Platforms improve access to shore of Kelowna pond
Two new wildlife-viewing platforms allow birdwatchers to get closer to the action at a Kelowna pond without ruffling any feathers.
The wooden structures, opened for public use last week, project slightly up and out from the shore at Munson Pond.
“With the little bit of elevation right from the water’s edge, you get a good view of the whole pond,” Wayne Wilson of the Central Okanagan Land Trust said Tuesday.
Before the walkways opened, it wasn’t possible to get to the pond’s swampy shore without veering off marked trails and tramping through shrubs and grasses.
The pond, near the northwest corner of Benvoulin Road and KLO Road, is a significant resting and feeding area for a variety of waterfowl. Along with common birds, it’s home to relative rarities such as the greater white fronted goose.
Public access to and around the 10-hectare cityowned pond has improved in the last year through projects funded by COLT and Environment Canada, and supported by volunteers from the nearby Kelowna Christian School and Lions Club.
Signage will go up in April explaining the pond’s history, frequent inhabitants and its important role in the ecosystem. A pedestrian counter has also been installed along the walkway that encircles the pond, to track how many people visit the wetland.
“It’ll be interesting to get those numbers,” Wilson says. “But what I’m hearing right now is people are loving the chance to get into what had been a fairly secluded, little-known area.”
The pond is not a natural feature of the landscape, but is rather the filled-in site of an old gravel pit that was used to haul rock for construction of the first Okanagan Lake bridge in the 1950s.