Gravel removal on the Vedder River near Chilliwack has been put on hold by Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy (MOE).
The proposal for a two-kilometre stretch of the Vedder was characterized as a “gravel grab” by environmental critics due to its “unprecedented” scale, and timing during a pink-salmon return year.
RELATED: ‘Unprecedented’ gravel should be deferred: BCWF
“The proposal has been postponed until 2024,” confirmed MOE spokesperson Sonia Lowe, “to further help and ease concerns around the return of the pink salmon, and to give regulators more time to review the submitted plans, and allow time for further consultation with First Nations.”
The gravel stewardship subcommittee of the Fraser Valley Salmon Society, together with the BCWF, sounded the alarm in June over the plan to remove 364,000 cubic metres of sediment from the Vedder, especially in a pink year.
Now the salmon advocates are praising the move by the provincial MOE to kibosh the project for 2023, and to actively include some of the local advocates in the decision-making process for next year, as well as more consultation with First Nations.
Terry Bodman, long-time director of the salmon society said he was relieved.
“We were very thankful to hear that news,” Bodman said. “The fish will be the winners.”
Also fact that the local volunteers have secured a commitment by the province to involve them in the process for 2024, leaves him feeling “optimistic.”
Salmon society director Marvin Rosenau, a fisheries expert, stressed that they have “no beef” with gravel removal for maintenance reasons, and is looking forward to a more collaborative effort in the future.
Rosenau and his fellow salmon society volunteers have been closely monitoring the gravel removals, conducted every two years, through the Vedder River Management Area Committee, for more than 20 years. As a biologist and former BCIT fisheries instructor, Rosenau has been instrumental in analyzing the data and modelling, along with advocating for the protection of key habitat, as a volunteer of the salmon society.
Previous gravel extraction proposals were put on hold in 2018, and in 2020, with Rosenau pointing out each time there is no justification for a massive sediment removal under the guise of flood protection, given that the river has been “over-extracted” for years. Gravel was removed in 2021, and in 2016.
Rosenau estimated that they’ve removed approximately 600,000 cubic metres in terms of the long-term, historic gravel amount. And even with the estimated 440,000 cubic metres of sediment that washed into the gravel reach from the 2021 atmospheric rivers, that the area is still in “deficit,” he said.
Dean Werk, president of the Fraser Valley Salmon Society, echoes other advocates in saying it was a “big relief” that their concerns were listened to in the end.
The gravel removal process needs more transparency and accountability.
“That would have been the biggest gravel dig in the history of that river,” Werk said. “People need to understand the real story.”
Volunteers have effectively stopped gravel extraction on the Vedder three times in the past eight years.
They been “banging the drum” over the key importance of the “heart of the Fraser” for salmon, and habitat and by making presentations based on the historic data to support the hypothesis that “too much gravel” has already been removed from the river.
“All we were doing was telling the truth,” Werk said.
The irreplaceable habitat of the Chilliwack/Vedder river system, supporting several types of salmon, is poorly understood even by provincial environment officials.
That needs to change, he said.
“No fish habitat means no fish.”
“This is an urgent plea for the province going forward to involve those who understand what is at stake, and to be more accountable and responsible for future generations,” Werk said.
Ministry officials pledged to “work with stakeholders and regulators” in the coming months “to ensure the removal plan continues to reduce the risk of flooding” and to ensure this project can proceed next year.
However, should an emergency develop between now and next year’s work window, they will take “appropriate and immediate action” to maintain public safety and flood capacity on the river.
RELATED: Sonar counting salmon at Vedder bridge
RELATED: Gravel removal put on hold in 2020
Do you have something to add to this story, or a news tip? Email:
jennifer.feinberg@theprogress.com
@CHWKjourno
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.