Our story begins on a beautiful hot and sunny day in July, 2009 when Mr. Benoit, a teacher at Burnsview decided to visit his friend Mr. Dupuis, who also teaches at Burnsview but lives in Vancouver. Therefore, Mr. Benoit left his house in Fleetwood/Surrey and began to use the "long road" to get to his destination.
When he arrived on the Alex Fraser Bridge by the bike path, he stopped and looked at the landscape offered to him from the heights of the bridge and realized something: North Delta had no access through a park to the Fraser River. It was then that he noticed at the foot of the bridge, a large, undeveloped, vacant plot of land that jealously guarded the bridge.
It was also at this time that Mr. Benoit decided to create a course in environmental studies based on environmental projects as well as academic support for the French Immersion Program at Burnsview Secondary in North Delta. Months passed and the idea began to germinate. Why not build a park at the end of Burns Bog trail and at the same time give access to the Fraser River for Delta citizens?
The course was created during the fall of 2010 with environmental students in Grade 10 to Grade 12. The students had to find project ideas, so Mr. Benoit proposed the idea of ​​a park under the Alex Fraser Bridge and this was the beginning!
The question was where to start? Our first opportunity was the visit of Mr. Garnet Ayres, Deputy superintendent of Delta School District in our new class of Environmental Studies. We presented the project and he asked us to go to the Board of Education meeting to have the support of the School Trustees. We were invited to present the project to a meeting of the Board of Education school Trustees' on February 15, 2011, in order to get their support.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were very nervous group of four who went to present the project to the school Trustees. At the end of our presentation Chairperson Saip told us that all the Trustees supported our project and in addition we would have a letter of recommendation send to the Ministry of Transportation.
The spring of 2011 finally arrived and we were in a situation where we did not want to lose this opportunity. The Grade 12 students created a brochure explaining the project and we went to get the community support.
Finally in late May 2011 this letter of support for the project came to us as the most beautiful gift from heaven.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The most amusing fact is that the Minister didn't know that letter was not addressed to Mr. Benoit but to his pupil M. Coulthard, Grade 12. We had a good laugh reading the mistaken identity, but mostly we were very happy and encouraged to finally have his support.
It is from this point on that things started gaining momentum. Mr. Benoit sent two students to sit on the executive committee of the Gateway Program. These students were to make a detailed report to the teacher after each meeting. It was exciting but increasingly we wondered what role we could play in a project that exceeded our ambitions.

 

The year 2010/2011 ended this way. In September 2011 the meetings recommenced with the new Grade 12 students attending and reporting back to Mr. Benoit. One of the facts that emerged was that the First Nations group would build a park adjacent the Fraser River. What to do? It was at this time that Mr. Benoit remembered a meeting with Municipal Trustee Mrs. Peterson. She explained that the municipality of Delta should rework two lots south of River Road, adjacent to the new park on the Fraser. Again we needed help and we found this help during a meeting with Mrs. Deborah Jones of the Cougar Creek Streamkeepers North Delta / Surrey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having already helped Mrs. Jones with a previous rain garden, we had the expertise and the manpower to participate in Phase I of our project. We finally were able to see the actual work on the ground.  It is in May and June that we started and completed Phase I of Fraser Falls Rain Garden (see Phase I).
Students of Environmental Studies from Burnsview, former students of Mr. Benoit, volunteers of the North Delta Secondary's Green Team, members of the Streamkeepers foundation and staffs of the Gateway Project and the Ministry of Transportation met to create the Phase I of our project.

It was a success!

 

Then in 2012, the school year finally ended with a big smile and two months of vacation passed quickly. 

 

The new year 2012/13 began in Environmental Studies with a mix of returning and new students. We needed to know what was our role this year? Obviously with the success of the year 2011/12, we were looking forward to Phase II of the project and the key to success was in the hands of Mrs. Jones.
Very soon we started to encounter structural problems. Phase II would involve the creation of a rain garden adjacent of a new parking lot for dual access to the park Fraser River and access to trails in Burns Bog.
For technical reasons the municipality could not make a rain garden, but Mrs. Jones was able to convince the mayor of Delta, Mrs. Lois Jackson that there was an opportunity to review the plans to include a rain garden. Mayor Lois Jackson was more than happy to help us and again Mrs. Jones, with her knowledge and determination, came to our rescue and provided us with our new project.
Phase II of our project was called Tidewaters Rain Garden would become reality in June of that year. It will become known under the Ministry of Transportation website under the title of  What's Growing Under the Alex Fraser Bridge   (see Phase II)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Acknowledgements to:
A huge thank you to our Director Carla Rizzardo to have encouraged the creation of this course.
A big thank you to our Deputy Superintendent Garnet Ayres for believing in us and inviting us to the Board Education meeting of the Delta School District.
Thanks to our Chairperson Trustee Dale Saip of Delta School District for his support and letter of recommendation to the Ministry of Transportation.
Thanks to Mr. Ma and Mr. Bylsma, both teachers at Burnsview, for coming to help us during Phase II of the project.
Thanks to all the parents and students, present and past, of Burnsview for all the help that you have put into this project and others that I may have forgotton.
 

Thanks to the Honorable Blair Lekstorm, past Minister of Tranportation for giving us the opportunity to participate in the Gateway Program SFPR (South Fraser Perimeter Road) project.
Thanks to Mr. Geoff Freer, Manager and Director of the South Fraser Perimeter Road Project for allowing students to attend meetings for the project.
Than you to Mr. Dave Arnot Department of Transportation responsible for the SFPR ,
Thanks to Mr. Jim Roberts Gateway SFPR project for having the patience to work with students during Phase I.
Thanks to Mrs. Lori Alexander responsible for community communications, Gateway Program SFPR for giving us visibility on the website of the Ministry of Transportation.
Thanks to Mr. Vern Lange Department of Transportation responsible for the SFPR.
Thank you to Mr. Al Planiden landscape consultant for the SFPR for all technical project support.
A big thank you to Mr. Lionel Lafrance SFPR Gateway program and the team of First Nations.
 

Thanks to the Mayor of Delta Lois Jackson for her help during the more technical points in the project.
Thanks to Mr. Hugh Fraser , Harald Fograscher, Mr. Trent Reid to Delta for their technical assistance.
Finally a huge thank you to Mrs. Deborah Jones and her husband Ib Nielsen, Cougar Creek Streamkeepers for saving us, helping and guiding and directing us over the past two years.  Without you, this project would not have been achievable.
                                                    

                                                   THANK YOU!