Pincher Creek's Pincher Creek gets a gets a Great Canadian Shoreline Clean Up

Some members of the Pincher Creek cleanup crew
C. Davis photos

Chris Davis, Pincher Creek Voice
(updated)

Wendy Ryan led a small but determined volunteer workforce to Pincher Creek's Pincher Creek for the 20th annual Great Canadian Shoreline Clean Up event on the evening of September 26, hosted by Pincher Creek's Communities in Bloom committee.

My catch of the day

Another episode of "Treasures of the Trail" with Wendy Ryan

Ryan recited a list of some of the items that have been found along the creek running through the center of our town: left-behind toys, pop bottles, beer bottles, grocery bags, diapers, syringes, tampons, paper bags, cups, plastic, foam, tobacco boxes, mouth guards, six-pack plastic rings, rubber bands, fishing line, food wrappers, take-out containers, bottle caps, metal caps, lids, straws, cutlery, balloons, fish hooks, fishing lines... "Last year we found about 20 pounds of metal including car parts, and a lot of glass."

Shane Poulsen with my catch

"Some people take great joy in smashing their bottles, rather than letting someone pick them up," said Ryan, explaining this is the fourth or fifth year the event has happened in Pincher Creek. The Castle‐Crown Wilderness Coalition hosted the 7th annual Beaver Mines Lake Great Canadian Shoreline Clean Up on September 24, two days prior to the Pincher Creek event.

Jeanette Davis with Sienna and Jacob Poulsen clean up the creek

"This week through Canada there's 50,000 volunteers going out to clean shorelines," explained Ryan. "It can be ocean, lake river or creek, so we chose Pincher Creek today."

"The distance covered is 3,100 kilometres. That's just the registered groups. In our area, the Beaver Mines Lake has already been done, and we collected about 40 pounds of garbage."

"The thing we will pick up the most of today is cigarette butts,' Ryan said. "On our other shoreline clean up, we picked up about 800 in an hour and a half."

Wendy Ryan cleans up the creek

"Unfortunately, Pincher Creek used to be a dumpway of people dumping refrigerators and car bodies, and it hasn't all been cleaned up."

According to Ryan, the flood of 1995 uncovered a lot of rubbish. "After the '95 flood Diane Burt Stuckey did a big effort to clean that all up."

"Teresa Balazs and John Hancock were both on the registration table.  We totalled up about 80 pounds of garbage in and along the creek - some recycleables. The most litter was throw away cups and plastic.There still is a problem with invasive plants along the creek with burdock, blueweed, leafy spurge, bluebell, creeping thistle and ox-eye daisy. Very disturbing to find 4 dead garter snakes along the shoreline - I supposed there could have been more if one looked through the plants...."