Gravel removal for flood rescue purposes begins along the Vedder River and Vedder Canal in Chilliwack.

Provincial environmental officials said there was a “solid” plan to remove a total of 264,000 cubic metres of water from the riverbed at 11 locations, compared to a reduction of 360,000 cubic metres in the original proposal.

Salmon and habitat protection advocates are now trying to persuade authorities to reduce catches in the upper reaches of the Vedder River by 2024.

The City of Chilliwack announced last week that the Vedder Rotary Trail will be closed in sections beginning August 26 as contractors prepare to remove sediment from the river at various locations.

Timing is crucial, say salmon conservationists.

The BC Wildlife Federation leadership opposes the planned gravel mining in the upper reaches of the Vedder, where there is a gravel shortage due to decades of overmining.

BCWF officials, including Director Jesse Zeman and President David Lewis, asked for a last-minute reprieve in a letter, noting that they “acknowledge and welcome” the cancellation of the Vedder relocations last year but were concerned about the suddenly larger scale of relocations in the upper reaches.

“Development decisions affecting our rivers must not destroy vital salmon habitat. In particular, decisions that recklessly seek to destroy the crucial habitat of pink salmon are simply unacceptable.”

Although the original plan of 360,000 cubic meters has been reduced to 264,000 this year, BCWF remains concerned about the key pink salmon habitat in the upper reaches.

BCWF director Zeman summed it up: “The fish cannot afford it.”

Urging a meeting with provincial ministers, Zeman and Lewis concluded their letter by saying: “We urge you to stop all gravel mining in critical salmon habitats.”

Officially, the work will be carried out in 2024 to process the estimated 440,000 cubic metres washed into the Vedder River by the atmospheric river events of 2021, a spokesman for the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy explained.

These devastating storms deposited “about ten times the annual amount of sediment” into the Vedder, “increasing the risk of future flooding in Chilliwack and Abbotsford,” according to the MOE.

That is the rationale for this year’s removals, which are concentrated at 11 locations along the Vedder. They fall under the province’s flood waste and debris management plan “to ensure the safety of the Vedder River and surrounding communities,” the MOE said.

The cities of Chilliwack and Abbotsford, the Sumas First Nation, and qualified engineers and professionals were involved in the 2024 planning.

“The work will be carried out this year during a low-risk window during which impacts to fish and fish habitats will be avoided, as determined by the DFO,” the MOE said.

The work is expected to take several months.

What about the BCWF director’s claim that “the fish can’t afford it”?

“All work on this project will be managed by registered qualified professionals, local experts and licensed engineers to ensure safe and environmentally friendly completion,” the MOE responded in an emailed statement to Chilliwack Progress on August 24.

“The Sumas First Nation will provide an important monitoring and oversight role, which will include a fish behaviour study to better understand the impacts of this work. This information will help improve future gravel removal and ensure consistency with traditional Indigenous and ecological values.

“We are confident that this work will protect both the fish and the communities that live, work and play along this important waterway.”

Lina Azeez of the Watershed Watch Salmon Society said the upper Vedder River has some of the best habitat for salmon spawning and rearing.

So a better long-term approach is needed.

“We don’t want any gravel to be removed from the upper reaches,” said Azeez.

Last year, when the pink salmon returned, the planned gravel mining was postponed until 2024. Now, however, it is being revived and the Vedder is “threatened” as a result.

“We understand that gravel mining is needed in the lower reaches to control flooding, but we also know that this is only an emergency solution.” They are calling on governments and regulators to seriously consider long-term flood adaptation options, as the extensive mining will impact the river.

“We have to learn to live with the water,” she said, adding that one way is to control erosion upstream. Another problem is the timing: The work will take six weeks, and the window for fishing work is set to end on Sept. 15. But based on the analysis of our allies at the Fraser Valley Salmon Society, “a happy compromise” can be reached, Azeez said.

“To address any flood safety concerns, up to 150,000 cubic metres of gravel could be mined in the lower three-quarters of the Vedder River and Vedder Canal. “Our greatest concern is the upper section of the river between Vedder Crossing and Lickman Road.” Azeez also stressed that there is allegedly a shortage of gravel there.

This work is sometimes referred to as “gravel removal,” but technically the gravel is just one component of “sediment,” a word that can include everything from rocks to mud. Before the atmospheric river disaster, sediment was removed from the Vedder River and channel every two years to prevent flooding in Chilliwack and Abbotsford.

In 2018, 2020 and 2023, there were some short-term stops in gravel collection.

Biologist Marvin Rosenau, fisheries expert and director of the Fraser Valley Salmon Society, said the upper section of the Vedder River has been “over-dug” over the past 40 years.

“That is why we are against this part of the project,” said Rosenau. “What the MOE has repeatedly failed to mention throughout history and the reason for withdrawing the applications in 2018 and 2020 is that the volume of over-extraction before the atmospheric flow event was about 600,000 cubic meters.”

Thus, the atmospheric flow events of 2021, which brought an “input” of 440,000 cubic meters, still result in a very large deficit of 160,000 cubic meters, he said.

Rosenau said authorities should focus on areas where there is a serious risk of flooding, i.e. the middle and lower areas.

“And finally – and this not only has a direct connection to the gravel removal this year, but also has an impact on the coming years – the consulting engineers have so messed up their analyses in recent years and underestimated the flood risk in the middle and lower sections that this part of the Vedder is now apparently exposed to a serious flood risk.”

This means that we are again “in a disaster situation like the dike breach on the Sumas River in 2021 and the authorities now have no choice but to massively raise the dikes in these parts of the Vedder River because they could not remove enough gravel to ensure the prescribed flood protection in the middle section,” said Rosenau.

These are some of the real problems, he added, and residents of the area are unaware of “the situation” they are in.