River Valley News - April 28, 2022

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April 28, 2022

Ease up on mowing and participate in No Mow May
Started in the U.K. and picking up steam in Canada, No Mow May is a call to help wild pollinators and other wildlife in the greenspaces where we live. Trying to increase your lawn’s diversity is important for urban nature because lawns are one of the largest green spaces in our cities. Canada has an estimated 6.2 million lawns.

If you imagine dozens and dozens of backyards doing things to improve habitat for native pollinators and migratory birds, this can have a big impact on nature and the quality of our urban ecosystems. By letting flowers bloom on your lawn, including dandelions, you can provide an important source of nectar and pollen for wild bees, butterflies, and other pollinating insects.

Bees and butterflies are the most familiar insect pollinators, while moths, flies, beetles, and ants are lesser-known pollinators that still play an important role. In recent years, there has been a sharp decline in some pollinator populations due to climate change, habitat loss, loss of native plants, and pesticides.

A U.K. study found that changing a mowing routine and allowing plants to flower can create enough nectar for ten times more pollinators. It is suggested to mow your lawn every four weeks, which results in a higher number of flowers on your lawn. Tips on how to attract pollinators at https://www.natureconservancy.ca/en/blog/archive/saving-the-bees.html#.YmmUjdrMI2x

Edmonton Paddlers Boat & Gear Swap
This event will be Saturday, May 14 from 10am to 1pm at ReMax Field Parking Lot #2, between Rosedale Rd & 104 St. There is no fee for buyers, but all purchases are cash only. Sellers need to preregister.

Items will include canoes, kayaks, and stand up paddleboards, as well as paddling and camping gear and gadgets. Proceeds to support the Edmonton Paddling Centres Association programs and facilities.

Paddlers think the only way to see the river valley is by canoe, kayak, or SUP, as it involves so little environmental disturbance. And what better way to enhance sustainability than to assist the reuse of useful paddling and camping gear. More info and sellers’ preregistration at https://ceyanacanoeclub.wildapricot.org/event-4768929

Edmonton Folk Music Festival history
With the Folk Festival returning this August, after a two-year hiatus due to covid, you may be interested in the history of how this annual music event in the river valley began. In 1980, with Alberta celebrating its 75th anniversary, an idea was hatched to hold a folk festival in Edmonton.

The province granted the fledgling organization $89,000 out of the $75 million it had set aside for anniversary celebrations. Gold Bar Park was the site of the first festival, and most acts as well as the PA system, came thanks to a concurrent anniversary folk celebration, the Travelling Goodtime Alberta Medicine Show.

The province, in the anniversary year, donated money to have a school bus full of artists like Sylvia Tyson, Connie Kaldor and Stan Rogers travel around Alberta performing. That was the nucleus of the first Edmonton Folk Music Festival.

The second year didn’t go as smoothly. Funding did not come immediately for the festival and it looked as if 1980’s celebration might be a one-time event. However, SummerFest, the board set up to fund Edmonton’s summer festivals, decided to give the festival $15,000 after first refusing to fund it.

After 1981, EFMF’s funding became more or less assured, and the festival found a permanent home in Gallagher Park. Learn more at https://citymuseumedmonton.ca/2015/08/05/edmonton-folk-fest-how-did-we-get-here/

River Valley Patrol needed
Johanus writes “I love our river valley and strongly believe in preserving it as much as possible, so do not like it when people go off trail, especially when they are in protected areas.

I was running on a trail when we came across a spot where someone had chopped down a large tree and built it into a drop-off ramp for mountain biking. This was a large ramp, at least 3m long and over a metre high. They had bent back and broken several bushes to clear the way.

Further on we found where a healthy tree had been cut into pieces and placed over bushes which stop soil erosion, pushing them down so that the bushes wouldn't stick out onto the trail and interfere with quick bike travel in that area.

I wonder if there is anything that can be done about this kind of behaviour? What does the City do about it? Is there any kind of patrol that monitors this? If not, I am thinking of trying to organize a volunteer patrol.”

Comment or contribution
Please note that articles may not reflect the position of NSRVCS. River Valley News is meant to be a clearinghouse for the wide variety of opinions and ideas about Edmonton’s River Valley.

If you have a comment, concern, or question, contact us at nsrivervalley@gmail.com Please email us river valley photos or event information. Your friends, neighbours and colleagues can sign up for this newsletter on our web site https://www.edmontonrivervalley.org/

Sincerely yours,
Harvey Voogd
North Saskatchewan River Valley Conservation Society
780.691.1712

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April 21, 2022

River Valley News - April 21, 2022

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April 21, 2022

Fragile tufa springs a river valley treasure
Patsy Cotterill writes that the east slopes of Whitemud Creek near Fox Drive are the site of an interesting geological phenomenon known as tufa springs. Here, water rich in calcium and iron flows year-round from steep embankments into the creek below. The slopes are covered with outcrops of a greyish rock called tufa, formed over long periods of time by precipitation of calcium carbonate and other minerals from the spring water at ambient temperatures.

The springs create conditions similar to peatlands in the boreal forest, such that wet pockets in the white spruce forest are home to orchids, including lady’s slippers, round-leaved and northern green orchids, and a number of sedges, grasses, and mosses.

The lower slopes see heavy recreational use and have become degraded by a complex network of man-made trails with loss of plant ground cover. The city needs to provide protected status for this area and rehabilitate the main trail, which is eroded by the water flows. Signage to educate the public on its sensitivity and interesting geology would help create respect for this beautiful and unique area of the river valley. Watch video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX_F7-6l5so

How does YEG City Council decide to name things
Following the end of the Second World War, in the face of rapid growth, Edmonton hired its first City Planner. Noel Dant, a planner from England, brought with him new ideas which had a massive impact. He embraced a modified grid, characterized by cul-de-sacs, curvilinear and even diagonal streets.

Because these streets did not align with the traditional grid pattern, many more named streets were required to avoid confusion. Until then, Council had addressed and debated names as they came up. The necessity for names led Council to pass Bylaw 1754 in February 1956, creating the District Names Advisory Committee.

The Committee’s role was to advise Council on suitable names for subdivisions, parks, neighbourhoods, and other public places. One of its recent high-profile tasks was working with Indigenous communities to determine 12 ward names based on Indigenous place names.

Now known as the Naming Committee, it has consulted with developers, researchers, and the public for more than 65 years to advise Council on naming Edmonton, making a momentous contribution to our sense of place in this city. Learn more at
https://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/edmonton_archives/names-advisory-committee

City Nature Challenge runs April 29-May 2
The City Nature Challenge (CNC) is a friendly annual international challenge to see which city can record and upload the most observations of wildlife species using the free iNaturalist platform. From the tiniest bug to the tallest tree, from belugas to birds to beavers, participants are encouraged to take pictures of all the flora and fauna they can find.

By doing so, they contribute to an international database used to track biodiversity around the world. This event is designed to document urban biodiversity through photographs and celebrate the diversity of nature around the world. Now in its seventh year, this global event will have more than 300 cities participating.

The easiest way to participate is to take photos with your smartphone and share them to iNaturalist.ca. They will be automatically included in the local CNC project with no further input required from the participant, as long as the location is indicated correctly. More information at https://citynaturechallenge.org

Naturalization at stormwater ponds a good use of resources
In 2021, the United Nations declared the next 10 years the Decade on Restoration and a further 150 hectares of land at Edmonton stormwater management facilities began the 3-stage process of naturalization. The city had already recaptured 1,035 hectares of previously mowed open space land through naturalization.

Returning to a more natural habitat is good for pollinators like bees and butterflies, for birds and for small animals. Naturalization stabilizes the soil thanks to plants with deeper roots. It also helps with reducing runoff during large rain events, as well as filtering water and improving water quality.

Naturalized areas can also function as connector habitat for the movement of larger animals like deer. As planted trees mature, the value of the urban forest increases. Naturalization helps preserve money, that other valuable resource, by decreasing mowing costs.

Some residents initially find that it looks messy or unkempt, but over time they do find that deeper appreciation for naturalized areas. More at https://transforming.edmonton.ca/naturalization-at-stormwater-ponds-in-edmonton-a-good-use-of-resources-and-birds-like-it/

Edmonton finally undertaking ecological thinking
Harry writes “The City’s commitment to banning aerial spraying of wetlands and cosmetic use of pesticides is great news. However, I am unclear as to whether the proposed 2023 cosmetic pesticide ban covers only city-managed lands or all lands, including private residential properties. In either case, we need a very aggressive City-run education and awareness program to encourage private homeowners to get their green lawns off their chemical addictions, along with healthy alternative suggestions.”

River valley pine a small community shrine for any occasion
Harold emailed “It should be noted that the perfectly shaped “pine” tree in the article is actually a spruce, and a Colorado Spruce which is not native to our river valley or this province.”

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April 14, 2022

River Valley News - April 14, 2022

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April 14, 2022

Edmonton finally undertaking ecological thinking
A recent opinion piece in the Edmonton Journal states our city just got a whole lot healthier. City council approved two policies that were long overdue: ending the aerial spraying of wetlands around the city which we’d been spending over half a million dollars a year on during a global biodiversity crisis and committing to a 2023 cosmetic pesticide ban preventing the non-essential use of pesticides.

Over 180 cities across Canada already have cosmetic pesticide bans, some for over 20 years. Edmonton, however, continued to allow pesticides linked to cancer and other diseases, especially in children. A 2017 city audit found that between 2010 and 2016, city pesticide use more than doubled.

Pesticide use occurs even in the river valley, despite the fact it is a high-use, ecologically sensitive area, and despite the fact pesticides should not be used next to rivers. Kudos to city council for saying “no more.”

The pathway is clear. Stop spraying and start protecting nature. Restore wetlands for dragonflies. These are possibilities our city can now embrace. It was a major win that Edmonton is finally joining other cities in undertaking ecological thinking. Read complete opinion piece at https://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-edmonton-finally-undertaking-ecological-thinking

River valley pine a small community shrine for any occasion
Have you noticed the perfectly shaped pine tree in a small clearing between the Fort Edmonton Footbridge and the Terwillegar Park Footbridge? It’s close to the path and is noticeable because, for the past year and a half, somebody has thematically decorated it each month.

“It’s so perfectly situated and so lonely,” says Angela Moore, who lives in Rhatigan Ridge and walks or bikes the path pretty much every day. In late November 2020, on a whim, she decided to decorate it for Christmas. “It took off from there,” she says.

Moore cleared it with the City of Edmonton employee who empties the garbage cans in the area, who simply asked that no tinsel be used and that things be well-attached, so they don’t blow away. Moore and two of her friends make a point of taking decorations down after the occasion has passed and keeping the area clean.

It has featured hearts for Valentine’s Day, a leprechaun on St. Patrick’s Day and the colours of the Edmonton Oilers for their short-lived playoff run in 2021. Mother's Day tree last year was probably the most populated,” Moore says. “Every branch was full with about 200 messages. That one really filled my heart.” More at https://www.riverbendonline.ca/Ragg-Times/RRT-March-2022.pdf

Do you know about Gold Bar Park Natural Spring
I have not seen it, but in Gold Bar Park coming out of the side of the hill, there is a natural spring. Bruce Cinnamon writes “When I was little, my grandparents who lived in Capilano, across 50 street would bring me for walks through the woods, culminating in this splendid water source. I remember people bringing 4L milk jugs to fill up with water. I'm sure the city would put it under a boil advisory, but we drank straight from a tin cup filled up at the pipe which sticks out of the hill.”

Allie says, “I grew up in Gold Bar and back in the day, some 45 years ago, we called it the trough.” Frank remembers “I was told the spring, as kids we called it the trough, was used by Gold Bar Farm to water animals. There are remnants of the trough near where the spring comes out.”

Many people in the link think it would be great to get it tested. To know it is safe would be great. It would be a nice spot to stop on hot summer days when on a walk. Read more at https://www.edmontonmapsheritage.ca/location/gold-bar-natural-spring/

Thanks
Jeanna writes “Really enjoying this newsletter. We live just above the river valley. This is a new addition in our household.”