The Bragg Creek area has always been a place of abundant natural beauty and with the work being done by environmental groups in Rocky View County (RVC), new areas might yet be added to the County’s environmental reserves.
At the latest hearing of the RVC Public Presentation Committee, representatives with the Bragg Creek Environmental Coalition (BCEC) proposed to the committee that the floodway lands along the Elbow River between Balsam Avenue Bridge and the Trading Post in Bragg Creek be zoned as part of the environmental reserve.
According to the BCEC report on the subject that was presented to the committee, the proposed reserve lands are unique, since they support unusually dense beds of at least five different native orchid species as well as insectivorous butterworts. They also provide an important wildlife corridor for ungulates, cougars, bobcats, bears and foxes.
“Two botanists have visited the area and underscored [to us] the uniqueness of the area we are discussing,” said BCEC executive director Dave Klepacki during the committee hearing. “How do we preserve this hamlet for as long as possible and how can we ensure operations are done effectively?”
Klepacki, along with other members of the BCEC executive, claimed that zoning the area as an environmental reserve was an opportunity to help maintain the balance of the environment and development in the picturesque hamlet. As a part of their presentation to the committee, the BCEC requested that 9.3 hectares of land be established as an environmental reserve for orchid and wildlife protection.
When asked by RVC Division 2 Coun. and Deputy Reeve Don Kochan about what type of infrastructure the BCEC would require to signify the are was apart of the environmental reserve, Klepacki stated that the BCEC was only thinking about things like picnic tables and flood resistant educational infrastructure such as QR codes on posts that could be scanned by people wanting to know more about the area.
The committee seemed to be open to what the BCEC was suggesting.
“How do we advance this?” asked committee chair and RVC Division 4 Coun. Sammantha Wright.
Andrew Chell, a member of the County’s planning department, said that, “Ultimately if Council determines this should be dealt with, we will move it along separately from the area structure plan.”
In the end, the committee voted unanimously to receive for information what was presented to them by the BCEC, and instructed administration to draft up a more in depth report on the potential for an environmental reserve in Bragg Creek along the Elbow River to be presented to at a future council meeting.
