The City of Kamloops has found a new trail to rename after Jack Gregson.
That will be at the native plant walk at McArthur Island, and a new sign will go up later this year.
The city’s parks manager Jeff Putnam says staff have discussed this idea with descendants of Gregson, who he says are in support of this honour.
“It’s a very nice path, goes through a very naturalized area. We would add the Gregson Native Plant Walk to that sign. Completely covers the west end of McArthur Island. The trail is in relatively good condition, it does need a little bit of asphalt repair which we’ll undertake this year.”
Putnam says Gregson was instrumental in creating the wetlands on the west side of Mac Island, in the 1960s.
“He secured a $12,000-dollar loan from the federal government, which was kind of unheard of at the time. It was a lot of money back in those days. It was to actually create that west end of the slough to be a year-round wetlands area. So we think the location is absolutely perfect.”
The former Jack Gregson trail between downtown and Valleyview was closed last fall by the landowner, CP Rail, and the city pledged to rename another trail after him.