BC Creek Protection Society

Damien Gillis and Rafe Mair produced a video on the impacts of Salmon Farming on wild Pink Salmon. This ties into our concerns of RoR development on free flowing rivers since industrial development in wilderness areas is inherently linked to ecological impacts. We believe that the impacts due to currently proposed and carried out RoR development in BC are so poorly understood that it is impossible to gauge future impacts on our ecosystems. We therefore try to stress the need for a precautionary approach to any industrial/commercial use of free flowing rivers and their ecosystems. It is also interesting to note that the Glendale River flows into Knight Inlet, close to the Klinaklini River. Please watch the video on “Collapse of Salmon From Fish Farms - Glendale Grizzlies: In the Absence of Salmon” Damien writes: “Save Our Rivers Society is pleased to present a new film by POWERPLAY producer Damien Gillis, teaming with Save Our Rivers’ official spokesperson and longtime wild salmon advocate Rafe Mair. The film, “Glendale Grizzlies: In the Absence of Salmon” is a preview of a forthcoming series, S.O.S.: The State of Our Salmon, that will discuss the importance of salmon for our environment, economy, and cultures - as well as examining historic impacts on our wild salmon, culminating in fish farm devastation on the coast, and new threats on the horizon, including the pine beetle and private river power projects on potentially hundreds of our rivers and streams. Time to start saving our wild salmon - as Rafe Mair says, “the soul of our province.” That means no more salmon farms, no urban sprawl developments on top of prime fish and wildlife habitat (see Silverdale in Mission), and no private river power!”

The BC Creek Protection Society is hosting three seminars on Vancouver Island. The purpose of the meetings is to raise awareness about proposed hydropower development on Vancouver Island and the Coast Range (including Bute Inlet and the Klinaklini: http://www.klinaklini.info). We hope to learn from and discuss with affected First Nations groups potential positive and negative impacts. BC CPS can offer independent insight on current knowledge about ecological impacts and the environmental assessment process. June 2nd Port Hardy 6:30-8:30 PM, Civic Center June 3rd Gold River 6:30- 8:30PM, The Ridge Pub June 4th Alert Bay 6:00-8:00PM, ICNRC

MAY 24 - RIVERS AT RISK: RAFE MAIR COMES TO THE SALMON CAPITAL OF THE WORLD TO DISCUSS WITH PUBLIC AND FIRST NATIONS THE THREATS OF PRIVATE RIVER POWER TO THREE MAJOR LOCAL WATERSHEDS (more…)

The Klinaklini River, approximately 200 Km long, passes between some of the tallest and most remote peaks in the Coastal Mountain Range. With a mean annual discharge of close to 200 cubic meters per second (cms) and peak flows reaching as high as 18,000 cms the Klinaklini River is one of the largest rivers in the province. Home to large populations of threatened Grizzly Bear and Marbled Murrelet, this drainage currently encompasses some of least fragmented habitat on the Canadian West Coast. With recorded Salmon, Steelhead and Eulachon runs in the lower river found to be some of the largest in the Georgia Basin. Kleana Power Corp, a junior energy corporation without any currently successful projects, has recently proposed to develop the largest private Run-of-River generating facility in BC’s history with an average generating capacity of 280 MW and a peak capacity of 700 MW. Pristine Power Inc. quotes annual generated power to be 2400 GWh. This equals approximately to 50% of the power expected from Site C. In order to create a generating capacity this large, generating and transmission infrastructure of large proportion will be necessary. For more information visit: www.klinaklini.info

Who benefits from privatization? By Diana French - Williams Lake Tribune - October 23, 2007 Public or private. That is the question. The issue won’t go away. (more…)

The public input period for the Klinaklini River starts today (Sep 17 2007) and will last until Oct 17 2007: http://www.eao.gov.bc.ca/epic/output/html/deploy/epic_document_289_24684.html The Klinaklini River is located at the head of Knight Inlet, 100 km east of Port McNeil. The Klinaklini is considered one of the Grat Canadian Rivers in a pristine wilderness setting of the Coastal Mountains around Mt. Waddington. The Klinaklini is one of the largest Rivers in the Coastal Range with a mean annual flow of 190 cubic meters per second. The proposed project is by far the biggest run-of-river project proposed so far. The project will have a peak output (during high flow at snowmelt) of 700 MW. The capacity (averaged over the year) is supposed to be 280 MW which puts the projects among the 10 biggest power projects in British Columbia. The tunnel for water diversion is proposed to be 10 m in diameter and 180 km of new transmission lines have to be build. It is difficult to grasp the scale of this development. Please take some time to learn about the project at: http://www.eao.gov.bc.ca/epic/output/html/deploy/epic_project_home_289.html Under “Document Index” you will find documents that detail the project. Public input is critical for proper management of our rivers and it is up to us to provide this input. If we don’t sit down and take some time to learn about and criticize the projects these great Canadian rivers will be irreversibly changed.