In issue 3 of the Creekside News, I discussed the design and preliminary actions needed for the construction a berm adjacent to the Campbellton Elementary School field. The main purpose of this berm was to alleviate flood risks to the school property. Its construction is only one component of the restructuring of the school's landscape. Much of the north end of the field is being converted into a parking lot, mainly to free up space along the existing highway so that it may better handle the added traffic that the new Inland Island Highway will bring. Although there is still much work to be done around the school, the initial construction of the berm has been completed and new sod has been laid on the creek side of the berm. The top and the school side of the berm have been left without vegetation, partially due to the need for the Haig-Brown Kingfisher Creek Society to travel along the berm in order to remove and import materials to the excavation sites in that area. This is being done with the permission of the Upland Resource Group while their work crews are still in the area and it is convenient to leave the berm half-greened for our benefit.

The completed berm is currently serving as
access for the excavators and machinery to
import and export materials, with the
permission of the Upland Resource Group.

As for its construction, the berm was designed to handle what is called the 200-year flood level. What this means is that the berm is high enough to contain the estimated amount of water that would have flowed during the largest precipitation event in the last 200 years. A contrary point of view to this rationale for the capacity of the berm is that at the height of the 200-year flood level, the massive amounts of water that would be in the nearby Campbell River would submerge the entire area anyway. Mother Nature has no mercy. As for normal seasonal flood levels, some of the berm will have to be armoured with large boulders called Rip-Rap. Up to 50m of this protection may have to be set into the bank to properly protect the school property from losing soil to erosion. Although great as an immobile stream bank, getting vegetation established in these rocky banks is a challenge the crew has yet to face.

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