Grand Forks Gazette, September 23, 2015

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Gazette Grand Forks

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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2015

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VOL 118 NO. 38

Bruins drop two Page A19

Groups work to protect cemetery, fish habitat GRAHAM WATT

For the Grand Forks Gazette

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As part of a two-day course on restoration management at Selkirk College, students helped install slope stabilization structures on the Kettle River by the Sion Cemetery site on Friday.

Troy named Green candidate SUBMITTED

to the Grand Forks Gazette

Samantha Troy is the Green candidate for South Okanagan – West Kootenay, announced the Green Party of Canada last week. “It is my pleasure to have Sam join us as a Green Party candidate,” said Carrie McLaren, Green Party of Canada BC organizer. “As a working mom, passionate and resourceful, she offers an excellent choice for voters in South Okanagan – West Kootenay on Oct. 19.” Samantha (Sam) Troy lives in Rossland, B.C. working at Red Mountain Ski Resort in

SAMANTHA TROY

outdoor operations and dispatch. She currently serves as both shop steward and health

and safety chair. After working 20 years in forestry she joined the Green Party because she sees how climate change is directly impacting the local environment and economy. “Resource sector and tourism jobs in this riding depend directly on the environment,” Troy concluded. “Pine beetle, drought, rain instead of powder days and range land lost to fire all hurt my riding. We need a new federal government that understands that the economy and environmental protection are both related and important.” Troy can be reached at samantha.troy@greenparty.ca.

Everyone who watches the Kettle River has seen it change its course over time. But when Pat Horkoff saw rapidly advancing erosion threaten graves at the Sion Cemetery west of Grand Forks, he called together local groups to find and implement solutions. Since 2011, Horkoff, chair of the Sion Cemetery Society, has noticed a disturbing trend on the slope below the site. The north bank of the Kettle River had started slipping into the river at an alarming rate. Not only were graves at risk: sediment from the eroding slope threatened to choke the valuable fish habitat in the side-channel just downstream. The problem stemmed from a log jam that shifted, directing a portion of the current against the slope and undercutting the unstable sand and gravel. Horkoff approached me, Jenny Coleshill of the Granby Wilderness Society and regional district drector Roly Russell to ask for help. What could we do to protect the cemetery and the side channel? Over the last year, we developed a plan to protect fish habitat and graves at the same time using a “soil bioengineering” approach with native plants. We knew the steep, unstable slope made it a very difficult site for a typical engineering solution such as “rip-rap” (angular boulders placed on the base of the slope). Furthermore, having machinery cross the river would be too risky and costly. Instead, we investigated using woody plants such as cottonwood, willows and red-osier dogwood to stabilize the slope. The practice is known as “soil bioengineering” (not to be confused with genetic engineering and genetically modified organisms, or GMO). These plants are special. First, they adapted to life on riverbanks and gravel bars by tolerating “wet feet”—roots and stems that can be submerged for part of the growing season. They grow roots rapidly in search of nutrients and

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