Wetlands Threatened by Expanding Industustrial Developments on Langley and Abbotsford Border

5/7/2019

Brit Gardner - I went for a Langley walk yesterday along the West Creek headwaters, in Gloucester Industrial Estates. Close to where I grew up. Thanks to the beavers, these wetlands are a beautiful, thriving, and complete ecosystem. The creek headwaters are home to salmon spawning, geese, ducks, rare and migratory birds, rabbits, and countless other wildlife.

Beavers are incredible ecosystem engineers! Here they have taken a sensitive area that was previously damaged and disrupted by all of the surrounding industrial activity, and rehabilitated it best they could to survive.

Beavers build and maintain critical wetlands by daming streams and creeks and flooding surrounding areas with shallow water. With the help of beaver activity, the waters become the optimal depth and temperature to support fish spawning, which then feed the river and promote numerous other wild species.

Humans have much to learn from beavers about repairing and preserving habitats, and we are! Wetlands are absolutely crucial to our overall environment for many reasons, ranging from their support of fish populations and those who depend on them, to incredible carbon capture, which helps offset our own adjacent human activity. The resilience of nature is impressive, but it isn’t absolute.

Because these wetlands are adjacent to land we have previously put industrial buildings on, the current owner wants to fill this all in, bulldoze it and cut down all the remaining trees, and put in more warehouses. Our local elected officials, some of whom took campaign money from this developer to get elected, may soon vote to allow this amazing habitat to be destroyed! So much money can be made off these trees coming down and it getting paved over. And to do their “job”, they are counting on nobody seeing this before it happens.

It’s amazing how money can blind people. In many cases, it’s the blind leading the blind.

The development proponent does not live anywhere near our community. He owns land all over the lower mainland and probably plucked this one off a map because it’s well positioned to make him $10s of millions of dollars if our own city leaders vote yes to bulldozing it for some more industrial buildings! Money talks, and some people are simply afraid to say no.

The value of this property in a portfolio is based on the potential rezoning for its destruction. For that to happen, our elected Mayor and Council must be stocked with people willing to look the other way, pretending they are doing it for the best.

Since he doesn’t live here, I doubt the developer has any idea of the ecological value of this beautiful area. If he did, I don’t imagine he would be directing his company to bulldoze it rather than steward it. One of the wealthiest people in Vancouver, no amount of “giving back” would ever make up for this loss.

If this were my property, I’d make it park, and welcome an outdoor school campus for children, to teach them about the environment and complete ecosystems, and how to be good stewards of the land we live and work on.

We elect leaders among us to take care of these areas and ensure they remain properly protected and stewarded. Our elected leaders must educate out-of-town developers on the provincial and federal protections in place for wetlands like these, and ensure municipal protections are in place too.
I believe we have a responsibility to educate ourselves, and advocate for the health of ecosystems on which we truly depend. We do not depend on paving this over for another warehouse parking lot.

Editors Note

The West Creek Wetlands are just west of Nathan Creek watershed in Abbotsford, BC. Sandwiched in the middle of these two creeks is 286 hectares of industrial development known as Gloucester Industrial Estates, which was once protected by the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR). It was excluded from the ALR in 1978.

Since 2004, developers have turned their sights on 134 hectares of ALR land on the edge of Abbotsford and Gloucester, entirely within the Nathan Creek watershed. Nathan Creek and West Creek are 2 of the 15 designated sensitive creeks in BC. They are listed by name in Schedule B of the Water Sustainability Regulation. Nearly 170 different species of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, 22 of which are endangered or threatened, call this area home. Both creeks are Coho and Chum salmon spawning creeks. West Creek has a small but stable population of resident and sea-going Cutthroat Trout. Abbotsford Mission Nature Club has identified many species including the Oregon Forest Snail, Pacific Water Shrew, Northern Red Legged Frog, Western Toad, Barn Owl, Great Blue Heron, Short-eared Owl, Western Screech Owl; Barn Swallow, and Townsend Big Eared Bat. The area contains tributaries to Nathan Creek and industrial development will rely 100% on Nathan Creek for storm drainage. If an industrial park is built in the Nathan Creek watershed, its tributaries will be significantly impacted by environmental degradation, and instability from upland drainage, resulting in declines of salmon population, slope failures in riparian areas threatening both sensitive streams Abbotsford and Langley.

To date, the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) has turned down all three of the attempts to exclude the 134 hectares at the edge of Abbotsford. But the developer, Pacific Land Resource Group Inc., has recently purchased the greater majority of the properties within it.

Pacific Land Group Inc. will likely apply for a fourth time for an ALR exclusion to rezone for industry despite huge community member opposition - the developer has full support from the City of Abbotsford Mayor and the majority of Council in trade for $20,000/acre contribution to the "Agricultural Enhancement Endowment Fund", an 'exparte' fund established by the City of Abbotsford. The fund is controlled directly by the Abbotsford Mayor and Corporate Officer - who are authorized to execute all documents relating to the amount and use of funds.

The future of these sensitive areas rests with the ALC. Tell them what you think by contacting them directly.

Contact the ALC

Contact...

Lana Popham, Minister of Agriculture
lana.popham.MLA@leg.bc.ca

Agricultural Land Commission
133 - 4940 Canada Way
Burnaby, BC, Canada
V5G 4K6
ALCBurnaby@Victoria1.gov.bc.ca
604-660-7000

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