C all to Action
the SAVING SKEENA One of Earth’s Greatest Anadromous Systems Needs Your Help
by Ken Morrish
A
cross the border our friends in British Columbia, especially the residents of the majestic Skeena Watershed — home to the largest wild steelhead and Chinook salmon in the world — need our help. I would like to tell you that the issue is simple, a single proposed mine or oil pipeline, but the litany of challenges facing the mighty Skeena are numerous, well financed, and daunting. At its core the issues stem from the fracking and tar sands boom and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s very public goal of turning Canada into an “energy superpower.” Existing environmental laws have been gutted on both the federal and provincial level in hopes of turning one of the world’s greatest wild salmon and steelhead systems into an industrialized energy corridor and exportation hub. PAGE 88
The administration’s end goals for the watershed include but are not limited to the following: • Completion of the Enbridge Northern Gateway oil pipeline • Four additional large diameter liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipelines • Thirteen proposed LNG projects including liquefaction and exportation facilities • Massive dredging at the estuary and mouth of the Skeena River • Tens of billions of dollars in related industrial infrastructure For the residents of the watershed as well as the thousands of fly anglers and sportsmen that visit the region annually, it is hard to imagine this future. The impacts
on fish habitat from simply building these mega pipelines through this rugged and seismically active region will only be the tip of the iceberg. Even more frightening is the severe and inevitable acidification of the watershed caused by the emissions of the LNG facilities (as a single such facility will burn almost as much gas as the entire Vancouver, B.C. metropolitan area annually). Add to that the dredging of millions of cubic meters of sediment from the Skeena’s critical estuarine nursery habitat, massive tanker traffic and the unwillingness of the provincial government to revamp their arcane commercial fishing practices, and it becomes all too easy to envision the end of one of the last great places. On the bright side, the 65,000 residents of the Skeena Watershed have a long and distinguished history of defending the river and landscape upon which they depend. To date they have stopped dams, oil pipelines, fracking sites and the spread of aquaculture to the Skeena’s mouth. Now they and the organizations fighting for the Skeena need our help and resources to ensure Ottawa’s industrialized vision of the future does not become a reality. The Wild Salmon Center (WSC), the international organization that protects the North Pacific’s best wild salmon and steelhead rivers (“strongholds”), is partnering with Terrace-based SkeenaWild, one of B.C.’s leading wild fish organizations. This strategic partnership will combine the Wild Salmon Center’s global conservation experience and network with SkeenaWild’s strong track record and its deep connection to the region’s communities. A WSC-SkeenaWild partnership significantly bolsters the odds that we can safeguard one of the world’s greatest remaining wild fish strongholds. The bottom line is this: The Skeena is an international treasure that needs all of our help to survive. Please become involved and support the organizations below by: 1) signing up for their email newsletters and social media pages; and 2) making a generous charitable donation to support their efforts to ensure the Skeena thrives for generations to come.
The Skeena Watershed
Save the Skeena SkeenaWild: www.skeenawild.org Wild Salmon Center: www.wildsalmoncenter.org Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition:
www.skeenawatershed.com
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