The early snowfall this weekend damaged a number of trees in the valley, including a centuries-old tree in East Coulee.

Irvin Almadi told the Mail he estimated the prairie poplar tree was between 400 to 500 years old, as he had a similarily large tree on his East Coulee property cored and aged at around 500 years old. The snowfall early on Saturday morning caused this tree to topple over, with the roots being ripped up through the ground. 

Town crews are working this week to clean up branches left over the weekend, as are a number of residents in the valley.

The town held an open house last week to garner resident feedback on potential dog park locations in Drumheller.

They brought three locations on town-owned land to the open house on September 20 including one in Midland along the highway, a strip of land near the industrial park, and one near Willow Point in Riverside.

But while residents voted on their choice location, town communications officer Julia Fielding says based on the feedback and suggestions from the community, a few different location ideas came up which will be discussed by administration.

“We spoke to people about their needs and wants and we’re going to go back to see if these three will work and if not see if there’s another location in the community. There was no one overwhelming, clear spot people wanted for dog parks,” she says.

The town has budgeted $15,000 for the project, which will be used to build fences around the park and infrastructure like benches, trees, and dog-bag dispensers.

They hope to build the park by spring 2019. The park will have separate areas for big dogs and small dogs.

Fielding says the town may come back to the public to gather more feedback once town and council debrief and go over the open house feedback.