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Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) plans to complete the first phase of restoration at Bummers Flats Conservation Complex between September and November 2025. The project is located approximately 14 km north of Fort Steele (see Figure 1). The existing works were constructed by DUC in the 1980s to enhance waterfowl habitat. Now, Ducks Unlimited Canada, ʔaq̓am, The Nature Trust of BC, and The Province of BC are working together to restore this area back to a natural, self-sustaining floodplain system without engineering works.
Construction will require skills and experience working in sensitive areas, including wetland areas and areas containing rare species. Operators will work with and be guided by reclamation and restoration specialists, surveyors and engineers. Activities will involve removing old dikes and filling ditches, removing engineering infrastructure (such as culverts, pumps, and outlet structures), and recontouring the basins. Although the final equipment needed may change based on the scope of work (currently being defined), there could be 3-5 pieces of equipment (dozers, excavators) required for this project.
Detailed design plans are still being finalized, but estimates are shown on the attached drawings. The work is anticipated to include but is not limited to the following:
a. Review of environmental management plan
b. Development of an emergency response plan for project
c. Preparation of site for construction, including staging areas and access routes, avoidingsensitive environmental areas.
d. Removal and disposal of the existing pump infrastructure, concrete base, culverts, pipes, drop structure and any other engineering infrastructure on-site.
e. Removal of two internal dikes on the property and use of dike material to fill adjacentditching.
f. Plugging other ditches by installing ditch plugs using appropriate soils
g. Recontouring internal areas and nesting islands into wetland basins to provide habitat for arange of wetland-dependent species.
h. Installing erosion control measures if required and following all other environmentalmitigations as per environmental management plan.
Please contact Matthew Wilson if you are interested in bidding on this project or have any questions. Based on a positive response, tender packages will be sent, likely in the first week of May.
Matthew Wilson, MSc, RPBio
Head of Conservation Programs
Cell: (672) 727-4093
E-mail: m_wilson@ducks.ca
954A Laval Cres
Kamloops, BC
V2C 5P5