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It’s an example of how environmental work brings good results. Learn more at the Junction Creek trout release festival on May 9
Published Apr 27, 2026 • Last updated 5 hours ago • 2 minute read
Global environmental superstar Jane Goodall joined the project to restore a section of Junction Creek near Louis Street on May 8, 2002, by adding a lovely big brook trout. Supplied photoArticle content
Upper Junction Creek, a 30-km stretch of streams and connecting tributaries that flows through the heart of Greater Sudbury, from Garson to Kelly Lake, has a tragic history of flooding and environmental destruction – but not so much this year.
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In the 1960s, the headwaters of this watershed consisted mainly of a barren, blackened landscape, and the water that flowed unobstructed to town contained a poisonous combination of toxic effluent from the mining sites, along with municipal sewage and wastewater, leaving most sections of the creek fishless.
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More tragic still was the loss of human life in Junction Creek, with more than 20 drowning deaths in the past century as frequent floods and rapid currents inundated the downtown and vulnerable areas like the Flour Mill.
The Reasons for Hope sculpture of Jane Goodall will be unveiled on May 9 during the 26th annual Junction Creek trout release festival. Supplied photo
This tragic story began to change with the formation of the Nickel District Conservation Authority (NDCA) in 1965 and the building of flood control dams (Nickeldale, Maley, Frood) in the early 1970s.
The municipal sewage plant was also constructed and industry (Inco at the time) built their own dams and diversions, as well as lime treatment plants on Nolin Creek and below the mine in Garson. Massive additional investments by Inco (now Vale Ltd) were also made, reducing the atmospheric emissions of metals and acids (>95 per cent) from the smelters that were destroying fish and trees alike.
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Now tree planting could begin, and did it ever. More than four million trees were planted in the watershed by the VETAC (Vegetation Enhancement Technical Advisory Committee) municipal partnership program, with large areas of inaccessible lands also aerially limed by Vale Ltd., allowing natural colonization by many species to occur through arrival of windblown seeds.
Wise municipal planners at the city also played an important role by protecting the Ponderosa wetland along Notre Dame Avenue, which serves as a massive natural sponge, from being infilled and developed.
This background story of historical watershed management efforts, along with some lucky melting patterns this year, helps explain why Upper Junction Creek did not severely flood this year, even as climate change pushes the threat of more winter precipitation and massive flooding upon us.
Against this backdrop, we can now add another positive turn to the story: the creation in 1999 of the award-winning Junction Creek Stewardship Committee to deal with the litter and local habitat degradation, and to begin the restoration of fish and associated biodiversity to the creek. This good work attracted a global environmental superstar, Jane Goodall, who joined the project on May 8, 2002 (three weeks after being appointed the UN Messenger of Peace) to add a lovely big brook trout to a restored section of Junction Creek near Louis Street.
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If you like this story, and now see how we might need to prepare for climate emergencies, perhaps bring you kids and grandchildren to the 26th annual Junction Creek trout release festival on May 9 at the Twin Forks playground off of LaSalle (noon to 3 p.m.) to release your own fish, see the unveiling of the Reasons for Hope sculpture, and make a donation to JCSC (tinyurl.com/mv573vx4) to keep their good work going (note: there are now 20 species of fish living in Junction Creek).
John Gunn is a Professor Emeritus at Laurentian University. You can reach him at gunn@laurentian.ca.
Bluesky: @sudburystar.bsky.social
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