It has been decades in the making, but the Swift Current Wildlife Federation's long-term vision for the Burnett Recreation Site is coming to fruition.
Clark Schultz told the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation's 90th annual convention that they hope their new trout fishing pond with a wheelchair-accessible dock will be open by this summer. The Burnett site project highlights the kinds of initiatives that a group like the SWF can undertake locally by partnering with local businesses and other partners.
"A decision was made to go ahead and upgrade the site and make it deep enough to sustain fish and get a wheelchair-accessible dock built," said Schultz, the Swift Current Wildlife Federation president, told the SWF convention during their branch project presentations. "When we started this project, we budgeted five years and $120,000. In two-and-a-half years, the committee has been able to raise back in financial donations, equipment and time, $65,000.
"It's been an experience doing it. The community support has been amazing. Our local branch and our local committee has put hundreds of hours and a lot of effort into this project. The local support and the response from the community has been just incredible."
The Burnett Recreation Site was a pond that was formed just south of Swift Current in 1998 when soil was needed to build the foundation of an inland terminal.
The SWF took the site and turned it into a native grassland park. Three years ago, the local abilities council was wondering if there was anywhere in the area for people in wheelchairs to go fishing.
While the existing pond wasn't deep enough to sustain trout, a committee was struck and a plan was put in place to make the pond deeper.
"For five weeks we pumped out three million gallons of water," Schultz said. "Unfortunately, as the work progressed very quickly, on Thanksgiving Day, Mother Nature decided to dump three inches of rain and a foot of wet snow on us. It filled the pond back up. I'll tell you a scientific fact: water is cold in October. Thanks to the generosity of three local farmers we got some more pumps and again pumped three million gallons of water in five days to save the project."
The pond is now 20 feet deep with a two-foot clay liner underneath at its deepest point. Pattison Agriculture, the local John Deere dealer, donated $10,000 to the project. That level of community support was common. A local welding shop purchased the material and donated their time to construct the dock and a local crane company donated their time to get it in place.
"A local paving company is going to donate the paving to go right from our parking lot right to the entrance of that wheelchair-accessible dock," Schultz said. "When I called that gentleman, I asked him for a price and he never got back to me. I called him back two weeks later and said 'Ron, you never gave me a price back.' And he said 'I'm not giving you one.' I said 'Oh, are you guys not interested in doint the work?' And he said 'No, we're doing it. We're not charging you.' That was a $21,000 donation."
The edge of the dock goes out to the deepest part of the water. In addition they created an earth pier, to create a wave break and creates another opportunity to fish off of. They hope to have trout released into the pond by spring.
