Spruce Woods campground still recovering from 2011 flood damage

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This article was published 29/07/2013 (4561 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SPRUCE WOODS PROVINCIAL PARK — It’s been a slow first month for the Kiche Manitou campground at Spruce Woods Provincial Park after it was swallowed by flood waters in 2011.

The park rushed to get the main campground open on June 28 and it’s the last piece of the park to come back to life after two beleaguered years.

Many scars from the flood remain, however. Dead trees, a lack of washrooms and damaged roads remind campers of the havoc, but the returning visitors are glad to be back.

Lucie Grenier of Somerset said she’s been waiting for two years to snag a spot in the main campground and doesn’t mind the temporary state of the park.

“It’s a starting point. It’s still better than when they first opened,” she said on Saturday. “Now people have all these expectations of camping and this is a wake-up call to appreciate what you have.”

Aside from a sell-out Canada Day long weekend, the park hasn’t been teeming with campers.

“It’s been slower at the park,” said Tim Moore, district supervisor. “People are coming back, but we encourage more people to come back.

“We have been significantly reduced … our numbers are down, we’re hoping people come back.”

There was little advertising about the campground’s opening and many campers said they didn’t know it was open before they went to book a site.

“We didn’t even know it was open, it was just the only sites that were available online,” said Brenda McAllister as her and her family packed up after a two-week vacation.

The day-use and the lower campground was completely flooded in 2011. The main road going into the campground was breached in two places by the flood and controls and buildings had to be demolished.

The main office, which was wrecked by Assiniboine River waters, now has a temporary trailer in the upper section of the park. Washroom, laundry and shower facilities were demolished, also replaced by construction trailers.

“What we really miss is the laundry building,” McAllister said.

The patchwork is ongoing and significant funding is on the way. In March, the province announced that the park as a whole will get a $20-million facelift over the next eight years.

Included will be a new access road, a new campground office, a central shower and laundry building for campers and further flood prevention measures.

Closer to the plan’s completion date of 2020, the park will have 60 new electrical and full-service campsites and a new lagoon.

“Next year, starting in the fall is when the real work starts down there,” Moore said.

Around $380,000 has already been spent to clean up the main road, as well as the clay deposits washed up from the swelling river waters. In some spots, the clay was six to eight inches deep and the beach was completely covered.

The first phase of the plan focuses on the Kiche Manitou campground. Moore said there’s $3.7 million invested, which includes shoreline erosion control so the road is protected and further road work. Four permanent washroom facilities will also be built in time for next season.

“It’s been closed for two years, people don’t know that it’s open again and we want people to know there’s lots to do at the park.”

» gbruce@brandonsun.com