Join members of Penticton’s Friends of the Oxbows, Allan Garland and Bob Anderson, for an interesting tour along parts of the historic Okanagan River and imagine how it was before the Okanagan River Channel and Channel Parkway were created.

You will drive with several stops along the way to walk and learn about the work that has been done to improve and clean up portions of this remnant wetland within the City of Penticton. Restoration has been done over the past several years to remove accumulating sediment. You will have an opportunity to see how that work has brought life back to the oxbows.

Now, if you are quiet and careful, you may catch a glimpse of some of the native wildlife that abounds here – turtles, waterfowl and other birds, deer, beavers and muskrats, and more elusive creatures like butterflies, snakes and rabbits. Experience a wonderful window into the diversity of nature that inhabits Penticton.

Allan Garland is a OSCA Director and long-time member of the South Okanagan Naturalists’ Club. Before retiring, he worked as a Biologist and Risk Assessor in Ottawa with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Many years before that, as a Boy Scout in Winnipeg, he learned about the outdoors and, later, as an undergraduate at the University of Manitoba, he gained teaching experience while studying toward a degree in Agriculture with a major in Entomology. With the passage of time, he completed two more degrees and worked as an entomologist in four provinces. Today Allan enjoys sharing his knowledge in plants, as well as birds and other animals, on SONC outings and as a Meadowlark tour leader.