Wednesday, June 29, 2011

NO ACCESS - Legacy Island & Johnson’s Island (Carseland)

We’ve been advised by Brian Meagher (TUC) that the Bow River runoff has caused some serious issues with Legacy Island. Access to the island and to the boat launch is blocked.

George Yanicki (District Conservation Officer – SRD) informed us that the gate to the Wyndham-Carseland Park and Johnson’s Island boat launch is locked as a result of damage from the spring rains to the switchback road down to the boat launch area. It will remain locked until repairs have been completed. That could take several weeks.

Photo Courtesy: Brian Meagher (click directly on image to enlarge

Legacy Island

Brian Meagher writes:

“There are multiple logs across the road at the crossing, and a tree is across the former boat launch. It is far worse than before- not useable in its current state.

We would not be able to get trucks out to the island with the side channel as high as it currently is, I had to put on waders to get across and the water was up to my hips and flowing pretty good. We could set up a work day to get rid of the downed trees and the debris from the wire, but posts will have to be re-drilled to keep people on the trails and the silt will have to be removed and that cannot be done with a shovel. The contractors redistributed 8 dump truck loads around the island the last time, and I think there is more silt there now.

If an event was planned in the coming weeks, then we could take the initial steps of removing the trees to allow for the proper equipment to finish the job- after the water drops. There is also Alberta Environment and DFO to be contacted for approvals.”

Photo Courtesy: Brian Meagher (click directly on photo to enlarge)

Legacy Island Cleanup – Volunteer Workday #2

Date: TBD, approx 2-3 weeks from now, after water levels decline.

Participants: TUC Bow River Chapter.

Bow River Shuttles writes:

"Who is TUC Bow River Chapter? If you walk & wade the Bow River, float fish the Bow River, guide fly fishing on the Bow River, then YOU are TUC Bow River Chapter.

Legacy Island Cleanup #1 on May 07 produced 6 volunteers, out of a possible total of over 1,000. We can do better than that." :-)

Please RSVP Your Interest to Attend To:

Brian Meagher
Alberta Provincial Biologist
Trout Unlimited Canada
(403) 209-5185


Johnson’s Island

George Yanicki writes:

“Due to a public safety issue, the day use area and boat launch at Johnson's Island has been closed until further notice. Johnson's Island is a popular take out point for people who are using drift boats on the Bow River. I will keep you updated regarding the re-opening of this area.”

Click directly on poster to view larger image

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Typically Calgary TU, why would they clean out Jensens prior to runoff. What a waste of money and time.

I'm sorry, but they need to get it together....

Brian Meagher said...

To do this work on Legacy Island we had to acquire a permit and permission from different levels of government. The permit allows you to work in a specific time window (to avoid issues with releasing silt in the river during spawning) and our window was running out. As there still was ice on the launch when completed this ensured that the activities did not release any silt into the river.

Brian Meagher
Alberta Provincial Biologist
Trout Unlimited Canada