Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
As waters have risen in Yukon's Southern Lakes area over the past few weeks, some people have been keeping an eye on the White Pass and Yukon Route train bridge in Carcross. It's a clear marker of how high the water has climbed — with water from the Nares River still touching the bottom of bridge, just below the tracks, according to Patrick Brown, the operations and maintenance manager with Carcross/Tagish First Nation. Brown says it first started touching the bridge about a week and half ago.
