After trying to retire as the Secretary/Treasurer for the Haig-Brown Kingfisher Creek Society for several years, Van Egan finally managed to do so, last October, after over 16 years of service to the Society.

Van's dedication to the Haig Brown Heritage Properties and to the conservation and educational ideals of the Society have aided tremendously in our operations. Van was the Secretary of the Society from the beginning. In the Haig-Brown study, the Society scrapbook carries the story of the first phase of the Haig-Brown Kingfisher Creek Restoration Project. This story includes the lengthy negotiations over the possible purchase of the marshy land to the south as well as the long hours spent working on public presentations, concepts and plans, letters and articles, to drum up community support. The years of taking care of the creek and the Haig-Brown lands, with all the effort that entailed, are also documented.

Van is modest about all of this, and when asked what stood out for him over the years, said that it was Maxine, calling Society members up for board meetings, calling people for donations, stuffing envelopes, and licking stamps. When the new creek channel was ready to dry up one year, it was Maxine who went out with the dip-net to make sure that the coho fry were rescued. So it is not only to Van that the Society owes many thanks, but to Maxine as well, for her effort and for her support of our work. The Haig-Brown Kingfisher Creek Society has started another phase of the creek restoration, and it is Van and Maxine's generous help that has largely gotten us this far.

Van and Maxine Egan

We are in the middle of Phase 2 now, and what a story it has been. From a conversation in Roderick Haig-Brown's study on the possibility of someday, maybe somehow, restoring the creek - to work completed on Phase 1 of the project in 1984 ( the new channel for the West Branch of the creek) - to the activity that the society is in the midst of today, working on the new creek channel for the East Branch and restoring the wetland to function as salmon habitat once again. We are restoring daylight to an urban stream that is in an underground culvert, building over one kilometre of new creek channel, and providing much more winter rearing habitat for our endangered coho.

We could have done none of it without the dedicated efforts of Van and Maxine Egan, and the other members of the Haig-Brown Kingfisher Creek Society.

Van and Maxine are enjoying their retired life - finally - in their house overlooking the Campbell River, with the sun dancing on the white breaks in the water, with the breeze blowing through the tall firs, and with a writing desk and fly tying table that wait, perhaps more patiently than they used to.

We wish them fine times over the years to come, and thank them very much for what they have accomplished.

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