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Wetlands Spark Interest

(from Langley Times, April 5, 1998; by Natasha Jones)

Environmentalists are taking a keen interest in the future of the Interfor lands in Fort Langley.

The Interfor sawmill is situated on the Bedford Channel, just west of Glover Road in Fort Langley. Operations at the former McDonald Cedar plant ceased last October, and the company plans to convert it for an interim period of two to five years as a lumber re-manufacturing plant.

What happens to that property afterwards is undecided at this moment. Interfor has held two public information meetings to glean opinion from local residents.

A telephone survey was also conducted in March by Interfor’s consultants, Aplin and Martin. Arnold Badke of Aplin and Martin said on Thursday that work on tabulating the response will not be finished for another two weeks, and there is no set time for releasing the results.

Badke declined to comment on the essence of the responses.

Among the suggestions for the 78-acre site is a condominium development.

But what interests environmentalists is the location of the property. The Interfor site borders the last section of the Salmon River leading up to a new pumphouse at the mouth of the Salmon River.

The Salmon River Enhancement Society is asking for a wider river bank along the Salmon River, as well as protection of a wetland area which connects to the Salmon River near its mouth.

The society has spelled out its concerns to Aplin and Martin and to Township council.

The Fort Langley Canoe Club actively uses the lower Salmon River, and the society has suggested that there is potential for an attractive canoe route using the lower Salmon, the Bedford Channel and possibly parts of Brae Island.

The Fort to Fort trail should also be routed along the waterfront once the sawmill is gone, the society says.

Society spokesman, Doug McFee, said that the society envisages the lower Salmon River and surrounding lands becoming an important recreation area.

The society is encouraging council to erect signs at the mouth of the Salmon river that recall the importance of the Salmon and Nicomekl Rivers in the early history of Langley.

The mouth of the Salmon represents the Fraser River end of the portage route used by the aboriginal people of the Fraser Valley, who would travel up the Salmon to connect with the Nicomekl, and then float down the Nicomekl to the ocean near Crescent Beach.

The whole area could be enhanced as an important tourist and recreation area with nearby parks.