Rich in natural wonders, Edmonton’s river valley deserves better care

Current state of Whitemud Creek simply isn’t good enough, P.J. Cotterill says.

Whitemud Park is one of Edmonton’s most interesting parks ecologically.

It contains a variety of natural features such as a meandering creek, quiet oxbows, cliffs of bentonitic clay, floodplains of oldgrowth balsam poplar and grassy hillsides. Its animal life makes it popular for nature viewing.

Indeed, since 1990 the reach of the creek from Fox Drive to Mactaggart Sanctuary south of 23rd Avenue has been flagged by city planners as a nature reserve, designed for pedestrians exercising “compatible recreational uses.”

Despite this intent, the trails have not been well-maintained. To be fair, some upkeep has been done: bridges have been built and kept in repair, and some of the larger poplars have been wire-meshed against beavers. But elsewhere trails are eroding, a staircase needs fixing and patches of thistle and tansy, both noxious weeds, abound. Construction work near Snow Valley has left an ugly bare slope and an extra-wide, rough trail that people bypass.

Interpretation could be considered an important part of nature appreciation but the city has so far failed to exploit the ravine’s special features for this purpose.

In Whitemud Park North, close to Fox Drive, the valley escarpments are of particular interest: calcium- and iron-rich groundwater issues forth as springs from the steep slopes, its source an aquifer in a buried valley that intersects with the North Saskatchewan River.

Among the white spruce are outcroppings of blackish tufa, limestone rock that has formed over the centuries. Botanists Prof. Ezra Moss of the University of Alberta and Dr. George Turner of Fort Saskatchewan recorded plants growing here in the 1940s that indicate a marl pond and fen once existed on the terraces.

Orchids such as sparrow’s egg lady’s slipper, round-leaved orchid, and northern green bog orchid remain to this day, along with other calcium-loving plants such as saline shooting-star and hoary willow. Bryologist Richard Caners of the Royal Alberta Museum has identified seven rare mosses and liverworts from this spot. Despite a drying trend, water still flows from the hillside, pooling on the terraces and streaming down the slopes, converting the trail into a rivulet in summer and an ice slide in winter.

The area cries out for a boardwalk to protect the trail and make it passable, and for signage that can explain the interesting geological and ecological phenomena. Despite repeated approaches to the city by geologists and naturalists, nothing has been done. In the meantime, in complete ignorance of the sensitivity and significance of this area, people build teepees among the trees in winter and drive their four-by-four truck toys over the tufa rocks.

Elsewhere in Whitemud Creek, signs were installed over 20 years ago by Edmonton Nature Club members working with a parks employee, using cheap, standardized signs from the province. Over the years some have been replaced, but others are missing or need repair. An enterprising resident has filled in the gaps with magazine pictures of appropriate animals and birds, a wellintentioned gesture but with an amateurish result.

For a capital city recording millions of visits to its river valley each year, the state of Whitemud Creek is simply not good enough. When challenged, the city invariably blames “lack of funding” and merely promises things will be rectified in the future.

The city is currently formulating a number of plans and strategies that all anticipate increased public use of the river valley and ravines, for example, the open space strategy Breathe, expansion of the Ribbon of Green, and the daylighting of Mill Creek.

Protecting the ecological integrity of the valley from human onslaught (a stated city goal) will need good trails, better signage, both regulatory and interpretive, more monitoring and enforcement, stewardship, improved weed control, and restoration of areas with local native species.

If the city cannot maintain the trails it already has, how is it going to achieve this? Clearly the budget allocation for maintenance must be significantly increased if the valley is to remain Edmontonians’ pride and joy.

The river valley should be valued as a healthy ecosystem before it is a public playground: funding to protect nature would then have higher priority.