The City of Castlegar has no plans to remove a fallen tree in a pond at Millennium Park.
City councillor Brian Bogle raised the issue this week after a resident contacted him about the tree, which is in the water by the park’s footbridge.
“His concern was that even though it says no jumping, someone could get badly hurt if they were jump off there and land on it,” Bogle explained.
However, operations manager Samuel Shine responded noted that the pond has fish, so they face many regulatory requirements.
“Even just dragging the tree out of there is disturbing that habitat when it churns up the sediment,” he said. “That plus the logistics of trying to get in there with equipment. We’d actually have to take equipment right down into the water, which is a big no-no.”
Shine said the tree is in deep, and even when the water is low, it’s still well beyond waist level, so cutting it up isn’t an option.
“We’d have to drag it out as a whole. It opens up a big can of worms. At the moment our recommendation is to leave it there.”
Shine said while they don’t condone jumping off the bridge, the resources required to pull the tree out mean it will remain in place for the moment.
