27

Discussions and debates over Duck Lake were by no means over. Considerable unreclaimed acreage remained. The West Kootenay Rod and Gun Club led efforts to have it officially established as a wildlife management area. Some farmers wanted to see it reclaimed as farm land: in 1954, despite the 1950 agreement, the Creston Dyking District applied for permission to an additional 1,500 acres.

28

The question was frequently on the front page of the local newspaper, and was the subject of numerous letters to provincial and federal politicians. In September 1961, a letter, written by the Rod and Gun Club and supported by the Duck Lake Dyking District, informed local member of parliament that the two sides had reached an agreement that was considered fair. Two years later, a letter appeared in the Creston Review newspaper, stating that "foremost reclamation farmers" considered the remaining land "uneconomic for reclamation."

Finally, in March 1968, the provincial government passed legislation establishing the Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area. Frank Shannon, who led this fight, wrote in 1989 that this "was the end of the war to save the marsh and the beginning of major efforts to turn the flood plain into productive wildlife and waterfowl habitat."

29

New dyke at the Wildlife Centre Nesting Area
21 February 1971
Duck Lake, north of Creston, BC

30

Although the Wildlife Area was not to be farmed, dyking did take place in some sections to control water levels and manage habitat. In 1970, the Wildlife Area got permission to build a dyke across the south end of Duck Lake to establish a nesting area that would be protected from water level changes on the lake itself.

31

Looking north during flood time
1974
Creston Valley, BC

32

Wherever dykes were established on the Widlife Area lands, they were built to a lower top elevation than the dykes protecting the farmlands. As a result, in years of high water the Wildlife Area would flood first and relieve the pressure against the farmland. This photograph from 1974 shows the flooded Wildlife Area on the left, while the farmland, despite the height of the Kootenay River flowing through it, remains relatively dry.

33

South dyke at Leach Lake, during flood.
1974
Creston Valley, BC

34

Leach Lake was dyked early in 1974. As the water rose that spring and it became clear that it would go higher than the dykes, this dyke, on the south end of Leach Lake, was deliberately breached, flooding the Wildlife Area but reducing the amount of damage caused by erosion.

35

Homes and businesses along Goat River bottom flooded.
May, 1961
Goat River, south of Creston, BC

36

1974 was not the only year to see high water after the flood of 1948. In 1956, properties in Goat River bottom, east of the 1935 diversion, were flooded. Tensions rose, and the situation took on aspects of a range war: residents of Goat River bottom wanted to "blow" the dykes protecting Reclamation Dyking District, while the farmers of that district were patrolling the dykes with shotguns to make sure they did not.

37

High water threatened to breach the dykes in 1961; pictured here is District 10 in Idaho.
6 June 1961
Porthill, Idaho, USA

38

In 1961, high water again flooded properties that were not protected by dykes. As Grant Christenson recalls, "We came pretty close [to flooding] in 1961. The water was up to our third row of sandbags. We figured that's it she's not going to be here in the morning. Then the district at Bonner's flooded, and the river actually ran backwards to fill that district up. It took two or three days to fill that district. The river started dropping after that."

39

Showing the Arrowsmith property at the bottom of Archibald Hill.
May, 1961
Archibald Hill, near Creston, BC

40

1967 also saw flooding in unprotected areas, and hasty additions were made to the dykes. Bill Piper recalls, "We got help from the provincial government in 1967, when we put new dirt on the dykes. They said they'd give us one dollar for every two dollars and fifty cents we spent. It let us hire some more crews and extra machinery. The best thing for the dykes was the quack grass; once it grew, it could hold the soil in place. New construction always worried us, because there was nothing to hold the dirt.The water got right up to the new dirt; if there had been a windstorm, we'd have lost it."