McMillan Creek Fishing Park Planted

Saturday, October 02, 2010 02:55 PM

Volunteer Sue McCue plants shrub at McMillan Fishing Park

Prince George, B.C.- McMillan Creek Fishing Park has new plantings.

City of Prince George staff and their families, along with at least one City Councillor, turned out to the park this afternoon to plant shrubs and trees.

All of the species planted today are indigenous to the region says City of Prince George Environmental Coordinator Jocelyn White.

Sue McCue turned up to dig in and plant, “ I’m going to come back very year to see how my tree and shrubs are doing.”

Spruce seedlings, Saskatoon bushes, and hearty rose bushes are among the plantings in the park.

The McMillan Creek Fishing Park is a dream come true for a local man who wanted to see a place in Prince George where parents could take their children or their grandchildren, to share the fishing experience. The site for the park has most recently been a staging area for everything from the construction of the Cameron Street bridge to emergency flood equipment during the ice jams of 2007/’08.

The development of the park cost $134 thousand dollars with $76 thousand of the funding coming from the Nechako Fishing Trust, which was a donation from Ron Lind, the man who had the original vision for this park. The balance of the money for this project came from Development Cost Charges for Parklands, the Pacific Salmon Foundation, the Capital Expenditure Reserve and Terasen Gas.

McMillan Creek has challenges. Jocelyn White says with the stream flowing through industrial, residential and rural areas it has long had challenges with metals, fertilizers and all sorts of garbage and debris. Recent fish sampling show the creek is home to rainbow trout and Chinook salmon. “We wanted to see how the fish were doing following the removal of the culverts under the P.G. Pulpmill Road, and we were really pleased to see the rainbow and Chinook population.”

The Fishing Park could not have happened if the culverts that used to link the creek to the Nechako River had not been replaced says White “There were times, when the river was low, that fish couldn’t make it through the culverts from the river to spawn. The new system eliminates that problem.”

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Posted on Saturday, October 02, 2010 02:55 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: moretaxesplease on October 2 2010 9:23 PM

I cannot see how the city is so proud of the work done on the park when the whole creek is so polluted with SEWER and other nasty things trying to flow through a bunch of beaver damns behine Art Knapps North and Aberdeen Road. It is disgusting to say the least and has been rising a lot in the last few weeks. It will not be long before Aberseen Road is flooded across where the small bridge is. The cities first response should be is to CLEAN the creek and then and only can they be proud of the work done. If indeed there are fish making their way through, who would want to eat them when they are covered in sewer and animals crap comming down, if it is really moving at all. DISTGUSTING CITY to be proud of that. Lunch anyone, no thanks.

Posted by: DPJ on October 2 2010 10:35 PM

The city was smart to put a bridge there istead of a new culvert.

Posted by: Eagleone on October 3 2010 2:00 AM

I like this project... good participation from all sorts of stakeholders and not a lot of costs to the city tax payer for a lot of utility out of an idea. Something that will be around possibly for generations and costs little in the way of upkeep over the years.

Posted by: He spoke on October 3 2010 8:40 AM

More taxes please, I think it is a first of many things to happen in the coming years for this creek. The obvious is to clean up the creek bed, and improve flow. The other is to ensure that no sewer is leaking into the creek.

Why call it a fishing park. Should be called a fish observation park.

Posted by: onemansthoughts on October 3 2010 2:32 PM

I would like to set someone straight here. As a small boy, I would go fishing in a swampy creek with several beaver dams. It was so exciteing, standing on the edge of the dams, big trout would swim out and take the bait. They were good eating. Lots of fond memmories. So dont worry about the beavers so much. I like the fact that they made a park there for everyone, especially small kids to fish there.