Shovels and determination: Spences Bridge family rebuilds farm after devastating floods

For the past few weeks, Brandie, Michael, and their young daughter Luna have been unrolling long sheets of burlap and staking willow tree cuttings into a steep, loose dirt bank on their property.

The family of three own a small farm in the community of Spences Bridge, B.C., one of dozens of properties near Highway 8 that were damaged by horrific floods last November. 

After five months of staying with friends in nearby Ashcroft, the family say they're determined to rebuild a large portion of their property, home to an orchard and a chicken coop, by stabilizing the bank.

"It was thriving, and it is gone. It's a beach now. Everything that was on it is totally scattered to the four winds," Brandie Coutts told the CBC's Radio West Thursday.

Highway 8 through the community is still undergoing repairs, after a long stretch of the road was lost to the raging river.

In late March, Transportation Minister Rob Fleming said he couldn't provide an estimate for when the highway would reopen but more information would be released in the coming months in partnership with the federal government.

Coutts said the family can still only access their farm and haul supplies by helicopter, and they've been making week-long trips to their property, while they rebuild. 

Coutts said a helicopter pilot with Valley Helicopters, who had visited their farmstead for years, "endeared" himself to the family and has been offering free helicopter rides, given their home lies in the direction he flies each day. 

"The river ate our farm," said Coutts, "[and] we're helicopter hitchhikers."

Creating a 'micro climate' on the hillside

Coutts said the three are embarking on a massive project to create a "micro climate" on the collapsed hillside, which at first took quite a physical toll on the family.

She said the flooding has loosened the soil, so they've been planting rows of willows and cottonwood trees with hopes the roots will take hold, knit the soil together and stabilize the bank.

"The slope is about 45 feet from top to beach," explained Coutts, adding that if they didn't take action the unstable slope would keep edging back and they'd potentially lose more of their land.

"You plant (a lot of trees) as they're not all going to be able to survive," said Coutts. 

She said the family has received generous financial and emotional support from the community for the past few months. 

"GoFundMe has been amazing. It's quite tremendous and it just warms your heart," she exclaimed, noting she and her husband also filled paperwork for Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements (DFAA) back in December and are awaiting a visit from a government worker to assess their property for government aid. 

During the floods, the Coutts and other families along the river had to airlift their animals from their farms to safety, including Tina, their pregnant Jersey cow.

Coutts told CBC she's determined to make her home everything that it once was.

"We call it our permaculture paradise ... It makes us feel amazing to be [here] and to work with our hands," she explained.

"It's our little slice of heaven. It's a bit narrower of a slice now, but it's still heaven."