'A special moment': Water again flowing at Red Slough on the Pitt River, fresh hope for salmon

Read the full story at: https://vancouversun.com/news/water-again-flowing-red-slough-pitt-river-salmon

Read more about LFFA’s role in the project at here.

An important salmon habitat in the Upper Pitt River that had become choked by logging road construction a century ago is once again flush with freshwater.

The Katzie First Nation and the B.C. Parks Foundation announced Tuesday the completion of the Red Slough restoration project, one of the largest projects to restore healthy salmon habitat in Western Canada.

The project began several years ago after the water turned a rust colour — a sign of low oxygen — and members of the Katzie First Nation found fish belly up. A minimum water flow is needed to allow the salmon to find their natural spawning habitats, say experts.

It then got a major boost in 2021 when B.C. Parks Foundation purchased and protected 295 hectares  in the Upper Pitt River watershed with a major donation from Lightspeed founder Dax Dasilva and his charity Age of Union.

Funding has also come from the World Wildlife Fund, the Lower Fraser Fisheries Alliance, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

“This is a very special moment,” Rick Bailey, a councillor for Katzie First Nation, said Tuesday. “My highest priority as a councillor is fish and wildlife. Because here at Katzie First Nation, we refer to the salmon as family. They’re part of our family.”

Bailey said the work included putting in a culvert with a team of biologists and fishery experts to restore water flow that was cut off by construction on a logging road.

It’s believed now that the water is flowing, salmon will once again thrive. However, there are other contributing factors in salmon mortality, including overfishing, industry, and the effects of human-caused climate change such as drought and heat waves.

For more than 100 years, this part of the Upper Pitt River had been severed from its natural course in reaching Pitt Lake, the largest freshwater tidal lake in the world, according to a news release from the B.C. Parks Foundation Tuesday.

Cutting off the water meant stagnant water channels, dying salmon, and depleted wildlife in hundreds of hectares of prime salmon spawning habitat near Vancouver.

“The Red Slough is naturally rich in iron, and without freshwater flushes, the returning spawning fish often face low-oxygen conditions that significantly increase the risk of death,” said Tse-Lynn Loh, manager of land stewardship for B.C. Parks Foundation, in a statement.

“The area was choked off, gasping for life, but you could just feel the potential for it to be an absolute salmon factory if we could get water back into it,” added Andy Day, the foundation’s CEO.

The restoration project is the type of work the WWF Canada highlighted in a report last year as being vital to meet Canada’s 30 X 30 biodiversity targets.

This target — agreed upon at the COP 15 biodiversity summit in Montreal in 2022 — aims to protect 30 per cent of all land and water by 2030. B.C. has also pledged the same.

Protecting Earth’s biodiversity is linked to climate change mitigation efforts to restore balance in nature.

'Absolute salmon factory': B.C. restoration project shows early signs of success

Read the full story at: https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/highlights/absolute-salmon-factory-bc-restoration-project-shows-early-signs-of-success-9818446

Read more about LFFA’s role in the project at here.


Katzie First Nation reconnects creeks and sloughs with Pitt River in bid to bring back salmon, protect against extreme weather.

Stefan Labbé
a day ago

The upper reaches of a major Metro Vancouver river have been opened up to migrating salmon in what proponents of the project say is one of the largest restoration projects in Western Canada. 

The project, which spans 773 acres of land in the upper Pitt River bought by the BC Parks Foundation in 2021, brought together the federal government, environmental and fishery groups, and the Katzie First Nation. Katzie councillor Rick Bailey said overhauling vast stretches of creeks has breathed new life into his nation's territory. 

“This year, it’s the most sockeye I’ve seen. I was like, hooray!” said Bailey. 

Much of the damage to the watershed's streams stretches back more than 100 years ago, when logging operations helped to cut off tributaries from the Pitt River — a problem that extends beyond the territory of the Katzie and into the wider Lower Fraser River.

Since 1850, a network of culverts, dams, dikes and floodgates have destroyed about 85 per cent of the salmon habitat across the Lower Fraser River from Delta to Hope, according to one 2021 study. Logging, urbanization or reclaiming land for agriculture has erected 1,200 barriers that today prevent salmon from reaching 2,224 kilometres of streams, the researchers found.

The Pitt River restoration projects aim to undo that damage. After digging out sand and gravel, contractors used a series of canals and pipes to direct freshwater from the Pitt River into the once-choked streams. Katzie elders and youth helped replant native shrubs and trees along several kilometres of tributary. 

“We’ve built new spawning channels and protected them so they don’t get blown out in an atmospheric river,” said Bailey. 

Known as ‘The Fish Guy’ among the Katzie, the councillor has long held roles trying to restore salmon in the First Nation’s territory. He said work to bring salmon back accelerated about six years ago when a landslide hit a creek off the Pitt River. Bailey said he went up with a lodge operator and later a biologist. 

"It was a chinook-spawning creek," said Bailey. "We said, 'We got to fix this.'"

Money from the World Wildlife Fund, and later land bought by the BC Parks Foundation, formalized the restoration work that extends across 10 to 15 kilometres of Pitt River tributaries. 

“The area was choked off, gasping for life, but you could just feel the potential for it to be an absolute salmon factory if we could get water back into it,” Andy Day, CEO of the BC Parks Foundation, said in a statement. 

'Fish would go in there and die'

The latest restoration project is the opening up of Red Slough — what could be the largest creek rehabilitation in Western Canada.

Red Slough is naturally rich in iron, so when it was choked of freshwater, oxygen levels dropped, according to Tse-Lynn Loh, the BC Park Foundation’s manager of land stewardship.  

“It was a stagnant slough. The only flow it had was from the tide. Fish would go in there and die,” he said. 

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LFFA celebrates 10+ years of fishers working together

Thanks to everyone who joined us on October 1st , 2nd and 3rd for our celebration.

Check out the report below for a summary of our event:

Katzie FN and WWF release new video on restoration work being done in the Pitt River

March 2024 – Katzie First Nation and their funding partner, World Wildlife Fund Canada, have recently released a new video showcasing the restoration work happening in the Upper Pitt River. LFFA has been a proud partner on this important project since the very beginning – check it out!

Notice: Tier 2 Dry Rack Fishery Meeting

July 2022 – TIER 2 DRY RACK FISHERY MEETING

Tier 2 Dry Rack Fishery Meeting hosted by Seabird Island Band: 

Location: Seabird Island Gymnasium 2895 Chowat Rd, Agassiz, BC V0M 1A0

July 13, 2022 at 6:00pm

Dinner will be provided