‘It’s essential that action be taken’
Outdoor Recreation Council’s list of endangered rivers warns of dwindling steelhead numbers
The 100,000-member Outdoor Recreation Council has identified B.C.’s critical steelhead rivers and the Heart of the Fraser, from Hope to Mission, as the most endangered rivers in the province.
The council’s list of endangered rivers, produced every two years and voted upon by members, warns that steelhead stocks have dipped to precarious levels on key rivers, including just 57 fish returning to the Chilcotin River and 177 to the Thompson River this past year. Members of the public and resource professionals also contribute to the list.
“It’s essential that action be taken quickly to reverse the trend,” the council’s rivers chair, Mark Angelo, said in an interview. “If we do nothing, I worry these fish will be gone in a few years.”
In February, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada recommended the emergency listing of Chilcotin and Thompson steelhead under the federal Species at Risk Act. Ottawa has not yet announced its response to the request.
Angelo noted that listing would prohibit the capture and harm of steelhead and kickstart a management plan for their recovery. “Those stocks have just plummeted. I wish action had been taken earlier.”
The council promotes more selective fishing measures rather than indiscriminate chum gillnet fisheries, in particular, that can also impact steelhead stocks, and recommends restoration of habitat.
While some factors, such as warming of the ocean and spawning streams, may seem beyond reach, Angelo emphasized “there are still clearly things we can do.”
Angelo noted that all levels of government, including First Nations, along with non-profit conservation groups, must work together to save the steelhead. He applauded the Tsilhqot’in National Government for announcing last week it is voluntarily stopping fishing for steelhead due to low returns.
Spences Bridge used to be a hot spot for steelhead fishing on the Thompson River — but those days are gone. Angelo recalls visiting there annually starting in the early 1980s to catch and release. “Ever since, I’ve been in awe of these fish — strong, wild, large, and incredibly beautiful.”
Steelhead and other fish on the Seymour River in North Vancouver remain impacted by a massive 50,000-cubic-meter rock slide in 2014 that blocked their passage upstream, Angelo said. The Seymour Salmonid Society has done great work since then to restore passage by blasting the slide and removing rock, but funding is still required to properly finish the job and monitor success of the effort, he noted.
On Vancouver Island, steelhead stocks are also in trouble on the Gold River and on the Cowichan River, the latter suffering from the unstable Stoltz bluff depositing massive amounts of sediments into the river and impacting salmon egg-fry survival for kilometres downstream.
The Heart of the Fraser, meanwhile, contains “the most important salmon and sturgeon habitat in our country,” Angelo said, but is threatened by agriculture-related logging of Herrling and Carey Islands — in some cases right up to the riverbank, with no setbacks — and planned bridge building.
He also said the Water Sustainability Act is well-intentioned, but that more needs to be done in the field now to ensure wild fish have adequate water levels. The Kettle River in the southern Interior has suffered from low water levels for years, including from excessive water extraction.
In its list of endangered rivers, the council also singled out the Peace River in B.C.’s northeast, site of the Site C hydroelectric dam, which the Liberals started and the new NDP government has decided to complete.