New funding needed to revive B.C. waterways

Comprehensive plan needed for rivers, says Mark Angelo.

B.C. is blessed with an amazing river heritage, perhaps the finest in the world. Our waterways have immense natural, cultural, recreational and economic value and, when one reviews historic settlement patterns that have occurred for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, it becomes evident that rivers have done much to influence and shape who we are as British Columbians.

Yet, despite their many attributes, our waterways continue to face an array of pressures and threats. These range from pollution and urbanization to industrial development, the excessive extraction of water and climate change.

As a river advocate and paddler for more than five decades, I’ve seen first-hand the many different ways a river can be damaged or lost. At the same time, I take some comfort in the fact that many British Columbians now view the proper care of rivers and water to be among our most pressing environmental issues.

In an effort to better care for our waterways, we must develop a more comprehensive and multi-faceted approach to river stewardship and a key element of that revolves around the need for a major new funding initiative.

On a positive note, the federal government did roll out the Coastal Restoration Fund in 2016, a national program aimed at restoring coastal aquatic habitats, but many of the available funds in B.C. were quickly absorbed in the first year. While this was an admirable effort, I think we must do something much more extensive if we are to adequately protect our rivers.

This is especially true of the Fraser River, a waterway I’ve come to know well since first paddling its entire length back in 1975. It’s a river I’ve long viewed as the heart and soul of our province and certainly one of the world’s great waterways.

Yet within the Fraser watershed alone, there are hundreds of specific issues and concerns that have to be addressed if we are to properly care for this great river.

Our tendency ... has been to deal with river issues like these on a piecemeal basis.

For instance, not far from Chilliwack, in the midst of the most productive stretch of river in our country, Herrling and Carey Islands were recently stripped of natural vegetation. This now threatens key salmon and sturgeon habitats as well as the stability of the islands themselves.

In the Fraser Valley, there are hundreds of outdated flood-control structures that cut off many important salmon habitats from the river. These must be redesigned so as to enable fish passage.

Across the Lower Mainland, many once-productive riparian habitats have been damaged and yet, retain the potential to be restored. Some of Vancouver’s recent “re-wilding ” initiatives, such as the reclaimed New Brighton salt marsh, are examples of such potential and are to be commended.

The list goes on at length and is not limited to the Fraser alone. Other examples range from the need to stabilize the Stoltz Bluff that threatens the world-renowned Cowichan River on Vancouver Island, to the need to ensure funding for the final stage of work currently underway on the Seymour River to restore fish passage after a devastating rock slide in 2014.

Our tendency, in the past, has been to deal with river issues like these on a piecemeal basis; but wouldn’t it be bold to develop a new funding program that allocated hundreds of millions of dollars over the coming decade to the protection and restoration of rivers? This, in turn, would benefit struggling salmon and steelhead stocks as well as other species.

From a comparative perspective, the province and federal governments have allocated $150 million in recent years to forest enhancement in B.C. Our rivers are, at the least, deserving of equal funding.

If spread out over time and done in partnership with various levels of government, existing water funders and others, this would be affordable.

Most importantly though, such a funding program would greatly enhance our ability to protect and restore the rivers of this province, features that contribute greatly to the amazing quality of life we enjoy in this part of the world.