Echo Creek (occasionally known as Springbrook Creek) rises immediately to the north of Qu'Appelle and opens out into a broad coulee immediately to the south of the Qu'Appelle Valley. In the past it ran dry by late summer; global warming or other factors have caused it to run freely throughout the summer and to have fish swimming freely in it till the fall freeze-up. Beavers occasionally dam the creek in the spring using the poplars that line its coulee; at various points it opens up into ponds where in the past when the Qu'Appelle region was amply populated farm children swam.