Violet Creek Nursery - what is it and how did it get that name?

Violet Creek Nursery – what is it and where?

History of Violet Creek Nursery

I started Violet Creek Nursery a few years after I moved here (20 years ago). It began because I wanted shade along the driveway because it was very open there. At first I bought birch trees but only one survived. So, I decided to grow them myself. It would be cheaper but, also, they would belong here because I could use local seed. The seed germinated and I had more than I needed. I started going to farmer’s markets – Salmon Arm and Enderby with the birch trees. Then I tried to grow other things. I experimented with seeding in small pots and in big trays. I spent a lot of time transplanting and repotting using different systems. I was thrilled when I was able to grow many different species – mock orange, ocean spray, columbine, roses and even pussy toes! – a total of 18 different species. I wanted others to know about using native plants so I entered the parades in Salmon Arm and Enderby for a few years.

The Name – Violet Creek Nursery

Violet Creek runs through the property. It starts in the Larch Hills in a bog somewhere close to what the ski people call the “north hub”. It is fed by other bogs called Frodo’s bog and Bilbo’s bog. It runs down the hill into the Mara Meadows Ecological Reserve. It then runs south, through my place and then on to the Shuswap River.

This creek has run my life. I have spent a lot of time trying to protect it and the waters that feed it.

At first, it was from Salmon Arm who was trying to put a dam in the Larch Hills. It would have flooded many of the ski trails, mainly in the area of Cottonwood Cut-Off. It would also have interrupted the natural water flow to the Mara Meadows Ecological Reserve. This area is a wetland and home to many special species of plants and bugs. It is so special that it is the only reserve in the province that is closed, legally. You need a permit to go in. It is very vulnerable to damage.

Because I had a water licence on the creek I could participate in the process of the hearings between Water Management (Ministry of Environment) and the city of Salmon Arm. There were four hearings in all, 3 written and one oral over a period of about two years. I did lots of typing on my old typewriter and paid the cost of all the needed faxes at Sure Crop Feeds. After the Deputy Comptroller of Water Rights gave her report, after the two day oral hearing, that denied the dam in the Larch Hills, Salmon Arm filed an appeal to the Environmental Appeal Board. In response I filed a request for the Board to dismiss Salmon Arm’s complaint as having no merit and I applied for costs. What Salmon Arm was trying to do was against the law because there was an order in council that protected the water for the ecological reserve “from being taken, acquired or used under the water act”. I didn’t get costs but, because of the process involved in my request to the Environmental Appeal Board, Salmon Arm finally gave up because of their reading of the legal opinion from the lawyer at the Attorney General’s office. . http://www.eab.gov.bc.ca/water/98wat10a.pdf

Request for costs report http://www.eab.gov.bc.ca/water/98wat10b.htm

I found out, as part of this process, that the top end of Violet Creek had been diverted. So the creek was being starved of its water. It was diverted in 1963 into the Canoe Creek drainage. When I looked at the minutes of the meetings of the water board (at the Museum) for that year I read about a discussion of the need for more water and in a mention of Violet Creek, it read “a day with a bulldozer”. Interestingly, when I read these minutes one month was missing. I wonder what this September meeting said? Without this evidence, I guess someone thought there was no liability to Salmon Arm.

In the report from the Deputy Comptroller of Water Rights she required that this illegal diversion be removed and the creek restored and that Salmon Arm take the lead on this. Salmon Arm did nothing. In fact, they asked for a stay of this order from the Environmental Appeal Board. I decided to free the creek. I initiated a tour in order to make a plan to get this creek restored to its natural flow. I called Salmon Arm but they declined to come. I called BC Parks. They are responsible for the ecological reserve and had participated in the 2 day oral hearing. They sent two people. I also contacted Connie Harris from Shuswap Outdoors who participated in the hearings as my witness. We walked the area to the diversion in the creek. It was a pile of dirt and a trench that went at a 90 degree angle from the creek, along the brow of the slope, through a culvert, and dropped over the slope to Canoe Creek below. Connie and I found this blockage during the winter went we went looking on snowshoes and marked it with a red ribbon. After this tour and discussion of what was needed I made a sketch on a blank piece of paper. I labelled the dirt pile and the need for ‘water bars’ ,gouges in the ditch, so that the water that was in the watershed up the hill remained and was not still diverted to Canoe Creek. I mailed it to the Water Manager in Penticton, McKee and he approved it. A neighbour then phoned around and found a guy with a machine, an excavator to do the work. Someone else called BC Parks and asked if they would pay for it. So, I missed watching the creek being liberated as I was at work. $500.00 did the job. The creek had been starving for almost 40 years. Now it runs free.

I then discovered, to my horror, that there was a woodlot planned (logging) for the area right next to the ecological reserve. Trees would be cut, roads cut into the hillside and messing up the natural water flows. I then found a creek that had been dug up very close to Violet Creek where it goes into the ecological reserve. I reported this. After many trips to the Ministry of Forests office after work (driving from Vernon to Salmon Arm) I was able to get documentation on the woodlot application and approval under access to information. After many letters back and forth and phone calls I filed a complaint with the Forest Practices Board. During this process there was finally a hydrological assessment that was supposed to be done earlier. As part of the compliant process by the Forest Practices Board I was subjected to a “tour” of the woodlot area although my complaint related to policy and nothing could be gained from this tour. For this tour I had to leave work early in Vernon and drive to the Larch Hills. The tour was with 6 registered professional foresters, mainly staff of the Ministry of Forests. During this tour I lost my composure and almost broke into tears when I was peppered with questions by three persons simultaneously. Imagine, little me in the middle of a clear cut with these guys, except one female, surrounded and being grilled. And it was really a policy issue. I do not think that this tour was necessary at all. The result of my complaint was that the Board required certain things to be done that were not. It was a process I regret being involved in. There was a definite lack of competence on the part of the “investigator”. Having worked as an investigator myself, for the Canadian Human Rights Commission, I believe I am in a good position to evaluate.

Summary of Forest Practices Board complaint http://www.fpb.gov.bc.ca/publications.aspx?id=2956&terms=mara+meadows

Full report Forest Practices Board complaint http://www.fpb.gov.bc.ca/IRC96_Approval_of_Harvesting_near_Mara_Meadows_Ecological_Reserve_near_Salmon_Arm.pdf

Then there was the fish rescue in the drought year of 1998.  The creek was drying up as it went through my property. Only pools were left and there were fish in them. I called for help from Turtle Island Earth Stewards who had a group of summer students. I also called the radio station and told them about the fish rescue. This was during the time that Salmon Arm was trying to get the dam in the Larch Hills so people knew about the importance of Violet Creek. The next door neighbour offered to let us come on his property to rescue the fish in the creek there, too. Yet, he was removing huge amounts of water above this and drying up the creek because he was irrigating his pasture as he had a water licence!

There are other things but these are the main ones. So, you can see that the creek has truly run my life.