My Urban Adventure in Flooded Calgary, Alberta – June 2013 
by Lorna Cheriton
 
Flying to Alberta, Canada in June to visit my parents and sisters, I had a number of people exclaim that they hoped I was not going to Calgary. A state of emergency had been declared in the city following historic flooding due to a record snowfall in the Rocky Mountains combined with an extremely rainy month. I was indeed headed for Calgary, where my sister Mary lives in Lakeview, a district so unaffected by the flooding that TV filming of the disaster in the other Calgary districts of Bowness and Elbow Park looked like images disasters from the opposite side of the world.

The first two days of our time together, Mary and I obeyed the authorities’ injunctions to stay away (so that emergency crews were not hindered by traffic blocking their way to flooded areas). But on Wednesday June 27, we rode our bikes to the deserted downtown area (power was out so most companies were closed). Stopping for a drink from our water bottles, we were alone in the plaza which is normally crowded.

Crossing to the Elbow River bike path, we discovered a river swollen to many times its normal size (even though it had obviously gone down considerably as evidenced by the collapsed banks and by the debris left high in trees and on bridges. A twisted and destroyed bike-and-pedestrian bridge was blocked by plywood and guarded by a policewoman, in case anyone was so foolish as to try to cross it.  A few days before, canoeists had launched into the flood-level Bow River and had to be rescued, prompting the mayor to exclaim, with some vehemence, that he had thought it unnecessary but would now declare that “the river is closed and absolutely off-limits!”

On Thursday Mary and I drove across the city to her friend Heidi's home, concerned that Heidi and her daughter would be returning from Africa having learned of the flood only the night before when they regained Internet connections. We found streets muddy ...and parking at a premium, since city vehicles and people coming to help all needed spaces, and homeowners needed to keep access to the mountains of debris being hauled out from their homes if dump trucks were going to be able to haul it away. Residents had been advised to put signs in their windows telling what they needed. The normally quiet residential streets were as active as a festival although people were in “recovery” attire – the “uniform” being rubber boots, work gloves and with breathing masks over their mouths and noses. 

At Heidi's we found a crowd – her co-workers, soccer team-mates and friends had hauled everything from her basement, spreading potentially salvageable items across the lawn and heaping non-salvageable trash into a mountain of muddy bulges in the driveway and edge of the street.  Someone finished with the hose, so I coiled and carried the lengths to where I could hose down objects in the driveway and on the lawn.  Car carrier, mirrors from the bar, liquor bottles, furniture, clothes, bikes and sports equipment ( even a silver tea set) - all were covered with a hard-packed coating of clay from the river.  Later, a couple from an unaffected district approached us to offer help and spent several hours with us, peeling photographs out of clay and washing them in buckets where the water quickly turned as brown as the river.  We had barely started work when people in the street approached us, offering food.  I had brought a water bottle and several granola bars, but throughout our work, both adults and children from unscathed areas of the city brought bottles of cold water, fruit, cookies, sandwiches and muffins. Stations set up on street corners were laden with food, drink, work gloves, and masks, with porta-potties nearby.

On Friday evening, some young women came by inviting us to a neighborhood party where they promised Calgary's famous sausages would be grilled for volunteers. Meandering down to check it out, we crossed a plank over the Moat, a ditch whose depth had increased to 3 feet because of the flooding. An apparently abandoned lot had been set up with free beer, tables of food, and a large banner across the entrance embellished with the image of a cowboy hat and the message “This is how we giddy-up.” People climbed on a ladder to add their thoughts to the banner; others wrote their answers to questions posted on big poster paper tacked to the side of a building -

1. Q. How have I made a difference today? “ Helping people, not just the cute girls.” 
2. What was your favorite moment? A. “seeing people helping people”… “seeing happy newlyweds toasting everyone in front of their flooded home”… “knowing we are close now; we are community”… “this is the first time in 6 years that I really feel Calgary is my home” 
3. What made you cry? A. “strangers coming to help us out”… “orphans in Cambodia donating to help us” … “seeing an elderly man pull a dry photograph from a flooded basement and finding it was of his wedding in World War II Germany”
4. What gives you hope? A.“What we are going to build here!” 

Trail Work is the major focus of the Bennington Section of the GMC in spring, so here's a look back at some of the highlights and memorable experiences of previous trail clearing years:

• Encountering hikers who expressed their gratitude for our work and told us our Section of trail is in better shape than so many others
• A day trip in which we hiked out of Spring, uphill and right back into Winter, finding a snow-covered trail and discovering that the white blazes we painted on dripping tree trunks ran like wet snow down the bark of the trees
• Hearing choruses of toads in vernal pools
• Seeing clouds of yellow trout lilies and getting right down on the ground to appreciate their delicate beauty
• When Celia was very new to the Bennington GMC, she volunteered for an ambitious trail work day trip and determinedly resolved to keep up with the experienced trail workers. She finished the trip very tired but, far from being cured of associating with us, looked forward to more hikes with the group, including trail work.  In 2012 Celia accompanied Lorna on a trail work trip up Harmon Hill, leading a group of 5 enthusiastic boy scouts earning backpacking badges and their 2 leaders.  (The boys favorite aspect of the trip was looking for trees they were justified in sawing, and yelling “Timber” when they did so.)

2013
Terri Armata's Spring Flora and Wildlife Notes

If we have a warm, rainy evening, watch for amphibians (frogs, salamanders)  as they journey  across roads to pools to breed.  If you find a vernal pool, take a look for jelly-like masses of frog and salamander eggs.
 
Look up! Raptors are making their way north too. The Broad-Winged Hawks should be moving through our area in mid-April to the beginning of May. 

Be on the lookout on nice warm days for Mourning Cloak, Eastern Comma, and Compton Tortoiseshell Butterflies on dirt roads or forest trails.  In rich hardwood woods, the white butterfly seen weakly flying is either the West Virginia White or the Mustard White. 

Check out an exciting new Citizen Science website: eButterfly! Now you can enter your observations just like eBIrd. Vermont Center for Ecostudies is coordinating it in this State.
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So... Binocs, field guides and pencils in hand everyone. This is an exciting time of year.

​2007 
On February 24 Hamilton led a larger group than usual, 13, on the 8-mile cross-country ski to Heartwellville. The trip had to be cancelled in 2006 but in 2007  blue skies, golden sun, and enough snow (Valentine’s Day gift to us!) to ski on the river - made for perfect conditions. Even some comic relief, as our leader was the one to break through and make a moose-sized hole, from which he accepted help in getting out.
(Note: the Heartwellville trip was traditionally one of our more ambitious winter outings, until a hurricane in a later year created a tangle of brush that made the route impassible.)