 1971, was their greatest achievement. It was planned for a three-year build, but the determined Metis ironworkers helped cut a year from that schedule. They worked 12-hour shifts. The night shift welded columns together to the top of the tower while the day shift put mounds of steel in slabs and then installed slabs floor by floor.

Hugh Edgar described daytime work this way: “We had to put the beams in and then the slab, and it usually took three or four days. It was hard work. There were 11 bars, 60 feet long. I was only 140 pounds and them bars were 300 pounds that we were carrying.”

That hard work earned them a miserly wage of 98 cents an hour when they began working on the CN Tower in 1964, just above minimum wage. But the Ironworkers Union enrolled them as members and negotiated a doubling of their wages by 1966. https://citymuseumedmonton.ca/2024/11/05/waltzing-with-the-angels/

City of Edmonton not on track to meet 2024 emission targets

The City of Edmonton is falling short of its greenhouse gas emission targets, two years after the municipality introduced its first carbon budget. It emitted an estimated 16.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2023, higher than the 13.4 million tonnes it was aiming for, the 2023-2026 carbon budget update report shows.

"If Edmonton's current emission trajectory continues, Edmonton's GHG reduction targets will not be achieved," the report states. Like any other budget, a carbon budget determines how much the city can spend over a period, only instead of money, it's budgeting greenhouse gas emissions. The city aims to become a carbon-neutral community by 2050. 

Melanie Hoffman, co-chair of the city's independent Energy Transition Climate Resilience Committee, said the news is disappointing. "We are not on a trajectory to change that," Hoffman said in an interview Tuesday. To get on track, emissions would need to go down to 12.7 million tonnes or less in 2024. "The trend for this year indicates that this target will not be met and there are no current initiatives or actions that will allow the necessary reductions to meet the target," the report says.

The city is facing a $34-million deficit by the end of the year, the city's finance department said in its fall budget adjustment update. It proposes to cut the Community Energy Transition Strategy Program, an action plan that outlines ways to create healthier neighbourhoods, by $1.8 million. That will set the city back in its goals, Hoffman said. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-fails-to-meet-climate-targets-2-years-after-launching-carbon-budget-1.7381843

Wally Ursuliak the father of curling in Japan

Hokkaido is the curling capital of Japan. It’s home to the 2018 Japanese women’s Olympic bronze medalists. And people living there say they owe their curling success to Alberta. But how did it all happen? In 1980, Alberta and Hokkaido became twinned jurisdictions. When Alberta sent exports to Japan, they landed in Hokkaido. One of the most surprising exports? You guessed it: curling.

Edmontonian Wally Ursuliak helped win the curling world championship in 1961. In 1986, Ursuliak took a visiting Japanese delegation to a curling event in St. Albert. The sport enamoured his Japanese visitors. And that day, they invited “Mr. Wally” to Japan to introduce Hokkaido to the beauty of the shot rock.

For six years, Ursuliak travelled Hokkaido. At every stop he showed and taught curling. To many Japanese curlers, Wally is the father of curling in Japan. https://www.edmontoncommonwealthwalkway.com/winter/curling-albertans-sweeping-the-world

Gold Bar Farm

Carrie writes, “I am wondering if it's possible to look into saving the area known as Gold Bar Farm on 106 Ave and between 46th street and 43rd street. It is a historical sight, a full block with a historical house on it and dotted with hundreds of trees, skirting Gold Bar Ravine. Sadly, it was sold and now the city is rapidly allowing multifamily housing to overpopulate our older, established neighbourhoods, increasing housing and traffic. We are losing trees and habitat for creatures such as birds. In Gold Bar, we are near the refinery and we appreciate conserving as much green space as possible to offset the pollution. I'm curious if there are any options in trying to protect this land?”

Bio-Glyphs by Ron Baird, Biotechnology Business Development Centre research park https://www.edmontonarts.ca/public-art/bio-glyphs

Comment or Contributions

Please note articles may not reflect the position of NSRVCS. River Valley News is meant to be a clearinghouse for the variety of opinions and ideas about Edmonton’s River Valley.

Email river valley photos, event information, comments, or questions to nsrivervalley@gmail.com

Forward this link to anyone you think may want to sign up for this newsletter https://www.edmontonrivervalley.org/newsletter-signup

River Valley News - Nov 14/24

Mill Creek Trestle bridge to be replaced

Planning and design is underway by the City of Edmonton for the replacement of the trestle bridge located in Mill Creek Ravine along 76 Avenue. The Mill Creek Trestle Bridge is of heritage value as part of the first rail connection between Strathcona and Edmonton, for its association with prominent railway entrepreneurs Sir William MacKenzie and Sir Donald Mann, as a symbol of Edmonton's industrial development, and for its landmark status within the modern-day community.

The bridge is one of the last physical reminders of the existence of the Edmonton, Yukon and Pacific Railway line, which was the first rail connection between the towns of Strathcona and Edmonton. Completed in 1902, the railway followed the Mill Creek Ravine alignment and crossed the North Saskatchewan River over the Low Level Bridge, providing reliable, convenient passenger and freight transportation services between the two towns as an alternative to John Walter's ferry further west.

Passenger service was provided until 1928, but the railway continued to provide a vital link until the 1950's between river valley industries and Edmonton's south side commercial centre, which offered rail connections to the remainder of the province.

As a Municipally Designated Historic Resource, the replacement trestle bridge will represent the existing structure as closely as possible while adhering to current design standards. The existing bridge plaque will be preserved and installed on the replacement trestle bridge. https://hermis.alberta.ca/ARHP/Details.aspx?DeptID=1&ObjectID=4664-0060

New campaign a reminder to keep Alberta rat free

Through Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership funding to the Alberta Invasive Species Council, the governments of Canada and Alberta are reminding Albertans to Rat on Rats! The $110,000 investment will fund billboards and outreach materials encouraging Albertans to report rats and rat signs.

For more than 70 years, Alberta has proudly been rat-free, meaning the province prevents the pest from establishing a permanent population while swiftly dealing with any infestations. That famous designation is thanks to the hard work and dedication of Rat Control Program staff, and all Albertans can do their part by reporting rat signs and sightings.

Rats often hitchhike into Alberta on vehicles, cargo and equipment, making it crucial for everyone to recognize that these pests are not native or established here. Last year, Albertans reported 450 rat sightings, 23 of which were confirmed rats. The majority, 158, were muskrats.

Learn to identify Norway and roof rats and tell the difference between rats and other rodents common to Alberta at https://www.alberta.ca/albertas-rat-control-program

Much loved Westmount home receives historic designation

In 95 years, the Crawford Residence has only had five owners. Its current owner, Margaret Van de Pitte, has demonstrated her dedication to preserving history and ecology. In 2010, Margaret and her husband gifted 593 acres of wildlife habitat to the Nature Conservancy of Canada and the Ecological Gifts Program of Environment Canada to ensure it was protected in perpetuity.

“We’re pleased to have the Crawford Residence join the City’s registry of municipal historic resources," said Sydney Gross, Heritage Planner for the City of Edmonton. “Dr. Frederick Van de Pitte sadly passed away recently, but Dr. Margaret Van de Pitte wanted to ensure the designation was completed. The City of Edmonton is grateful for people like the Van de Pittes who understand and cherish the history of the area.”

The Crawford Residence was built in 1929 at the tail end of the development of Groat Estates on a parcel on the west side of 127 Street. It is named after its first owners, John L. and Georgie K. (Biggs) Crawford, a lawyer from Ontario who later became a judge in Edmonton. The Crawford Residence features Storybook-influenced architecture, including a high gabled roof and an offset front arched entrance.

The front (east) elevation is characterized by an open terrazzo porch with a brick balustrade on one side and decorative stone surrounding the doorway. A main-floor sunroom and second-floor solarium, added in 1963, were designed by Mary Imrie, part of the all-female architectural firm of Wallbridge and Imrie.

The City will contribute $49,827 from its Heritage Resources Reserve fund, matching the amount the owner will spend renovating and refurbishing the house. The Crawford Residence is the 186th property designated as a Municipal Historic Resource in Edmonton since 1985. https://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/edmonton_archives/historic-resources

Get out in nature, slow your pace and focus less on the destination

Milena McWatt, owner and operator of Wild Calm Forest Therapy, describes forest therapy as the practice of being in a relationship with the land. It is a slow-paced and science-backed practice that helps people slow down and get rooted in their surroundings. The practice is born from the Japanese artform known as Shinrin Yoku or forest bathing.

According to Milena, meditative practices done in nature have increased benefits not attained indoors. Coniferous trees emit a compound called phytoncides that increase our natural killer cells, boost our immune system, and help us fight infections. Some of the high-level benefits are an increase in mood and a decrease in anxiety and depression. It can reduce your blood pressure and help you get out of the fight-or-flight mode we all live in

When out in nature, slow your pace and focus less on the destination. One aspect of forest therapy is the opportunity to follow an invitation given by a guide. An example of an invitation would be to explore textures. In warmer weather, take the time to feel your surroundings. Your nervous system will reset when you slow down and engage with your surroundings. Milena’s favourite river valley locations at https://rivervalley.ab.ca/news/feature-friday/feature-friday-wild-calm/

Clusters by Keith Walker, Central Lions Senior Recreation Centre

https://www.edmontonarts.ca/public-art/clusters

Comment or Contributions

Please note articles may not reflect the position of NSRVCS. River Valley News is meant to be a clearinghouse for the variety of opinions and ideas about Edmonton’s River Valley.

Email river valley photos, event information, comments, or questions to nsrivervalley@gmail.com

Forward this link to anyone you think may want to sign up for this newsletter https://www.edmontonrivervalley.org/newsletter-signup