Walking tours to showcase creek

Two public walking tours are planned next week to give people an up-close look at the next phase of restoration work now underway in Penticton Creek.

Preliminary work began last month on a fresh 300-metre stretch of the creek between Nanaimo Avenue and the intersection of Norton Street and Wade Avenue.

As they’ve done in other parts of the creek since the project started in 2015, crews will remove the crumbling concrete liner installed for flood control in the 1950s, widen the creek bed and add boulders of different sizes and shapes to mimic a more natural environment for fish and other wildlife. Sidewalks and vegetation along the creek will also be upgraded.

More details of those plans will be available during the walking tours, set for Wednesday, July 13, at 6 p.m., and Saturday, July 16, at 11 a.m. Tours are expected to last upwards of 90 minutes and will leave from the kokanee statue near the creek on Backstreet Boulevard. Tours will be led by Paul Askey, fisheries scientist with the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC and chair of the city’s Penticton and Ellis Creek Committee.

“The Penticton Creek Master Plan was created in 2018 and many residents may not be familiar with why this project to restore the creek is so important,” said Ian Chapman, the city’s project manager, in a press release.

“As part of the tours, we’ll talk about the history of flooding on the creek, why the concrete channel was installed and its impact on fish populations, and the plans to naturalize the creek while preserving flood protection for the downtown.”

Once the current section is done, the project will be about 20% complete.