Dear Editor,
Re: Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s announcement of new recreational fishing closures for chinook salmon.
First, as a recreational chinook angler, I support federal government’s (DFO) short-term remedial action to help save our orca.
On the other hand, I fail to understand why Prime Minister Trudeau and our Liberal government have chosen to continue along the path of the Harper Conservatives by strongly endorsing Kinder Morgan’s and National Energy Board’s (NEB) flawed pipeline plan.
As it stands, the plan will destroy wide swaths of critically important riparian zone habitat at Langley’s Nathan Creek, West Creek and Yorkson Creek pipeline crossings.Offsets to compensate for habitat losses are weak and insufficient.
B.C. has a strong set of rules for our development industry to conserve habitat. Our B.C. Fish Protection Act and Streamside Protection Regulation (SPR) were enacted years ago at the urging of DFO to preserve fish habitat and help save our wild salmon. Both our SPR and needs of our local salmon have been over-ruled by the needs of a pipeline, first by our Harper Conservatives and now by our Trudeau Liberals. DFO’s responsibilities for our Langley salmon were removed by the Conservatives when authority was transferred to NEB. It’s now extremely troubling to hear Finance Minister Bill Morneau announce taxpayer support for a pipeline plan which will result in reduced fish habitat, contribute to the continued decline of our wild salmon, and add to the starvation problems of our orca.
Both our Fraser system’s salmon and Georgia Strait orca are in decline because we’re destroying habitat at an increasing pace. Salmon River’s pipeline crossing will bore beneath the riparian zone and beneath the river rather than being trenched across. This hugely helps preserve habitat. But why just one trenchless crossing and not trenchless across all four of Langley’s salmon producing Fraser River tributaries?
B.C. has more than 700 pipeline crossings, yet only a handful are slated to be trenchless. Rather than clearing riparian zones and trenching across streams, trenchless crossings are necessary at all fish bearing streams along the whole length of the TMP to conserve habitat. It’s not enough for DFO to announce chinook closures for recreational anglers while habitat losses continue. Why the lack of federal support for conservation of BC’s wild salmon and all who depend upon them – our orca, grizzly, FN, rec anglers, tourism industry, B.C.’s complex salmon-dependant ecosystem?
Larri Woodrow
Walnut Grove