May 9, 2012

I saw the first crocuses along the banks over the little lake yesterday.  They had been out in another of our hiking areas a week ago, but this is certainly a sign of spring at McIntyre Creek.  The ice is still on the lake, but is getting less each day.

There are some interesting ice formations at the bridge closest to the Yukon College where it had flooded earlier, and now the ice is breaking up.

The AGM had a lower attendance than we had anticipated, but the participants were very eager and committed to preserving the middle McIntyre Creek area from development of Porter Creek D.  The officers will be chosen at the next Board meeting which will be May 29th.

Our Treasurer, Lidia Krukowska had to resign, as her day job was taking up all her time.  We thank Lidia for her contribution to our Society over the past year.  Cathy Deacon joined our Board, and we look forward to her help this coming year.

You are reminded to send in your membership forms, and please do indicate where you are willing to participate as more willing hands make the work easier for all.

It is interesting to learn that mining and exploration is  down 40% (reported by CBC), and in fact people who have been employed, are now looking to the Northwest Territories for work.  Helicopters are waiting on their pads for business that appears to have dropped off..  So true to the boom and bust nature of the economy, we are on a downturn.  This just proves the panic that real estate was having that we needed to develop McIntyre Creek for housing was false, just as we have been saying all along.

If any of you have been trying to find us on Facebook, I have discovered why I could never find it,.  The name "McIntyre" was misspelled as "McIntryre".  We have requested the person who manages our Facebook site to make a correction.  I am not familiar with Facebook processes, so don't know if this is easy, possible or if we will have to set up with a new name.  So in the meantime of you are looking for our presence, you will understand why it is hard to find.

We are beginning to plan a clean up for McIntyre Creek to tie into the Great Canadian Cleanup program.  If you know of an area along the Creek, upper, lower, middle, or wherever that can use our efforts, please let us know.  You can email friendsofmcintyre@gmail.com.  In my hike yesterday, I was rather pleased that the middle area I hike, did not appear to have much garbage left over from the winter, so whether other hikers are cleaning up as they walk, or people are being more considerate of the environment, I don't know, but it was improved over past years.  There are still left overs from local partiers by the Pump House, but even that doesn't appear to be as cluttered as previous years.

I am getting a new camera, and will be definitely out and about capturing more pictures of this gorgeous area.  We saw a fox yesterday, but were already in the car driving on the access road to the Pump House, and wasn't able to capture a photo before the fox reached the trees on the Takhini side.