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[chris gadsden]

So you are not surprised when you drive by Teskey Rock just above the Vedder Crossing Bridge I have just been informed gravel excavation starts in this area today.

This is being done under a permit given by FOC for gravel and log jam removal for flood protection of the First Nation reserve opposite this area.

This is a first that I know of, gravel being taken out of the Chilliwack River portion of the Chilliwack Vedder River and as well to be done at this time of year. In the past, as most of you know gravel has only taken from the Vedder River during the fishing window in the Summer, during a period of low water.

Maybe they are going to use some of the material to upgrade the dykes along the Fraser River that need raising to protect us here in the Fraser Valley whose homes may be threatened with a large freshet predicted this year but somehow I doubt it.

[fishfinder]

Maybe they are going to use some of the material to upgrade the dykes along the Fraser River that need raising to protect us here in the Fraser Valley whose homes may be threatened with a large freshet predicted this year but somehow I doubt it.

I doubt they'll use it for dykes in the Valley. More likely, they'll use it as concrete mix for the highrise condos in Vancouver.

[Rodney]

[chris gadsden]

Article today on this in the Chilliwack Progress, should be on their web page shortly, if not already.

[Fish Assassin]

How much gravel are we talking about here ?

[chris gadsden]

How much gravel are we talking about here ?

The article says 163,000 cubic metres.

[Derp]

thats alot of gravel!

[bentrod]

do they have to do it now?  Why not wait till most of the fry are out of the gravel?  Also, why do they feel compelled to remove so much woody debris?  I can see if it's behind bridge piers or poses an immediate danger to public or property.  This stinks of a proffit driven opperation. 

[Rodney]

Soowahlie plan includes gravel removal

By Jennifer Feinberg
The Progress
Mar 06 2007

The Soowahlie First Nation is going ahead with a fish-friendly plan to remove gravel and log debris this month from a storm-damaged section of the Chilliwack River.

The approval from Fisheries and Oceans Canada came in last week and the work is starting this week, says Doug Kelly, who’s involved in the project as president of Th’ewali Resources Ltd, a Soowahlie-owned company that will oversee the removal of 163,000 cubic metres of gravel from the river.

“It’s going to be a busy month for Soowahlie,” Kelly says, adding they’ll also do some dike repair to remediate the effects of earlier storms, after the gravel and logjams are removed.

Back in January the band decided something had to be done about the material that was piling up, worried that the buildup could lead to more erosion trouble for the Soowahlie-built dike, especially in light of the heavy snowpack building on local mountaintops.

The material could pose a hazard during future high-water events, or even threaten the Vedder Bridge. But the plan is to conduct the work with a careful eye on maintaining or improving the fish habitat.

“We’ve been mining gravel from the river since the 1950s,” Kelly adds. “We’ve never left our land in a situation where we couldn’t use it for anything else. The principle is quite simple, if you take something from Mother Earth then you have to give something back.”

The Soowahlie in-stream project is not only geared to flood risk prevention but is part of a long-term river management strategy, says Dale Paterson, DFO area chief of habitat and enhancement for the Lower Fraser.

“We haven’t seen anything like this before in this section of the river,” he says.

Gravel removal is more common in the lower section of the river, where the Chilliwack becomes the Vedder River, and is managed by reps on the Vedder River Management Committee.

“So it’s the same river system but once it flows under the bridge, it goes from high-energy to low-energy and so the gravel deposits build up faster in the Vedder section,” Paterson says.

The main river channel has shifted recently away from the Soowahlie side of the river, where it had been pointed.

“So we wanted to get in and do the protection work now during the lower flows, so it doesn’t pose a risk,” Paterson adds. “Theoretically doing the work now will keep the pressure off both banks and keep the flow in the mid-channel area.”

Some flood hazard mitigation work was undertaken in the upper river in 1992, but it didn’t go any further, he says. Now Fisheries and other stakeholders are studying a bigger snapshot of the Chilliwack River, under the aegis of the Chilliwack River Watershed Coalition, with the goal of devising a comprehensive and strategic approach to planning.

“It’s a real powerful process, owned and run by the people who live there,” the DFO official says.

And the Soowahlie gravel project certainly fits the profile of that long-term planning approach, he adds.

“Soowahlie designed the plan and we thought it was a good deal,” says Paterson. “It’s a well-engineered plan and when they’re finished there will be usable fish habitat. Also it takes pressure off the community in terms of safety, it’s building capacity for First Nations and it’s fish-friendly as well.”

The shifting river could one day see the main channel heading toward the reserve side of the river again.

“We’re very encouraged by approach taken by Doug Kelly and the band on this, which is that it’s not about fish versus people, it’s about fish and people. We heard that and we said, ‘Bingo.’ We’re partners in this,” he says. “But it’s going to need ongoing maintenance because it’s such a dynamic river. We know this is only a short-term thing. The gravel will fill in again but this is part of a longer-term process.”

Kelly says there’s also huge potential for sharing the knowledge and the know-how they’ll gain from this project.

“If we can demonstrate success from this, and take the learning from Soowahlie to Chehalis, or Skowlitz, or Seabird, Chawathil or Cheam, we could certainly apply the learning to other parts of the Fraser,” Kelly says.

http://www.theprogress.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=39&cat=23&id=846437&more=

[bentrod]

I'm very weary of engineering a river.  Being a government employee most of my adult life, I've seen this kind of thing go on too many times.  It is easy to say it's all about safety, but the imputes is often financial.  It looks to me like the first nation is worried about loosing land to erosion.  IMHO, the water will eventually go where it wants to.  I know it's way too late for this in most places; but if you have proper land-use planning to begin with, you don't need dikes and don't need to "contain" the river.  When these engineered structures (ie., dikes/levies) fail, the consequences are often more devastating than if the river is in a natural system.   Also, channelizing the river reduces complex river features and essential fish habitat such as gravel bars, woody debris, braided channels, side channels and refuges.  They may have all the best intentions, but where are the fish going to go when the river floods again?  Most likely, they'll be blown into the Frazer. 

[troutbreath]

When you do extensive logging, and the run off overwelms the river you might get some flooding.

Hope they put that in their plans Seen that happen as regular as rain here.

[roeman]

" they are worried about losing land to erosion"
What about what happened on the Chehalis, it is ok there because it suits their needs but on the Vedder it is a different story.
Will this be the way things are from now on, you live on a river, the water rises and floods and it is the rivers problem.  Don't live in that area.  
Are they going to do the same for the farmer that lost his field in last Novembers flood or just for those who give back so much to the community by taking everything they can from the gov't and the rivers and sit around the banks of the fraser and get hammered in the summer....

Don't like where the river flows. move somewhere else...

[Nicole]

Are they going to do the same for the farmer that lost his field in last Novembers flood or just for those who give back so much to the community by taking everything they can from the gov't and the rivers and sit around the banks of the fraser and get hammered in the summer....

I'd certainly hope not, word it the owner of that property is an ex land developer who purchased the property a few years back, hence the fancy house few of us could ever afford. Contracts the land out to the farmer to work the land, and have farm status, which is taxed at almost nothing.

Nice work if you can get it.

:/
Nicole

[Xgolfman]

I'm falling pretty much on the bands side on this for now...with snowpacks being some of the largest in recent decades...we could very easily see another HUGE blow out....From the pic's etc. I think they are planning on it happening and protecting themselves...Till I see otherwise, I think they were pretty smart on this move!!!

[bentrod]

Rain on snow events happen every year, and so do minor floods.  There's a reason they call catastrophic events 100-year events, they typically only happen every 100 years or so.  Unless all this wood is going to certainly mobilize and take out infrastructure, I'd let it be.  It's providing great habitat and slowing the velocity of the river down.  Gravel mining will not remedy flood problems, the river can jump the bank at any point in the flow.  Once it's over the bank, there's little you can do to get it back.  I think the First Nation should let the river do what it wants and just make sure they don't build in a flood plain.