NEWS & UPDATES - August 2021 |
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Questionnaire 4: Outdoor Space, Accessibility & Trails |
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This is the last Questionnaire in the series!! To access past questionnaires, please click here. All Questionnaires will be available until September 15th and we will draw for prizes the day after!
The Kootenay-Columbia Discovery Centre Society (KCDCS) would like to hear from our Members! We want to know your thoughts on various elements related to the development of a new Discovery Centre at the Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area.
We are doing a series of 4 Questionnaires, each one will take less than 5 minutes to complete. They will be released over a period of time in our monthly enewsletters and will be available on our website. These are the topics:
These questionnaires are part of a larger process to develop a master plan and design for a new Centre.
Each questionnaire that you fill out will give you one entry into a Prize Draw that will take place once the final questionnaire is released (so a maximum of 4 entries can be obtained).
Prizes include:
- Bushnell Binoculars (10x42)
- Oil Portrait (18x24, full colour) signed by artist (local Creston artist)
- 4 Canoe Tours at KCDCS
- KCDCS t-shirt and hat
If you are not a Member, you can still complete the questionnaire. We encourage you to become a Member, it is free, so that you can keep up to date on progress related to the development of a new Centre and current operations. Memberships can be obtained here.
Thank you. if you have any questions or additional comments, please reach out to us at: [email protected]
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The Discovery Centre is OPEN 7 days a week in August!
Our GUIDED CANOE TOURS have been cancelled due to low water levels unfortunately, but we are offering GUIDED WALKING TOURS well as many options for self-guided exploration including: SCAVENGER HUNTS, WILDLIFE AND BIRD CHECKLISTS, WALKING TOURS and ADVENTURE BACKPACKS...
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Saturday, August 14th
Join us for an Escape Room style event in the wetland!
It's by donation! Drop in between 10am and 3pm (takes about 30 mins-1 hour to complete). It will occur along the Boardwalk Loop.
You and your "team" (come with as many as you like!) will come together to solve 8 challenges and save the bats! It will take some problem solving and quick thinking skills...can you do it?
Questions? Call us @ 250-402-8661.
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Self Guided BoardWalk Loop and March Trail (Evening) Loop Tour Booklets
Grab an informational booklet onsite or download them on our website and head out on the trail to learn more about the wetland and wildlife that live here!
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Adventure Backpacks
To enhance your adventure in the wetland, take one of our themed backpacks with you on your next hike.
They are free to borrow and are available when we are open
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Virtual (& QR Code) BoardWalk Loop Tour |
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Check out our Virtual BoardWalk Loop Tour!
If you can't make it out to our wetland but want to see some of the sights and learn more about the wetland, then you can do so from anywhere on your computer, tablet or phone!
Also, when onsite, there are QR Codes that you can scan at various stops so that you can view the videos easily on your device while on the trail.
Thanks to Ale for her creativity and all staff for their contributions and cameos!!
Click on the map below to open it up!
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From Phil Harvey
KCDCS Board Member
It sure does – we all know that; but, what about the real rocks under and around the nearby wetlands? Any snake or turtle will tell you that rocks too are an important part of the ecosystem.
My thoughts about the rocks near the Corn Creek Marsh began while cycling along West Creston Road. One of the beauties of cycling is that you smell, hear and see things that you would never notice while zooming along in a car. Sometimes this activates thoughts that sort of float in one ear and out the other. That was the case when I noticed some unique features of the rocks near the Discovery Centre (above). I knew they were very old, among the oldest sedimentary rocks in BC, but that’s about all.
I did some research and sure enough there is quite a story behind these rocks. The rocks in the area of the Discovery Centre are quartzite from either the Middle Aldridge Formation or, in some spots, the Creston Formation. Both of these formations fall within a very thick rock assemblage called the Purcell Supergroup. Well, that’s nice geological jargon but my grandkids would ask questions like: How old are they? How were they made? How did they get here? To try and answer these very good questions here is the history of what I’ll call Joe the rock...
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Joe the Rock (that's me above)
Hi. My name is Joe. I am just under 1.5 billion years old. My birthplace was near the centre of an ancient supercontinent called Columbia or sometimes Nuna. At this time, my birthplace was where this part of the supercontinent was starting to break apart or `rift`. An example of modern-day rifting would be Africa which is spreading apart in the middle and some day it will form two separate continents. Anyway, this rift created a low spot which filled with seawater. Great rivers from the edge of modern-day North America eroded very old granite rocks, made mostly of quartz, into sand and brought massive quantities of this sediment into the sea. The beaches were fabulous! I therefore started off my journey as sand. The reason I have those funny lines on me is that every day when the tide came in it swept a bit more sand and silt on top of me.
After a while I got buried. It sure is getting hot down here! With this heat and also the pressure the water in my pores deposited out a sort of cement between the sand grains and I officially became a sedimentary rock known as sandstone. This marked my graduation from a mere blob of sand to a true rock.
Over the hundreds of millions of years of my journey I eventually got buried really, really deep. How deep? Many kilometres down. There is so much sediment on top of me the pressure is tremendous. It is so hot I am near my melting point. How hot? It was over 1000 C. The geologists would say I am now being metamorphosed (doesn’t sound very nice). Once this happened, the old sand grains totally fused together and I officially became a quartzite. Also, as you can see from the above picture, sometime in my journey some hot water with a lot of iron in it stained me partly red.
Sometime quite recently, say in the last hundred million years, many of the rocks in my home province of BC got pushed up in the process of mountain building. This is because the rocks under the Pacific Ocean are pushing towards and diving under North and South America. Near Summit Creek, for the first time in about 1.5 billion years, I can see daylight!
Uh-oh: I think that means that in a blink of my eye (not yours) I am going to be eroded by water. Pieces of me will end up in the ocean as sand. This sand will get buried and then.... Wait, I’ve already told that story!
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Join us on social media for Mondays "Pretty Wild" Posts where we will feature a creature that you might see out in the wetland!
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Join us on our YouTube channel! Check out videos about the wetland and the wildlife that call it home.
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Thank you so much for your interest in our summer Jr Naturalist day camps. We had a blast in July spending time with these budding young Naturalists. There are more programs in August!
Our Eager Eagles camp (ages 11 & 12) from August 23-27 has a few spaces left, so please get in touch if you are interested in attending.
If you participated in one of our programs this year, we would love to hear form you! If you haven't done so already, please fill out our survey...you can win a free family canoe tour pass for doing so...
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We will be at the Creston Valley Farmers' Market on Saturday, August 21st!
Come and say Hi!
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Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area |
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To access advisories and up to date information related to the Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area and to purchase hunting or fishing permits, please visit the CVWMA website or Facebook page.
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Memberships to KCDCS are FREE!
To increase support and awareness for KCDCS' mission, we are offering free Memberships! Join the 1,000 Members and show support for environmental education in our region! This helps us to obtain grants and sponsorships to move us forward!
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If you are interested in supporting KCDCS' mission to deliver environmental education and awareness programs, please click the link above. You can earmark your donation for ongoing program delivery or the development of a new Discovery Centre. KCDCS is a registered federal charity and can issue you a tax receipt.
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Thank you for subscribing to our eNewsletter updates!
Our aim is to keep you informed on the happenings of the Kootenay-Columbia Discovery Centre - from program delivery to the development of a new Centre and everything in between.
We appreciate your support and interest!
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