March 28, 2024

Site C construction will destroy irreplaceable wetlands – The Narwhal

Peace Valley residents and avid birders knew it was coming but that doesn’t make the destruction of an irreplaceable wetland any easier. 

This month, BC Hydro is set to drain and log Watson Slough to make way for the Site C dam in northwest B.C. Beavers will be trapped and euthanized and their dams will be destroyed to release the water from the wetlands.

The slough, a collection of differ…….

Peace Valley residents and avid birders knew it was coming but that doesn’t make the destruction of an irreplaceable wetland any easier. 

This month, BC Hydro is set to drain and log Watson Slough to make way for the Site C dam in northwest B.C. Beavers will be trapped and euthanized and their dams will be destroyed to release the water from the wetlands.

The slough, a collection of different types of wetlands stretching 20 hectares — roughly the size of 25 Canadian football fields — is a beloved nature area in the Peace River Valley renowned for birdwatching and visited by hundreds of schoolchildren over the years. It’s home to at-risk species like the yellow rail, a small marsh bird that hides among the grasses, and the stocky western toad. Elk, black bears, beavers, deer and muskrats also use the wetland along Highway 29 west of Fort St. John.

BC Hydro says it is going to replace the wetlands the controversial hydroelectric project destroys, but experts warn that wetlands are like old growth forests and can’t truly be replaced. 

“One of the things we’ve known for years now, for decades, is that wetlands aren’t really replaceable,” Rebecca Rooney, a wetland ecologist at the University of Waterloo, told The Narwhal in an interview. “The idea that we can destroy things and then recreate them at our convenience is just a beautiful lie.”

The Site C dam could destroy close to 800 hectares of wetland in the Peace River Valley, according to the 2014 federal-provincial environmental assessment report. 

BC Hydro’s goal is to preserve the net function of the wetlands that will be destroyed, spokesperson Bob Gammer said in a statement to The Narwhal. To do that the utility company is working with Ducks Unlimited Canada to build new marshes and conserve existing wetlands at risk of destruction by other projects. The non-profit has restored hundreds of wetlands in B.C. since 1968. According to BC Hydro, most of the newly constructed wetlands will be marshes or shallow open water areas.

But not all wetlands are the same. 

Grassy marshes are a far cry from tufa seeps (rare, mossy, hillside wetlands) that take thousands of years to form. There are seven tufa seeps within the Site C project area and at least five will be destroyed. So will the only marl fen, another rare wetland found at Watson Slough, which supports a rich array of plants.

At least five tufa seeps, rare and irreplaceable hillside wetlands, will be destroyed by the Site C dam. Photo: Garth Lenz / The Narwhal

BC Hydro has itself acknowledged tufa seeps and marl fens “are unusual ecosystems that cannot be recreated,” according to the environmental assessment report.

The utility …….

Source: https://thenarwhal.ca/site-c-construction-to-destroy-wetlands/