The newly formed Nose Creek Preservation Society, formed from the advocacy group Save Nose Creek, set out their vision for the next year on Monday evening, marking a more focused effort to protect specific parts of the Nose Creek watershed.

Among the 2024 areas of interest for the society is the Aurora Business Park, given the likewise interest by Calgary City Council in finding locations for affordable housing construction in the city.

The business park is located at 96 Avenue NE and Harvest Hills Boulevard NE, just north of West Nose Creek Park which is the home of the glacier erratic Split Rock.

“That’s going to be kind of a big thing in 2024, where the city is going to be changing their plans because the area was supposed to be industrial-business oriented, and now with the housing initiative strategy that the city has put forth, they’re probably going to be looking more residential,” said Andrew Yule, President of the Nose Creek Preservation Society.

“What we’re trying to do is work with whatever plan that is and try and build a park within the plans that they have.”

The goal he said, was to find innovative ways of working with the City of Calgary and land developers to recognize areas of the Nose Creek valley that should be preserved because of their historic and natural value.

Among the suggestions made by the society would be a re-alignment of the areas used for development and preservation, with a significant area that was previously used for farming turned into North Calgary’s largest dog park.

As a longer-term goal, the society is aiming to work with the City of Calgary, the Province of Alberta, and the Government of Canada on turning an area west of the City-owned park, and extending along the communities of Coventry Hills into either a provincial or national urban park.

“We’ve realized the Nose Creek watershed is massive, and so we really need to narrow our focus because we could go after every little land use change across Nose Creek, West Nose Creek, or we could really focus in on the ones that are really going to form the provincial or national urban park we’re trying to create,” Yule said.

Among the other areas of focus the society is working on advocating for is the potential for park space on the Stoney West Lands located near Stoney Trail and Deerfoot Trail, bridge realignment to allow for wildlife and creek biodiversity on the 128 Avenue NE road project, and refurbishment of park space around the Coventry Hills Storm Pond Park.

Society looks ahead, and behind, to future and past of Nose Creek

The society was formed earlier this year after recognizing the need to go beyond saving the biodiversity and history in the valley.

“What we hope for this society is beyond saving Nose Creek. Once we’ve saved Nose Creek, we’ve got to preserve it and so we’re kind of trying to get ahead of that with this preservation society,” said Yule.

“The main areas of focus for us are the watershed, biodiversity, historical and the community green space. Those are the kind of four pillars of our advocacy and our preservation. Much like like the Weaselhead Society and the Friends of Nose Hill, those types of societies continue on after they’ve saved their green space. So we’re hoping that’ll be us.”

He said that there has been tremendous interest by community members along Nose Creek all the way from Inglewood where the creek meets the Bow River, up to the Airdrie.

“There’s people who are throwing projects at us left and right, but what we need is people to step up and lead those projects.”

He said the annual strategy meeting held at the brand new BMO Collaboratory which is part of the indoor park at Vivo, was a way to engage with people, to see what they are interested in, and hopefully get them on board as volunteers.

“Ultimately we need we need the community to step up and take some of the leads on so many different projects that we’re working on,” Yule said.

Some of the areas of interest that the society is looking for volunteers for is on the history of the Nose Creek valley, working with Indigenous partners to preserve their history and stories of Nose Creek, and on specific areas of improvement to community consecutiveness or biodiversity in the valley.

Yule said that the society is planning on engaging with the community on some larger projects this year, including a mural project by illustrator and painter Cam Hoff, and doing a bio-blitz with City Nature YYC.