Mill Creek Nature Park

Mill Creek Nature Park is a 133-hectare (330-acre) municipal park located near the north-eastern periphery of Riverview, New Brunswick, Canada. The park is owned and operated by the Town of Riverview and managed by the Friends of Mill Creek committee, which is responsible for the site’s development.[1] The Mill Creek Nature Park is home to a network of year-round trails used for walking, hiking, skiing, and snowshoeing and encompasses a large, undeveloped area with a number of unique habitats including tidal marsh, Acadian forest, and scrubland.[2] The most iconic feature of the park is an old dam and reservoir which was created by the Department of National Defence in the mid-twentieth century.

Mill Creek Nature Park
Park entry sign with trail map
Location in New Brunswick
LocationRiverview, New Brunswick, Canada
Coordinates46.063253118759874°N 64.7619152069092°W / 46.063253118759874; -64.7619152069092
Area133 hectares (330 acres)
StatusOpen all year
Websitehttps://www.townofriverview.ca/parks-and-recreation/parks-and-trails/mill-creek-nature-park

History

The Mill Creek Nature Park is located to the south of the former Canadian Forces Station Coverdale which was constructed by the Royal Canadian Navy in 1943 as HMCS Coverdale.[3] The station was designed for radio direction-finding and was operated by the Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service to monitor German communications during WWII.[4] In the late 1950s, the Mill Creek dam was constructed by the Department of National Defence to create an emergency water supply for fire prevention during the Cold War.[4] The station, which was designated HMCS Coverdale, was decommissioned in 1971[3] and the land became divided into parcels, with a large portion acquired by the Town of Riverview in the early 1980s.[5]

The current park land was designated for protection shortly after being acquired by the Town of Riverview and in 2011 a community-driven proposal was forwarded by students at Riverview High School to begin development of a nature park.[6] A local landscape architecture firm was contracted to develop a master plan.[7] and the park was officially founded in 2013. A few years later, the Friends of Mill Creek committee was established to guide the long-term development of the site.[6]

In the fall of 2016, the Town of Riverview established an Operations Centre at the western entrance to the park and the Rotary Club of Moncton West and Riverview installed a gateway plaza at the northern entrance.[8] These installations helped to further expedite the development of trails and other infrastructure throughout the site.

Features and Amenities
Mill Creek reservoir

The Mill Creek Nature Park is home to an extensive network of formal and informal trails used for low-impact recreation including walking, hiking, and biking in the summer and snowshoeing and cross-country skiing in the winter.[6] A scenic lookout above the reservoir is designated as one of the Fundy Biosphere Reserve's Reserve’s Amazing Places[9] and the park is positioned as an unofficial gateway to New Brunswick’s famous Fundy Coastal Drive.

The park can be accessed at the end of Runneymeade Road and at the end of Robertson Street in Riverview.[10] Motorized vehicles are prohibited from entering the park; however, a motorized vehicle route was established for off-road vehicles along the park’s northern and western boundary.[7]

The three overarching themes for the park, as identified in the master plan, are nature, play, and sport.[7] Protecting and enhancing the ecological integrity of the site is a key objective for the park’s long-term development, which also includes the tentative addition of a civic centre, a nature centre, and a boathouse. Other features which are expected to be added in the future are additional gateway entrances and a new road connecting Gunningsville Boulevard and Hillsborough Road.[7]

The Friends of Mill Creek is committed to providing opportunities for sustainable education and community engagement. Riverview High School’s Environmental Science class has been active in conducting ecological fieldwork at the park, such as water quality analysis of the Mill Creek watershed and a BioBlitz’ for species identification.[11] These initiatives have helped to further highlight the ecological diversity of the site.

gollark: If we can access CIA data too I'm in.
gollark: Nothing, probably.
gollark: What's the source for that?
gollark: ARC cuboidal ranges are now significantly more server-friendly - GPS updates are now done on a different schedule.
gollark: Also, OC is probably not much better.

See also

References
  1. Town of Riverview (2018). "Mill Creek Nature Park".
  2. Friends of Mill Creek (2016). "Habitat Variety in the Mill Creek Nature Park".
  3. Belliveau, P. (2014). H.M.C.S. Coverdale Riverview's Forgotten Naval Base. Moncton: Kingswood Military History Editions.
  4. Proc, J. (2015). "HMCS Coverdale".
  5. Petitcodiac Watershed Alliance (2018). "Mill Creek".
  6. DeLong, D. (2017). "Creating a Regional Nature Park: A Case Study on Community Engagement in Developing the Mill Creek Nature Park in the Town of Riverview, New Brunswick". Dalhousie Journal of Interdisciplinary Management. 13: 18–30. doi:10.5931/djim.v13i1.6924.
  7. CollabPlan & Genivar (2013). "Mill Creek Nature Park 2013 Conceptual Development Master Plan". Moncton.
  8. Rotary Club of Moncton West and Riverview (2018). "Rotary Club of Moncton West & Riverview".
  9. Fundy Biosphere Reserve (2018). "Amazing Places in the Fundy Biosphere Reserve".
  10. Hiking NB (2017). "Mill Creek Nature Park".
  11. Town of Riverview (2016). "2016 Envision Riverview Micro-Grant projects".
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