Trees and clouds reflect off the South Saskatchewan River at Strathcona Island Park on Monday. World Rivers Day is next weekend and the Medicine Hat Interpretive Program is hosting a berm walk through Lions and Strathcona Island parks along the South Saskatchewan at 2 p.m.--NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
The Medicine Hat Interpretive Program will be celebrating World Rivers Day on Sunday with a walk along the berm and riparian area around Lion’s and Strathcona Island parks.
The event – which begins at 2 p.m. – is a continuation of the Interpretive Program’s Riparian Areas Rock series and will prominently feature the South Saskatchewan River.
“We’ll start on (the berm) and enjoy the views because it’s beautiful from up there,” said park interpreter Marty Drut. “We’ll talk about some of the things we can see from that vantage point and then we’ll continue on down to a point where the trail goes into the riparian area along the river. That has a whole different feeling to it, and we’ll talk about all the things that are going on with our riparian areas and with the river as well.”
Drut says the Riparian Areas Rock series has been a hit over the past few months, even with COVID-19 creating some complications with arranging events.
“I think this is the fourth or fifth walk that we’ve been able to do. Of course, we had to postpone some of the things we had planned earlier in the spring and the beginning of the summer because of the pandemic, but since July we’ve been able to do a few walks,” said Drut. “We’re trying to highlight different areas around the city, not only along the river but along the creeks and even some of the human-made sites that we have, and some of the ponds that we have – a variety of different things so people can get a different perspective on the diversity we have here and how our different riparian areas work.”
World Rivers Day started in 2005 through a United Nations declaration to recognize the importance of the water resources around the world.
Space is still available for the walk, which will be limited to 12 people due to public health guidelines. A meeting location will be provided upon registration. For more information, or to book a spot, call the Nature Line at 403-529-6225.
“The walk is going to last about an hour and it looks like the weather is going to be OK,” said Drut. “They’re talking about a bit of wind for that day, so people should be prepared for that.”
