By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
The Osoyoos Desert Centre (ODC) is embracing the future arms wide open after completing the replacement of its signature 1.5km boardwalk with improved composite boards, wider width, flatter grades for accessibility and new vestibule areas to cater to special events.
Jayme Friedt, managing director of the Osoyoos Desert Society.
“This new boardwalk is many things to many people, a dream come true, an enormous weight off shoulders, a gargantuan undertaking, an exciting next chapter,” observed Jayme Friedt, managing director of the Osoyoos Desert Society (ODS).
“But me I see it truly as an homage to our founders,” she added referencing the “handful of enlightened people” who over 30 years ago recognized the importance of this unique ecosystem and the importance of preserving it.
“Over the years, the boardwalk has become a definitive signature feature of the ODC and it’s an honour and a privilege to carry forward that legacy,” she added.
Lee McFadyen, president of the Osoyoos Desert Society.
Lee McFadyen, president of the Society also paid homage to those who went before, paying tribute to the “descendants of the ancient people” that have lived in the lands where the Desert Centre is today, “in a continuous thread from the past to the present, it has been bent, it has been stretched and it has been stressed, but never broken. Their resilience has carried them through many challenges,” she said.
McFadyen also noted the importance of this protected ecosystem given its rapid decline throughout the southern Okanagan Valley, highlighting the important link between humans and our environment. “Our health and the health of wild spaces are inextricably linked . . . agricultural health also depends on healthy wild spaces,” she said.
Friedt and McFadyen were speaking on Thurs. April 21 at an event hosted by the Osoyoos Desert Society to mark the completion and subsequent opening to the public (two days later) of the new boardwalk. The event was also to thank the legion of volunteers and supporters that made the construction of the new boardwalk, and removal of the old, possible.
Osoyoos Mayor Sue McKortoff.
And as the cold spring rain began to intensify Osoyoos Mayor Sue McKortoff reminded everyone of the town’s moto, ‘Canada’s warmest welcome!’, to laughter from the increasingly chilly crowd.
Congratulating everyone involved in the project, McKortoff said: “you have made this a world-class place to come and visit. It was a wonderful, collaborative effort and as you know volunteers make this town work and so thank you to all of you and the board of directors you’ve done an A1 job.”
She also expressed her happiness that C3 Industries – a local company – was the one chosen for the contract. In fact, as Friedt pointed out the $837,000 Community Economic Recovery Infrastructure Program (CERIP) grant that covered the project, ticked virtually of the grant’s boxes.
Roly Russell, MLA for Boundary-Similkameen.
The aim of the grant was to provide economic stimulus to BC communities hit hard by the pandemic and to also help bolster the recovery of BC’s tourism industry when restrictions were lifted. The local construction company employed around ten workers who fit the targeted demographics of being between 28-35 years of age.
“The grant also allowed us to improve infrastructure at the ODC, to create a higher quality experience for our visitors, encourage repeat visits, and overall contribute to the development of a world class tourism destination,” said Friedt noting this also fulfilled grant conditions as she thanked the BC government for the support.
For his part, Roly Russell, MLA for Boundary-Similkameen reiterated the importance of non-profits and volunteers in rural communities because they “are what make our communities wonderful places to be.”
Russell noted that this project hits all the marks in terms of his own litmus test for projects such as environmental systems, social, financial and build capital. It’s also a piece of built infrastructure that “we know is valuable and will continue to be valuable”.
And he added, the grant “supports an organization that is really helping to protect this precious piece of environment. It’s satisfying from my side of things to have an opportunity to support a community working on a project that is really a multiple win and all those levels.”
The new boardwalk at the Osoyoos Desert Centre.
The project looked to be in jeopardy back in Sept. 2021 when the Society found itself between a rock and a hard place due to an oversight in planning. An estimated 490 tonnes of pressure-treated wood requiring costly disposal to the tune of some $257,000 had not been factored into the budgeting for the boardwalk replacement.
But the ODS averted disaster after an impressive response came after putting out calls on their social media platforms inviting the public to take away whatever lumber they felt they could use.
Friedt held out praise for volunteer construction project manager Larry Stone and the Desert Centre’s manager Leor Oren who spent “countless hours, many on weekends” to ensure the wood was repurposed rather than going to the landfill.
Load after load was picked up by farmers, ranchers, homeowners, Sagebrush Nursery, the Nature Trust of B.C. and even some hoteliers, Friedt said. According to Stone, only eight dumpsters’ worth out of the total 490 tonnes of old boards ended up in the landfill.
The Osoyoos Desert Centre is open spring hours Wed. to Sun., 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
