The Salmon River Watershed is an excellent example of the pressures facing small streams in semi-urban areas. While the river continues to host excellent habitat for coho, chum, steelhead and cut throat salmonids a number of factors are threatening the continued health of the river and the watershed. Many of these pressures and threats are shared with other urban and semi-urban streams. The river and the watershed have been studied much more extensively than other similar streams in the province (by Paish, Schreier and others) as the watershed has long been recognized as an important “test case” for water, habitat and coho issues in B.C.

The Salmon River is one of the Lower Fraser’s prime coho streams and has been designated a “key” stream by DFO and an index stream as adult coho and juvenile smolts have been counted and tracked in the system for over 20 years.. Unlike many other streams the salmonids are only the original wild strain as the river has not been supplemented nor has it been enhanced with hatchery fish. The counts in the Salmon River system constitute the main source of data for Georgia Strait coho enumeration.

The watershed was the test case for the development of a comprehensive multi-level governmental and community Watershed Management Plan in the 1990’s. Two years ago the area was also the first in B.C. to be given the authority by the province to develop a Water Management Plan in response to the falling water table and water quality issues in the Hopington aquifer which supplies the Salmon River. The health of the river depends on a consistent cool water supply from the Hopington aquifer to the many small tributaries that feed the 33 km long river. Juvenile coho prefer to rear in the smaller tributaries during their one year maturation before migrating out to the ocean as smolts.

The Salmon River floodplain is one of the few healthy floodplains remaining in the Lower Fraser as it has not been dredged, the meanders have not been straightened and it continues to be a healthy winter rearing area for coho. The floodplain is also an important recreation area (canoeing, fishing etc.) and is an important part of the history of Fort Langley (details below).

Issues that face the watershed include:

1) Attempts by Fort Langley farmers to have the floodplain drained.

2) Falling water tables compromising summer flows to the stream and its tributaries. .

3) Water quality problems including concerns about provincial gravel pits.

4) Invasive aquatic species multiplying in the stream

5) Development issues

6) Poor ocean survival of salmonids.

7) Lack of commitment from DFO and other governmental organizations.

We are seeing, as a result of these combined issues, worrisome decreases in adult coho and now smolt numbers in the river.

Further Details

The Fort Langley floodplain farmers have initiated a legal action in an attempt to force the Township of Langley to drain the floodplain. They continue to ignore the negative effects that this would have on the river as fish habitat. Engineering studies show that drainage could only be achieved through major destruction of the river including bypass channels and dredging the river down well below the present level. This sort of major damage was allowed by DFO in Surrey which left the Serpentine River devastated. DFO approving dredging at Spring Bar on the Fraser has also increased pressure from farmers.

Dredging would likely remove the oxbows and meanders that have, until now, been undisturbed and make the floodplain of the Salmon River a unique canoeing experience. Several years ago Larry Pynn canoed the river from near Trinity Western University to the mouth. He identified this voyage as one of the best canoe routes in the Lower Mainland.

NB. Larry Pynn’s voyage retraced part of the route taken by the first Hudson’s Bay Company exploration party under James McMillan when they traveled to present day Fort Langley in 1824. The party followed the traditional aboriginal route which was the main travel corridor in and out of the Fraser Valley as the aboriginals did not like using the mouth of the Fraser due to the presence of hostile tribes. The route started at Mud Bay near White Rock with the party paddling up the Nicomekl (the Nicomekl was much wider than now as paddle wheelers were able to get up the river to Cloverdale until approval to dam and dyke after the 1948 floods was used by farmers to place dykes well within the river banks) to the present day Milner. From there they took a short portage to near where Trinity Western University is today and then floated down the Salmon River to the Fraser. The first salmon cannery in B.C. was established by the Fort as the barrels of salmon were shipped to Hawaii and other areas.

A Better Future The Salmon River Enhancement Society has suggested that the best use for the floodplain would be to keep it as natural as possible. Establishing walking trails in the floodplain which could connect with the Trans Canada Trail in Fort Langley would make the floodplain a unique area for recreation and for heritage and eco-tourism. This would benefit the floodplain landowners and the greater community of the Lower Mainland.

a) Water quantity

The water table in the Hopington aquifer which surrounds the highly productive middle reaches of the Salmon River has been falling by 1 foot per year for over 20 years. During the very dry summer of 2006 water flows in the most productive middle reaches of the Salmon River were extremely low. It is likely that parts of the important small tributaries of the river dried out during that summer. Smolt numbers in 2007 were much lower than usual at less than 40,000 compared to the normal 60,000 suggesting that the low water levels did impact juvenile survival. If the water table continues to drop we will likely face more summers with very low flows which would further threaten the juvenile salmonids populations.

Although the province and the Township have spent years talking about this problem and are in the process of drawing up a Water Management Plan there are issues that were identified over 10 years ago that have still not been addressed. For example, excessive use of water from agricultural and other wells has long been identified as an important cause of the dropping water table. Issues that could have been addressed years ago include educating farmers and improving incentives for them to use drip irrigation (rather than spraying water on their fields) and education and incentives to encourage capping of the many artesian wells in the area.

b) Water quality

Despite a moratorium on gravel extraction in Langley the provincial government is threatening to open up a new gravel pit in a pastoral area of north Langley along Highway Number 1 at 240^th Street. Gravel would be used for Port Mann bridge construction.

The gravel pit is near a major tributary of the Salmon River (Coghlan Creek supplies about 1/3 of the river’s water flow) and could have negative impacts on water quality. An existing pit next door was partially filled in 2 years ago (the province did not seek Township approvals and did not take appropriate precautions) with negative consequences to the water as there has been hog fuel leachate leaking into nearby wells ever since. This has likely had a negative effect on Coghlan Creek as well.

ii) Manure

Persisting problems with inadequate handling of manure from farming operations and dumping of manure on some private properties have still not been adequately addressed. Nitrate levels in the river and wells in the area continue to be high (above public health levels for babies but not for adults) and are continuing to rise in many areas.

The lower reaches of the river now contain large numbers of bass and pumpkin seed. It is unclear how much of a negative effect these species are having on the native coho and chum populations.

a) Salmon River Uplands Water and sewer connections are being installed through the Hopington/Salmon River Uplands area to Aldergrove. The presence of pipes is increasing pressures to develop the area. At present the area is mostly smaller acreages. Development to higher densities would cause worsening water problems. Water tables drop faster in developed areas even if wells are removed from the aquifer as the increased coverage of the land by hard surfaces prevents rainwater from soaking back into the ground to recharge the water table. Water quality also worsens due to the many contaminants (oil and heavy metals) that are released from the greater number of vehicles on the road and due to the large quantities of fertilizer and pesticides (much larger than the amount used by farmers per acre) used by homeowners.

b) There continue to be discussions about development around Trinity Western University. This sort of development would remove land from the ALR, would cause increased flooding in the Salmon River floodplain and would cause the same sort of water issues mentioned for the Upland area.

5) Ocean survival of salomnids

Survival (thought to be due to climate change, over harvesting and other factors) continues to be extremely low. The very low run of 2006 (only 800 adults returned) appears to have been below the threshold to “fill up the habitat” in the watershed as smolt numbers in 2008 were very low at less than 16,000. This does not bode well for the fall 2009 adult coho returns and for runs every three years into the near future.

DFO continues to neglect protection of habitat and field operations. Allowing dredging of the Fraser River at Spring Bar (despite evidence that this will make no significant impact on flooding) and allowing destruction of the Serpentine in Surrey several years ago has unfortunately given farmers in the Fort Langley floodplain ammunition in their argument that the Fort Langley floodplain should be dredged and drained.

In addition we continue to have problems with pursuit of water and habitat issues. DFO no longer has the personnel to pursue water quality issues and getting the federal and provincial environmental people to pursue these issues is problematic. Although the DFO field personnel are conscientious and try to attend habitat complaints there are not nearly enough field personnel and they do not get the support that they need from the upper management. The ongoing policy of pursuing only the “bigger” problems and the lack of resolve to pursue even these bigger problems with court actions continues to lead to cynicism in the general population. This has the effect of increasing the number of violations as the chance of being pursued by DFO is seen as being small.

We still do not have a firm long term commitment that the Salmon River will receive funding for the fish fence to allow it to continue to be the index river it has been for over 20 years (with the exception of 2006-7 when funding was taken away and then restored).

The Salmon River Watershed continues to be an important coho and salmonid river with considerable healthy habitat but the many pressures facing it are starting to cause significant declines in coho stocks and habitat health. It is not too late to reverse these trends but we need to:

1) Protect the Fort Langley floodplain

2) Stabilize the water table in the Hopington aquifer and protect water quality (including avoiding gravel extraction which is a threat to our water).

3) Avoid higher density development of the watershed.

4) Realize a greater commitment from government agencies and the community to pursue solutions rather than engage in interminable discussions and planning.