Walk with us through Bummers Flats – Cherry Creek, a 988-hectare haven of lowland flats in the Rocky Mountain Trench, one of few such protected sites. Cherry Creek flows silently ahead, the water seeping into the surrounding wetlands that are being restored to their full natural beauty.
With a wet meadow squelching beneath your feet, you spot animal prints all about you in the mud, traces of all the wildlife that benefit from the protection and restoration of this land. You stoop to exam the hooves of an elk that wandered here before you.
In the vast and flat grassy land before you, waterfowl and other birds glide about. A Blue-listed American Bittern hides in the grass, its long neck and beak as straight lifted into the air as straight as a stalk of grass.
As the sun dips below the distant mountains it sets a glow upon this beautiful landscape. The end of the day, but just the beginning of restoring Bummers Flats and bringing abundant wildlife home to these lands.
Facts:
- Between 1985 and 1986, the Nature Trust of BC acquired the 988-hectare conservation lands called Bummers Flats to conserves an important component of the Pacific Flyway in the lowlands of the Rocky Mountain Trench.
- At-risk species occurrences on the complex include the red-listed American Badger and the blue listed American Bittern. It is also valuable waterfowl staging and nesting area, and provides habitat for elk, white-tailed deer and a variety of other bird and mammal species.
- Cherry Creek runs through the property and work is currently being completed to restore the wetlands around it that were drained for agricultural fields. Waterfowl, shorebirds, Western toads and Western painted turtles are among the wildlife that will benefit from this project.