Dear Editor,
Must we destroy the Fraser River Estuary with industrialization before we recognize what we have lost, or are we prepared to set policies that will save it? Should we not have learned by the mistakes of others?
Take the Thames River in London, England, where 150 years of industrialization resulted in its death, by depriving it of its oxygen and biological components and removing all of its wetlands, creating a channel of waste water.
Only within the last 50 years have they been able to restore some of its biological components by spending billions of pounds on infrastructure to allow for the return of the fishery.
Few salmon that there are, are raised artificially and trucked to and from the ocean on their return because of the impediments built years ago.
Closer to home is the Columbia River, consisting of 13,000 miles of streams and rivers within its watershed, in Washington State, home of the Bonneville Dam, where they are spending billions of dollars to restore a once thriving salmon industry.
The Bonneville Power Administration are restoring habitat and water flows, subsidizing losses of income to native tribes, costing half a billion dollars, plus debt costs of $175 million every year to bring two million fish back to the Columbia River.
The migration of the fish is also assisted manually. It still means billions to the local economy.
California initiated a Salmon Restoration Program on 10 of its rivers, consisting of 1,800 miles of streams and estuary habitat.
Their aim is to restore North Coast streams by adding structure that mimic nature. This restoration work, despite its billion dollar initial cost, is creating more that $17 million per year for the State of California today.
Closer to home is the Skeena River Watershed, consisting of of six river tributaries, 570 km (354 miles) long with a total basin of 54,400 sq. km (21,000 sq. miles), second only to the Fraser River Watershed as a salmon-bearing river.
It is being threatened with the proposal to build an LNG terminal at its mouth on Lelu Island, the most important habitat in the entire Skeena River Estuary.
The Skeena Watershed has been declared a “Wild Salmon Refuge” by more than 300 First Nation Leaders, politicians and 135 of Canada’s leading scientists and has been valued in 2005 at $109,987,000 to the economy of the Skeena River area.
The Fraser River Watershed flows 1,370 km through British Columbia, consisting of 12 watersheds with thousands of lakes and streams, all contributing to a habitat that supports over 300 species of migratory birds, seven species of salmon and 29 species of fish within the estuary.
Never mind the billions of dollars in value for the recreational fishery and pleasure boating, camping, hunting and hiking.
We are in the midst of going down the same path of no return by the mistakes made by other countries, with the proposals put forward by Port Metro Vancouver and Pacific Gateway Transportation Forum to dredge the Lower Fraser River and industrialize the remaining 15 per cent of wetlands of the Fraser River Watershed that remain today.
We will be leaving future generations with the job of restoring what was once the greatest salmon-bearing river in the world and a wetland of international significance and importance for migratory birds and fish species.
The Fraser River Estuary has been designated a “Heritage River” an “Endangered River” and a river of “International Importance” by Canada and the world. We need the newly elected government in Ottawa to give it the protection it needs now and declare the Fraser River Estuary and the Salish Sea a “National Park Area” and give it the protection that goes with it.
Douglas George Massey
Delta
