Letter to the editor

It was good to read your paper reported on the proposed overpass for the bighorn sheep as well as the bat condos. It is important that this good news gets out to the public, especially with all the problems facing wildlife and their habitats. 

I wanted to further your knowledge of the ‘behind the scenes’ people who volunteered the time to assure these two projects made it to fruition.

Lake Windermere District Rod & Gun Club members have had a long association with the Radium sheep herd from carrying out habitat improvement to assisting the Conservation Officer Service and National Parks Warden Service with watching the highway for injured/killed sheep. We as well carried out salting and water trough work trying to draw the sheep away from the highway. 

A few years back the club realized there was more needed to retain this herd, so we initiated discussions with the BC government regarding an overpass and with the important assistance of our MLA Doug Clovechok discussion started resulting in the announcement. One member, Kent Kebe, has been overseeing much of this work as well representing the club in the discussions with government. Not to be left out is Nicole Trigg who started a fundraising and awareness campaign about the need for the overpass.

The club as well participated in a big way with the construction of the new bat/swallow condo at Parson.

Under Bob Walker’s leadership with the assistance of three other members (Dave Thompson, Brian Pilatzke, and yours truly) put in 300 hours of volunteer time to do the construction, transport it to the Parson site and put in place. With Bob’s past construction knowledge and a very generous Invermere Rona, we were able to save the project over $15,000 in labour and $3,500 in material costs. This bat/swallow condo complex is one of the first in Canada, and yes, we have been asked to build another one but you will have to wait for that news.

So, a big thanks to these members who stepped up and shared their personal time on two very worthwhileprojects. 

Richard Hoar, Habitat Stewardship Committee

Lake Windermere District Rod & Gun Club