The Ladysmith Golf Club is ready to bloom again thanks to an ongoing volunteer effort.
The Ladysmith Sportsmen’s Club and several community partners including the 1st Ladysmith Scouts, held a tree planting and restoration work day at the club recently as part of an ongoing effort to repair damage caused by a culvert collapse more than four years ago.
The work, sponsored by the Pacific Salmon Foundation, included planting about 250 indigenous shrubs such as huckleberry, trees and ferns on the steep banks around the creek where it cuts through the seventh hole, to prevent further erosion caused when the culvert gave way sending debris towards Holland Creek.
Volunteers including Scouts, Cubs, Beavers and parents scaled the steep ravine to dig holes and plant the many varieties of common local plants. Scouts Anika Norfolk, Auryn Watson and Lily Forsyth were proud to take part.
“We are happy to be able to give back to our town,” said Forsyth and her friends agreed. “It is what Scouts do.”
The culvert originally collapsed in 2014 during heavy rains. It washed large amounts of debris into the small golf course creek that feeds Holland Creek which is a salmon-bearing stream. Due to the estimated $500,000 repair bill the original culvert was not rebuilt and the 7th green was unreachable for some time.
But in 2016 the Sportsmen’s Club received $10,000 towards the repair of the culvert and trail. Volunteers rebuilt the culvert and worked on a trail to connect the 7th Tee to the green.
The Ladysmith Sportsmen’s Club is regularly involved in watershed rehabilitation and cleanup.
Every year members collect and remove as much and 10 tons of waste from the local watershed and forested areas. The club ascribes to the same mantra echoed by the Scouts: “Giving back to the community.”
