It’s often hard to believe that tucked in between the highways and houses in Burnaby are veins of water that provide nurseries for wild salmon.
The pressure on such water nurseries in urban areas is tremendous.
In fact, Stoney Creek, like other waterways in the city, has been severely damaged by negligence and/or stupidity in the past.
We’ve done those stories too many times: Someone dumps some old toxic substance into the drain in front of their house; some business decides to flush out a system sending diesel oil or gas into the sewer system, which overflows.
And then there are the people who think it’s sweet to see their dogs splashing away in the creek – crushing all of the salmon eggs.
We’ve often wondered if all of those Great Salmon Send-Offs have any serious impact on raising the numbers of salmon in city streams.
It always seems like one step forward and two steps back in trying to bring wild salmon back to urban streams.
That’s why our story on page 3 is so welcome.
Not only have the Stoney Creek streamkeepers and their allies worked hard to have the creek recover from damage – but it looks like the creek will rebound to a state better than before the damage.
The damage in October of 2015 was huge and major remediation was necessary. In fact, 400 salmon had to be removed as part of the work.
But extensive rehabilitation of the area has actually improved the water for coho habitation. And coho chum are already inhabiting the new area.
As John Templeton of the streamkeepers said, “this is a really good thing to see the habitat improved.”
We agree. Not only is it a good thing, but it’s a signal to those who may have given up hope on saving our urban streams that hard work and teamwork make all of the difference.
While we all may not choose to join the streamkeepers’ society, we can support their efforts through donations, lobbying our political leaders and making sure we aren’t dumping bad stuff down our drains.
We may not be able to go back in time to when Burnaby had dozens of salmon streams, but we can do everything we can to preserve the ones that we have now.
