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4925-48
Street
Camrose, AB, Canada
T4V 1L7
Phone:
(780)672-3142
Fax:
(780)672-2518
E-mail:
ads@camrosebooster.com
or
news@camrosebooster.com
Site
update occurs
each Wednesday
PEN
POINTS
by Berdie Fowler
This weekend, a truly successful reclamation project will be celebrated with the opening of the Camrose County Nature Conservation Centre.
It is my pleasure to commend those visionary people who, some twenty years ago, had the foresight to plan in advance for the repair of the ugly scar that would be left when a gravel pit had given up its last truckload of small stones.
Initiating the reclamation dream were Ron and Janet Blatz, who sold the pit to Camrose County in 1989 with the condition that it become a park when the non-renewable resource – gravel – was gone. Supporting the vision were county councillors of the day (1991), who passed a motion to honour the Blatzes’ condition of sale. Deserving of accolades as well are present-day county councillors who actually fulfilled the promise made to Ron and Janet Blatz some two decades earlier. Helping to make the project happen were Alberta Environment and Alberta Fish and Game Association.
At the grand opening of the Camrose County Nature Conservation Centre, to be held at noon on Saturday, July 31, Premier Stelmack and others will see a beautiful 37-acre family-friendly park complete with trout pond, walks, bridge, grassy area, trees and shrubs, as well as other rest and relaxation features. It is located about two miles south and two miles west of Kelsey next to the former CNR line recently purchased by Battle River Railway New Generation Co-op.
This former gravel pit was a very small development compared to Alberta’s numerous strip mining operations, including the massive oil sands. However, whether big or small, reclamation starts with a vision of restoration and a plan to achieve it. In that respect, the Blatzes and County councillors delivered; in too many other mining operations, reclamation is not envisioned and the scars remain.
It was my privilege some years ago to tour an area in Germany that had been very successfully reclaimed after a major mining project had been completed. It consisted of some perfectly flat arable land that was again being farmed, a lake for recreational use and fishing, plus a forested area to which birds and animals had returned. The reclaimed area was said to be even better than prior to the mining. The tour guide emphasized, above all else, the need to have a reclamation plan in place before a single scoop of dirt is taken out of the earth.
Since then I have viewed a few reclaimed areas in Alberta. To date I have seen nothing that comes even close to being as successful as the major project I saw in Germany. We cannot compare the County park to the mine reclamation project in Germany, because of the vast difference in size, nevertheless, one could compare the vision and the foresight that were common to both happy outcomes.
It is good to hear the public becoming more vociferous about environmental concerns and especially satisfying to see them actually taking the initiative to repair the scars of human activity as Camrose County has done with the establishment of the Nature Conservation Centre. I firmly believe that such projects will be copied by others and will eventually lead to greater effort on the part of major industrial developers to give higher priority to conservation and restoration.
All great achievements begin with a vision in someone’s mind. Let’s all envision a cleaner, greener world and make it happen – starting right where we are.
