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Jewel in the rough
Terry Tayler remembers those days well. She has lived in the Renfrew-Collingwood area for 37 years. When she moved into the neighbourhood she was a young, stay-at-home mother. "There was nothing here," remembers Tayler. "There was no feeling of community, no services. The only thing we had was a health clinic for our babies and Collingwood library."
Tayler started to get involved. She served on committees that led to the construction of the Collingwood Neighbourhood House and a childcare centre. After learning some hard lessons in how to build support from local residents, Tayler thought they needed a new project that would involve the whole community.
In 1993, Tayler and five neighbours had a brainstorming session and decided the ravine needed saving. "At the meeting one of the fellas said, 'I've got some kids that love to play down in that Ravine by 29th. It's not very safe, it's full of garbage, but if we cleaned it up_' and everyone agreed, 'yeah, let's go for that.'"
The first clean-up filled three construction-sized containers with garbage. Each year that's been reduced little by little-now the twice yearly events barely fill one container. In 1994, the committee secured enough grant money to hire a coordinator for a year and to conduct a survey of 488 houses in a two-block radius of the ravine.
"We found out that the residents wanted to keep it as natural as possible-not manicured, they wanted it left wild," said Tayler. "There was also a concern about opening it up and making it accessible, that it would bring more crime to the backyards of those that lived on the ravine."
The Renfrew Ravine Committee listened to the residents. The committee has focussed on preserving the natural feel of the park while working with other groups to enhance its environmental uniqueness. The first major improvement came in 1996 when the City of Vancouver Neighbourhood Greenways Project spent $218,000 to build a path along the eastern side of the ravine. The path stays above the creek and is part of a long-term project to connect greenways in the city.
When Carmen Rosen moved into the neighbourhood five years ago, she discovered the ravine, took part in the clean-ups with her kids and started going to the committee meetings. Rosen was a celebration artist who had created shows to teach young students about B.C.'s natural history.
"I had quit touring to have another child," recalled Rosen, sitting at her desk in a crowded home office which once served as a kitchen nook. "I wanted to invest some of my artistic energy into the neighbourhood. I thought I can go to ravine clean-ups, but my skill set is really about bringing people together through art."
Through a project called ParkPartners, Rosen worked with the parks board to create several public art projects in Renfrew Ravine. Neighbouring schools were recruited. A sign in front of Sanctuary Park has the names of 200-plus students who hacked out blackberry brambles and then replanted the clearing with native species. The small site across from the SkyTrain station on 29th Avenue also contains a rock walkway with student-made fish mosaics and a bench decorated with a native fish carving. Hand-made birdhouses mounted on poles surround the clearing.
For three years Rosen also organized the Slocan Arts Festival, creating a community celebration that was well received in the East Vancouver neighbourhood. But she also had hopes for starting an event celebrating the ravine.
"I really did have visions," laughs Rosen. "I saw somehow there being lanterns and sparkling lights in the ravine and people coming down and seeing the magic and the mystery."
The Renfrew-Collingwood neighbourhood starts at Nanaimo Street and runs east to Boundary Road from Broadway at the northern border, south to 41st Avenue. The last census in 1996 showed more people spoke Chinese as a first language (39 per cent) than English (32 per cent). Rosen knew many Asian cultures celebrated the moon each autumn. She set up a steering committee with representatives from the Chinese community to create the Renfrew Ravine Moon Festival.
"I definitely thought there was room to have a community event that links the Asian mid-autumn festival with environmental awareness and community celebration."
The grassroots community festival began in 2003. Rosen raised about $50,000 to organize the one-day event, which included a harvest fair at Slocan Park, a lantern parade along the edge of the ravine and festivities at Renfrew Park. About 2,000 residents showed up for the first Moon Festival. Last year more than 3,000 people attended and Rosen expects the event to be even more popular this September. She says the Moon Festival has helped bring the community together.
"I think it was huge for the neighbourhood," said Rosen, who has formed the non-profit Still Moon Arts Society to help secure funding for the yearly event. "I had people coming up to me with tears in their eyes, saying there's all these people out at night, speaking all these different languages and they were with each other."
"We tend to socialize in our linguistic groups in this neighbourhood and to have many cultures doing something together was quite profound for a lot of people."
Rosen also invites environmental organizations to the festival each year so they can promote their issues in relation to the ravine.
"If I can get people to appreciate the ravine and consequently be able to listen to messages about what they can do at home-that will affect the health of the stream."
And how healthy is Still Creek? On a May evening about 60 people are inside the Operators Engineering Hall in Burnaby, taking part in an open house to discuss the Still Creek Integrated Stormwater Management Plan. Maps, photographs, charts and graphs line the walls as municipal government and GVRD officials look for public input on a long-term plan to address the rainwater, recreation and environmental issues unique to the stream.
Still Creek's winding path through different jurisdictions means a lot of stakeholders are involved in its future. Once upon a time, before heavy urbanization, the creek's headwaters started around Metrotown. The stream now begins in Vancouver, running north along the Renfrew corridor. The creek stays hidden, contained in pipes until it emerges at Renfrew Ravine Park. The urban waterway in the ravine is Vancouver's longest uncovered creek.
When Still Creek leaves the ravine it becomes a culverted waterway once again. In small stretches it surfaces before heading east into Burnaby, where as a natural stream it empties into Burnaby Lake.
Neil McCreedy, who lived a block away from the park in the 1960s, remembers when trout were found in the creek.
"When I was young lad and played in the ravine, some people thought it was just a dirty, swampy creek. Things have certainly changed and there's a lot more concern about it now."
As a supervisor with the City of Vancouver's Environment Protection Branch, McCreedy was at the open house, explaining how his staff is trying to improve the water quality in the creek.
The biggest problem is the pollution found in rainwater as it makes its way to the storm drains that empty into the creek. Litter, oil, gas, fertilizer, pesticides, antifreeze and other harmful chemicals are carried by rainwater to the stream. In its current state, McCreedy says, the long term survival of trout in the polluted water is doubtful.
"Right now the creek won't support trout," he explained. "It's posted for passive use only and that's because of the high fecal coliform counts."
Education through public awareness campaigns like the Storm Drain Marking Program (the yellow fish stencils found on roadways next to drains) is starting to make an impact, but the creek has a long road back to rejuvenation.
Heavy rains also bring another problem to the ravine. Culverts and pipes don't absorb or slow water like a natural swamp can. Water races down the creek, wiping out fish habitat. The last fish sighted in the ravine go back to 1996 when sticklebacks briefly returned. They vanished the following spring after a landslide (another result of the fast water flow) blocked the stream.
A project underway in Vancouver may be the most hopeful sign that rehabilitation of the creek is possible. An enhancement project for a 70-metre section of open creek beside the Danier Leather site at 3000 Grandview Highway will be a model for what community activists like Shannon Campbell want for the rest of Still Creek.
Using funds from the Still Creek/Greenway Enhancement Fund, the City will naturalize the creek-taking out the concrete banks and overgrown blackberry brambles. Natural gravel, boulders, anchored tree roots and a "green" engineered bank will replace the concrete. A side channel and a small planted island will be added. Native vegetation will replace the blackberries. To enhance public access and understanding, a public viewing platform with interpretive signage will be built.
Campbell's interest in the creek started when old timers in the neighbourhood told her there were small waterways all over East Vancouver that over the decades had been covered over, replaced by streets and houses. After doing a little research Campbell decided to get involved. She hooked up with the Renfrew Ravine Committee and then found other community groups in Burnaby, New Westminster and Coquitlam had an interest in the creek. In February, Campbell formed the Still Creek Stewardship Society to bring them together.
"The society is focused on Vancouver right now because there's all this energy behind it," explained Campbell, who lives beside Falaise Park where more creek enhancement is planned. "We wanted to bring it all together into one cohesive voice. We'll take a project like Danier and focus on it because it's high profile, people can see it.
"You can write plans and plans and plans and never do anything with it. They can sit on the shelf and collect dust. Our society wants to see these plans get done and push things ahead."
Campbell's group has asked the parks board to set aside funding to create a master plan for the ravine. In keeping with the neighbourhood's wishes, the society would like to keep the park wild and pristine, but Campbell says that some coordination is needed to maintain and improve the ravine.
Parks board commissioner Allan De Genova has been a liaison with the Renfrew community off and on during his 12-year term. He says the parks board has committed capital funds to acquiring private property on the west side of the ravine as it becomes available.
"If we can pick up another acre or two of land, accumulated by purchasing smaller lots, it's exactly the way to be going," said De Genova. "In the next 15 years you're going to find this neighbourhood pushing for much higher densities and there will be more pressure for green space. The ravine will be absolutely crucial for people to take refuge. In 30 to 50 years from now this will be a haven."
In the long-term, all the stakeholders agree that better access in the ravine is a priority. A boardwalk down to the creek combined with occasional viewing areas would allow the public to escape the city without disturbing plants and animals.
Further down the creek, the ravine does become the special place that the neighbourhood is passionate to protect. Towering alder and cottonwood trees hide the surrounding homes. The water becomes clearer downstream and the street sounds disappear. The creek widens at times-providing a future opportunity to create settling ponds to ease the flow of water and provide fish habitat.
As Fergusson and Pickett climb out of the water on the western side of the creek, a small meadow appears with chest-high grass and rush. Salmonberries are blooming and the calls of songbirds override the sound of water. After re-entering the creek, the water flows faster as it is channelled between larger rocks. Fergusson points up at a huge hawk's nest that this year is the home of three chicks. At creek level there is a pile of mallard duck feathers, the remains of a meal for the hawks or the coyotes.
The creek then widens again, the bottom becomes sandy. A pair of mallards swims ahead, nibbling at the water. As the creek approaches 22nd Avenue, the city returns with the honking of horns and the heavy sound of a transit bus close by. As they climb up the bank and head back up the ravine the trail winds around a stand of skunk cabbage and shoulder-high horsetail. From high above the creek, the water disappears into the culvert at 22nd.
Residents call Renfrew Ravine their "jewel in the city." The stakeholders realize that it will take decades to rehabilitate the park, but are confident the cause will carry on.
"There's probably a good 25 to 30 people who are passionate about the ravine and if they are, then their families are and their neighbours are to different levels," says Terry Tayler who now calls herself a "community builder" when people ask what she does. "I have no doubt that this will continue."
"I'm very optimistic," echoes Shannon Campbell. "We had kids from Windermere [high school] out there in the pouring rain, digging in the ground, putting trees in and pulling out invasive species. The kids are doing it and we have to support them."
As a youngster, Neil McCreedy spent hours in the ravine climbing in the many tree houses. He saw the park abused-littered with old mattresses, car wrecks and other garbage. Now, as one of the creek's many protectors, he believes the community will ensure the long-term enhancement of the ravine.
"It is a jewel in the rough for residents and the businesses in the area," says McCreedy. "Desirable projects like this catch the ear of government-benefiting not only the residents, but the city as a whole."
posted on 07/04/2005
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