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Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
A 7,000-hectare (17,000-acre) area of provincial Crown land along the Kootenay River system. A protected flood plain that has been returned into a productive wildlife and waterfowl habitat. The dykes that were intended to drain the marshes were expanded and modified to control the wide seasonal variation in water levels and create much needed waterfowl nesting and rearing habitat.
The Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area is a Canadian river delta wetland and Wildlife Management Area near Creston in south-central British Columbia, on the floodplain of the Kootenay River at the south end of Kootenay Lake. Predominantly marshland, it was classified as a wetland of international importance on February 21, 1994, and is also a globally significant Important Bird Area. It is one of the "few significant agricultural areas of the province", and is in the Montane Cordillera. It stretches north along Kootenay Lake for approximately 20 km, and south to the United States border. It is both the only breeding site of the Forster's tern and the only site with leopard frogs in the province, as well as one of the few Canadian habitats for the Coeur D'Alene salamander. Creston Valley provides staging and nesting areas for migratory birds on the Pacific Flyway.
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From the forestry, mining, and agriculture of the pioneer years to today, and the connections between Creston and the rest of the Kootenays. How Creston got its wacky time zone, the steamship that became a tractor (sort of), the first airplane to land in Creston, the teacher who refused to be fired, “The Great Railway Race” and the “Great Creston Bank Robbery.”.