Vancouver's Urban Streams See Biggest Salmon Returns In 80 Years

After decades of use and abuse, many former salmon streams in the Vancouver, BC area are again teeming with life. In one stream the returns are the biggest seen in 80 years as Chum return to rehabilitated waterways once again.

Stream rehabilitation projects since the 1990's are starting to pay off and salmon are being seen in waters previously degraded and suffering the effects of insensitive development and pollution.

Many projects, often run by volunteers, have improved gravel spawning beds, restored stream bank vegetation to prevent erosion, and added ladder improvements and Large Woody Debris to expand available habitat. Culverts are often a barrier to fish movement, and projects also remediate these blockages.

How much money do developers and logging companies add to these restoration projects that clean up the messes made as a result of their environmental exploitation? I would expect the answer is "little to none". As usual, the private sector gets the profits, and the public sector (the rest of us) pays to repair the damage.

But it sure is good to see that we can atone for their sins, and bring the salmon back.

Read more here.