Briefly: September 18, 2015

Wildwood hill concerns

Concerns about drainage on the recently repaved stretch of Lund Street on Wildwood hill have surfaced after heavy rains put them to test.

The $1.1 million project that widened the lanes along the 1.5 kilometre stretch of road on the hill to allow more space for pedestrians and cyclists was completed in August by North Vancouver’s BA Blacktop. According to the ministry of transportation and infrastructure (MOTI), the project was also designed to improve the street’s drainage.

Bill Bird, president of Wildwood Ratepayers, sent Clint Monson, MOTI area manager, a letter highlighting concerns with the road’s drainage and its effect on the Switchback trail, a bicycle and pedestrian path which goes up the hill near the repaved road. Bird and other volunteers from the local citizen’s group work to maintain the trail.

Bird explained that the road’s new drainage course is undermining the trail’s path and asked if measures could be taken to slow the course of the water in the culvert.

Wildwood residents, he said, are also concerned about the stability of the road’s gravel shoulder near Atlin Street. During the recent rainstorms, storm water running down the hill carved deep channels into the road’s gravel shoulders, almost to the edge of the new pavement and washed much gravel to the bottom of the culvert, he said.

Bird reported at the recent Wildwood Ratepayers meeting on Thursday, September 10 that Monson had asked the contractor to return to make repairs, though he did not give a definite timeline on when they would happen.

A summer-long ban on freshwater fishing has reopened on the Sunshine Coast two weeks earlier than expected, thanks to rain and cooling water temperatures.

Streams in the area were previously closed to angling on July 22 to protect fish stocks during drought conditions due to low flow and high water temperatures.

Fresh water streams in Wildlife Management Units 2–2 through 2–12 are now open, which includes waterways in Gibsons, Sechelt and the Powell River areas.

Streams around Toba and Bute Inlets were excluded from the summer ban as they were considered low risk due to low fishing interest as well as their cooler glacial origins.

In other areas of BC, fishing remains closed in the Seymour and Coquihalla Rivers, as well as their tributaries, as rockslides have severely restricted upstream steelhead migration by steelhead, putting the fish at risk.

The modified opening, which came into effect Monday, September 14, is being monitored by the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations in agreement with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.