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Another creek jumps path above Salmon River Road

Neighbours rally to save neighbour鈥檚 home, driveways destroyed.
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Andrew and Kristie Clark stand by their new driveway on May 6 which was created when a creek above a neighbour鈥檚 property jumped into a new path, threatening Salmon River Road and a neighbour鈥檚 home.- Image credit: Martha Wickett/Salmon Arm Observer.

Another creek above Salmon Valley Road took a new path over the weekend, jeopardizing properties and the road below.

About 6 p.m. Friday, Kristie Clark, who lives in the 2100 block of Salmon River Road, called the RCMP emergency line, letting them know about the threat from above.

Residents had noticed a creek starting to run through a neighbour鈥檚 shop and down the neighbour鈥檚 road. It was headed toward Salmon River Road and another neighbour鈥檚 home.

Residents got to work up the road with tractors, shovels and sandbags, diverting the water to a less destructive path.

As well as potentially taking out the house, Clark predicts 鈥渋t would have gone right across Salmon River Road had we not, as a community, fixed it.鈥

Clark said she is shocked that she received no response from any official until 9 a.m. Saturday, when someone called to ask 鈥榟ow are things going?鈥

The residents鈥 experience with a bursting creek is similar to that of residents in the 1600 block of Salmon River Road. People from 10 homes there were evacuated overnight on April 22. Some homes are without driveways after crews diverted what鈥檚 known as Andrew Brook or Anderson Creek by creating a ditch along the roadway to carry the water along. That was done after a decommissioned logging road sloughed and the runoff causing the slough jumped into the existing creek, so residences below were threatened.

In Clark鈥檚 case, the new creek is also heading down a ditch alongside the road, which leaves them without a driveway.

Clark operates Salmon Valley Daycare. Her spouse Andrew jokes that they鈥檒l have to call it Salmon Valley Adventure Campground and zipline the kids over the ditch.

Kristie is concerned about proposed logging above Salmon River Road and the part logging and an existing logging road may have played on the creek changing course.

So is neighbour Barb Lepain.

鈥淣ow they want to log right down behind our homes.鈥

Both Kristie and Andrew emphasize they are not targeting loggers, but the people who make the decisions about logging.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not the people down the street who are loggers,鈥 says Kristie.

鈥淭here are lots of places to log so people don鈥檛 have creeks running through their property,鈥 adds Andrew.

Tolko Industries, meanwhile, says it will be consulting with residents.

In an email reply to the Observer, Janice Lockyer, Tolko鈥檚 communications advisor, wrote: 鈥淲ith regards to Silver Creek and our 2017 information sharing referral, we understand that residents have concerns and we want to reiterate, once again, that we鈥檙e at the start of our planning process in this area and it will be approximately three years before we have a thorough understanding of the proposed area and whether we can implement a plan that allows us to harvest in a safe and sustainable manner. During our study phase, we remain open to consultation and we are working on a plan to meet with concerned residents of the area once we have conducted our field work. We will be releasing details on that process soon.鈥

Regarding the 2100 block of Salmon River Road, she stated: 鈥淚t is difficult to say at this point what the role of logging may or may not have played in the increased stream flow experienced on the existing creek. We are currently assessing a number of our cutblock areas and once we have completed our assessments, we will have a better understanding of the role, if any, of logging and the measures required to deal with any issues we find.鈥



Martha Wickett

About the Author: Martha Wickett

came to Salmon Arm in May of 2004 to work at the Observer. I was looking for a change from the hustle and bustle of the Lower Mainland, where I had spent more than a decade working in community newspapers.
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