As with many areas in the Bow Valley, the cleanup of Cougar Creek is ongoing.
While back to its more usual waterless state, the creek, which caused extensive damage to homes, roads and infrastructure when it flooded in June, remains the site of much debris.
On Friday (Aug. 23), volunteers and an Alpine Helicopters crew teamed up to haul flood debris from the creek channel and surrounding forest. Earlier in the week, as many as 11 volunteers had been scouring the area, pulling and digging out debris which ranged from barbecues and lawn furniture to refrigerators, tires, rubber shingles, clothing and deck materials – which had been washed out of backyards along Cougar Creek.
Much of the debris was deposited in three cargo nets which were then airlifted out via an Alpine helicopter and dumped into a trailer for removal to the Francis Cooke Class III landfill.
On Friday, volunteers Kristi Beetch and Claire Honeyman were on hand along with Alpine pilot Paul Maloney at the controls and groundcrew Tyler Blackwell, Zenn Teoh and Steven Griffiths.
“We first came out here with a few garbage bags,” said Honeyman, “but we soon saw that wasn’t going to be enough. We started finding things like refrigerators and pressure treated wood and then Kristi found a fuel drum of Alpine’s.”
The fuel drum, said Beetch, had a return for $65 sign on it. “When I saw that, I got hold of Jo-Anne Kobelt at Alpine and asked if they wanted it back and if they’d be interested in maybe helping.”
Alpine was interested and provided the cargo nets for removal of debris, then the Friday afternoon flight to lift the nets and dump them near the trailer along Highway 1A.
“Alpine was so great,” said Beetch, “they were flooded too and just got back into their hangar.”
The cleanup, said Honeyman, was a labour of love. “We come down here so much with our dogs; it’s such a beautiful area, peaceful, scenic, but it was devastated by the flooding. We’re passionate about restoring it.”
Pilot Maloney, said Beetch, also walks his dog in the area. “And he had found some pin collections, slides that he thinks might have belonged to a warden, and a lot of other stuff.”
Alpine also provided a pickup and cargo trailer for removal of debris, while the Town of Canmore paid the landfill fees.
Volunteers tried to collect items they believed would be most toxic to the environment. Future cleanup efforts will be held, said Beetch and Honeyman.
