Greater Sudbury has some work to do to complete the trail running the length of Junction Creek, Ward 1 Coun. Joe Cimino and environmental scientist Franco Mariotti said.

Cimino received support for a motion he recently put forth at city council to have city staff work with community groups such as the Junction Creek Stewardship Committee. Staff would help with a four year action plan for establishing public access to all parts of the creek.

“By January we will present the four year action plan to the next council,” Mariotti said. “It will identify how much money will be required each year to complete the plan and the vision.”

Funds could be raised from the corporate sector and the community and not necessarily come from taxpayers, he added.

The result eventually would be an 18 km Junction Creek trail system that would not have gaps in the trail system.

“We are trying to keep up the momentum,” Cimino said. “It has taken 20 years to finish 60 per cent of the trail system along the creek.”

But he said there are gaps in the trail system in his own ward such as the stretch between Martindale Road and Kelly Lake.

“A trail exists but it is on private land. We need to either purchase the property or have public access allowed.” Most of he land there is owned by the CPR.

Cimino said a report will come back to the new council in February after the 2011 budget process.

“If there are costs involved then the new council can vote on whether to support this.”

Junction Creek was not always a jewel, Mariotti said.

“When I grew up in Sudbury it was called Junk Creek,” he said. “It was literally a depository for garbage and shopping carts,” he said.

“Junction Creek Stewardship Committee have shown in the past 10 years that by bringing life back to section of the creek, we can look at this creek in a totally new way-it can become a natural asset,” he said.

“I have a vision that in my lifetime I can see young people coming off a transit bus carrying a fishing rod and going fishing for brook trout in Junction Creek.

“I think this is a very real vision. When we are able to do that, it tells us we then have a healthy ecosystem.”
The Junction Creek Stewardship Committee has created a video about the transformation of the creek.

Watch the documentary, called “Connecting the Creek”