Salmon Arm is home to one of the province’s premier migratory estuaries and the nesting home to the remarkable western grebe.
Walking and wildlife viewing trails stretch east and west from the wharf at Marine Park, which is also home to the Brighouse Nature Centre.
Thanks to a $6,000 grant from the City of Salmon Arm, the interpretive centre will now be open seven days a week.
Two knowledgeable and hilarious young men – Aidan Sparks and Ryon Ready, will be onsite to answer questions and to occasionally lead walking tours on the trails.
Visitors are invited to view a wealth of wildlife exhibits, learn about the local ecology, see a DVD of dancing grebes and pick up educational pamphlets.
“If you’d like to meet a friendly, dead beaver named Fredly, or Maximillian Von Duck, a stuffed mallard…” says Sparks, pointing out Hereford, the stuffed blue heron, also resides in the centre.
Ready and Sparks are equally enthusiastic about a large scrapbook containing information and big photos on the resident birds.
“It’s a good learning tool,” says Sparks of the book lovingly crafted by longtime SABNES member and interpretive centre advisor Tom Brighouse.
“I have to do things because I’ve been retired for so long,” responds Brighouse.
Ready will take visitors on tours of the trail where he will describe the rich ecosystem.
The young men will also head out towards the wharf a couple of times a day with a telescope.
“We had the grebes dancing yesterday and there was one that put on quite a show for Taiwanese tourists,” says Sparks.
Brighouse, a retired principal, continues to teach local elementary school groups, recently welcoming 80 students on one day and 50 on another.
“Beavers – people are nuts about the beavers,” he says. “People are taking photos and videos of beavers coming up with great clumps of mud and plastering their lodges.”
A great place to take families, the interpretive centre will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and on Wednesday evenings during summertime Wednesday on the Wharf performances.