Lessons from ’05 flood eased hit on Fish Creek
Parts of park still suffered heavy damage
Stronger bridges and stormwater retention ponds helped much of Fish Creek Provincial Park withstand last month’s flood, but some of the park is “unrecognizable,” say park staff and volunteers.
“We will be able to see evidence from this flood for many years to come,” said Jennell Rempel, the visitor services co-ordinator for Fish Creek.
The hardest hit area of the park was along the Bow River, where four bridges were severely damaged and pathways washed out.
“The entire pathway and infrastructure system throughout the entire Bow River corridor is going to have to be re-evaluated and rebuilt where we can,” she said.
Mallard Point, Bankside, Hull’s Wood, Rotary Nature Park, Lafarge Meadows and MacKenzie Meadows golf course all suffered extensive damage.
“It’s really going to take some serious reconstruction to get some of these areas reestablished,” Rempel said.
While it’s still too early for any firm damage estimates, Rempel said the cost will certainly be in the millions.
The flood water also caused damage to the park’s network of single-track mountain bike routes. Some of the paths were mere steps away from the riverbank.
“Anything that’s right along the banks of the creek, a lot of those got washed away and the bank was eroded back quite a bit,” said Calgary Mountain Bike Alliance president Richard Link.
Mountain bikers have been “finding their own way” through the woods as some of the paved pathway in the park also washed out in the flood,” he said.
“Most of it survived,” said Link, who sits on the board of directors for the Friends of Fish Creek.
The mountain bike alliance does bike trail maintenance for the park. Link said once the large debris is removed, there will be “trail days” for people to help rebuild and reroute the single-track that was damaged.
Toward the west end of the park, Rempel said, the lessons learned from the 2005 flood lessened the impact of high streamflow this time around.
Between 2008 and 2011, the city constructed six stormwater retention ponds as part of its larger stormwater management strategy.
When the usually quiet Fish Creek started rising in June, Rempel said the ponds performed “fantastically.”
“They really worked like they were supposed to,” said Rempel.
“They trapped a lot of that stormwater, allowed for the flow levels to go down, and that allowed for the creek level to rise at a much slower rate than what we would have seen previously.”
The new bridges and pathways in that area of the park reconstructed after 2005 were not damaged by this year’s flood.
Seven bridges were destroyed, seven were severely damaged and four needed repairs after the 2005 floods.
Large amounts of debris including rocks and downed trees have closed off parts of the park.
“There’s a lot of work to be done,” said Link. “The stuff that needs to be moved is huge.”
Once some of the major debris is cleared, there will be an opportunity for volunteers to help with cleanup of the whole park, Rempel said.
In the meantime, most of Fish Creek is open, and Rempel invited Calgarians down to enjoy it.
“In terms of basic visitor experience down at Fish Creek, there’s still a lot being offered.”