Maple Ridge steps up for fish!

[OldBlackDog]

Maple Ridge is talking tough to the federal Liberals when it comes to protecting fish – the same way it did to the Tories four years ago.

A Nov. 28 letter from Mayor Nicole Read asks the Liberal government to restore the previous “ecosystems-based approach” to the Fisheries Act.

Maple Ridge also wants “clear and meaningful definitions” in any new Fisheries Act and wants public involvement and disclosure of the scientific basis for changing the act.

A parliamentary committee is reviewing the Fisheries Act, following drastic changes made by the preceding Conservatives, which removed fish habitat protection.

The 2012 changes to the Fisheries Act removed general projection of fish habitat and focused on projecting aboriginal, sport or commercial fisheries from “serious harm.”

This fall, the new government asked for public input on how the Fisheries Act could be restored

Maple Ridge is also demanding that “appropriate levels of staffing support” be provided to Fisheries, Oceans and Canadian Coast Guard of Canada and, that there also be a deadline by which fish passage has to be provided when hydroelectric dams are built that impede fish access.

If such a deadline is included into the new act, it could help the Alouette River Management Society achieve one of its key goals of building a fishway around BC Hydro’s Alouette dam to connect the South Alouette River to the Alouette Lake reservoir.

Restoring the connection between the river could help rebuild the sockeye salmon run and other species in the Alouette system.

Greta Borick-Cunningham, with the Alouette River Management Society, is heartened by the government’s process.

It’s a “great thing” the government is taking public comments, but it should have begun earlier, she said.

Changing the legislation to require fishways be built under deadline, around dams, is “extremely important” to address the historical wrongs to fish.

The group also sent its own letter to the minister, asking that the concept of “no net-loss” of fish habitat be followed when considering developments near streams.

It also sought restoration of protection of all fish habitat, not just those that are part of a commercial, aboriginal or recreational fishery as the Conservatives had implemented.

Former Conservative MP Randy Kamp said, in 2012, that the Fisheries Act had grown and broadened over the years beyond just fisheries.

“This allows us to focus our protection where we think it should be.

“Right now, if there’s a body of water, and there might be a fish, even if it’s not a fish that anyone ever fishes, the act requires us to go through the authorization process with the municipality,” he said then.

 

[SpringVelocity]

Wasting your time with the liberal government. Mines before fish.

 

[Cuba Libre]

Good on them-- And there are more municipalities that are on board. But it takes letters to many of them to wake them up to do the right thing.

 

[Damien]

Would be super cool to have a sustainable and sizable sockeye fishery like in the big lakes of Washington State.

 

[TheBigGuy]

Wasting your time with the liberal government. Mines before fish.

Don't forget about pipelines and oil terminals, hydro dams, fish farms and basically anything else that generates revenue and jobs. Same old, same old. I'm not holding my breath for any substantive changes.

 

[bones]

it a great fishery every year and has been getting better and better every year. such a beauti stream meandering thru forests and residential areas. the volunteers on that river are doing an awesome job. #whitebuck

 

[Cuba Libre]

it a great fishery every year and has been getting better and better every year. such a beauti stream meandering thru forests and residential areas. the volunteers on that river are doing an awesome job. #whitebuck

Dont know if many realize this , but the Alouette River enhancement program was actually started as a make work program for the Alouette River Corrections minimum security prison. The driving force was a Senior Corrections Officer name Jim Jose. His attitude was " You dont think we can raise fish???-- well- just watch!" In short order he had the inmates construct rearing ponds , with the help of the Operating Engineers Training School, ( got the excavator and bulldozer for the price of a few gallons of diesel . ) and aluminum incubators and troughs at the Oakalla Prison fabrication shop in New West and the Haney Correctional Institution before they shut down. Started with chum and expanded to coho, pinks, chinook and even steelhead and RBT. The ARMS website gives a good snapshot of the history of the program and how the local community stepped up when the prison was switched to a womans prison facility

Interesting reading http://www.alouetteriver.org/bc-corrections-and-allco-fish-hatchery

 

[Dave]

Nice post CL. A few other names should be added to the list of starters for the beginning of this program ... Correction Officer Tom Cadieux ,who went on to work for DFO, and Senior Technician Harold Hiltz of the International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission. The two were instrumental in the reintroduction of pinks to the Alouette. Proud to have worked with both ..

 

[Cuba Libre]

Yes--- they were very important partners in the project Dave. There were many others that played apart too. Chunky Woodward put up the cash for Kanaka and the satellite chinook hatchery, the Maple Ridge Council lobbied on behalf of the fish. Hydro changed how they discharged flow from the Alouette dam to accommodate fish. Don Peterson from the Abbostford Trout hatchery was a great supporter of the trout programs when others in the Province were not that enthusiastic about letting inmates raise trout. There were so many others whose names I have forgotten , especially the local volunteers that came forward when ARMS was organized by Tom and others.

One little anecdote I still remember was when one of the inmates tried to delay his parole release because he was one of the guys that was looking after the satellite chinook rearing site. He wanted to stay put until "his" fish were released. But he didnt get his way. Rules are rules....

 

[Dave]

One little anecdote I still remember was when one of the inmates tried to delay his parole release because he was one of the guys that was looking after the satellite chinook rearing site. He wanted to stay put until "his" fish were released. But he didnt get his way. Rules are rules....

Nice. I was in a small way involved with inmates at the Center Creek Correctional Facility, on the Chilliwack River, again with Correction Officers Tom C, Len Ames and the recently deceased Terry Duck. The inmates, given the opportunity, really did care and gave what they could to salmon enhancement programs.

Thanks for reminding me of their contributions ..