Chilqua Slough is a sleepy salmon stream that meanders from Norrish Creek east of Mission, through farms to Hatzic Lake and a pumping station into the Fraser River. It’s an orphan that’s found a loving caregiver after decades of neglect.
From 1947 to 1978, when Fisheries and Oceans Canada kept records, coho in Chilqua Slough numbered 25-200; and chum from 25 to a high of 1,900 in 1977. During this period, field officers who monitored Chilqua Slough noted, “This stream is fast becoming a drainage ditch. Considerable amounts of water are used for irrigation during summer months.”
There was another problem. After devastating Fraser River floods in 1948, a pumping station and flood gates were built to protect people. The pump wasn’t fish friendly. From 1985 to 1996, Fisheries’s database provided the numbers of spawners in several Hatzic area tributaries but not for Chilqua, perhaps because their numbers plummeted.
Chum and coho had disappeared completely by 2014 when the Fraser Valley Watersheds Coalition – enters the picture. Its Water Wealth Project is a “citizen-driven initiative that amplifies the voice of communities who love … the waters that sustain them.”
Chilqua Slough, for example. “When we got involved, there were no more salmon returning to the headwaters,” says coalition biologist, Natasha Cox.
Canary reed grass had become a wall-to-wall barrier for salmon in the stream, she explained.
As banks flopped in, there was flooding. With no defined channel, water was rising and impacting farmers.
Former prime minister Stephen Harper’s labelling small-stock streams as ditches was mean and illogical. Maintaining them benefits fish and agriculture alike. It’s a role Fisheries used to head up. It’s now done by groups such as the coalition with limited funding.
Support – from all levels of government – should start with Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc.
“Chilqua’s a success story,” said Cox. “We opened up the slough with an excavator, from Sylvester Road Bridge. Then we removed the reed grass from the channel. Under the bridge, we created a spawning riffle.”
Stream banks stabilized, spawners returned and the population is growing. Last year, the stream had 100 chum and coho.
More can be done, starting with recognizing that these actually are creeks, by posting signs identifying them for motorists and the public.
For instance, the names of creeks should be placed on to bridges – Durieu Creek, Bouchier, Chilqua – while information boards can give the history and importance of the creeks to wild salmon.
Steve Anderson has lived along Legace Creek for 47 years. “DFO used to clean out the gravel regularly, but hasn’t for years,” he says.
Peter Kokoska, near Bouchier and Durieu Creeks, has advocated for local stream care for a lifetime. “These things have to be cleaned out regularly to manage rocks and sediment that sloughs off local mountains.” The money, says Kokoska, should come from provincial and federal coffers.
Groups like the Fraser Valley Watersheds Coalition do what they can. “In the 1950s, Fisheries noted chum spawned in pools throughout the system. We could find and rehabilitate those pools.
Jack Emberly is a retired teacher, local author and environmentalist.
