On the Peace River — Mark Meiers doesn’t shy from conflict. The hard-nosed, square-jawed Fort St. John area ranch owner points his six-metre-long jet boat towards a series of shoreline signs he’s never seen before, just upstream of B.C. Hydro’s planned Site C dam.

“Warning, river closed ahead,” they read. “Dam construction area. Please return upstream.”

Meiers scoffs at the notion of closing a major navigable waterway such as the Peace. “B.C. Hydro is up to its bullying game,” he says over the roar of his 200-horsepower engine. “No boating, my ass. As long as there’s water, I’ll boat.”

He continues downstream through olive-green waters towards a new steel bridge linking construction sites on the south and north bank, then deliberately weaves in and out of the bridge foundations, just to annoy Hydro officials.

The tactic seems to work. A Hydro vessel soon appears to monitor Meiers actions from a healthy distance. “I have a motto in life: if you’re going to be a bear, be a grizzly,” he says.

Construction of Site C — $8.3 billion plus a $400-million contingency fund — began in July and now employs about 700 workers on tasks such as logging, road building, and construction of housing camps.

Given all the construction work, you’d think the protest battle is over and it’s time to accept reality.

Nothing could be further from the minds of protesters. Sure, they wince at the 700 hectares logged to date. “When my two kids were little we’d camp here,” Meiers says of an island near the dam site. “I watched Hydro cut those trees down. Pretty sad.”

Protesters also appreciate that the main reservoir — not counting tributaries — will be 83 kilometres long and that it is still early days for the eight-year megaproject. 

Meiers points far upriver to vast forests of standing timber snaking into the distance and says: “Look at this. Mother Nature went all out when she made this. Why would anyone in their right mind want to destroy it?”

The tour passes three pairs of bald eagles nesting in forests upriver from the Site C construction. A black bear stands on its hind legs for a better look at our boat, then scoots into the forest. And a lone mule deer travelling along the riverbank powers straight up the bank and out of sight.

Arthur Hadland is a former district lands manager and area director on the Peace River Regional District who is battling melanoma. He scans an exposed section of black shale on the north bank, overlaid with clay, as evidence of slope instability and the prospect for slides long after the dam is built.

“Just terrible,” he says. “I don’t know how it can be stable. Eventually, it will slough in.”

Hydro says it has established preliminary impact lines around the Site C reservoir, in part, to ensure public safety, following studies of shoreline topography and geology — combinations of bedrock, old-river gravels, sand, silt and clay lake deposits, and glacial till.

Opponents are clinging to the hope that the courts will achieve what other protest tactics have not, including a 62-day protest at the historic Rocky Mountain Fort site before Hydro obtained a court order to have it ended. The site is marked on the river with a fluttering B.C. flag.

“We were a thorn in their side,” Meiers said. “Had them stone-cold stopped. If we’d had more public support on the ground, we’d still be there today.”

Dave Conway, Hydro’s community relations manager for Site C, noted that four judicial reviews of environmental approvals of Site C brought by the Peace Valley Landowners Association, the West Moberly First Nation and the Prophet River First Nation have been dismissed — two in Federal Court and two in B.C. Supreme Court. Appeals have been filed in three cases. Additionally, a judicial review of a number of provincial permits was heard in B.C. Supreme Court in November 2015 and February 2016 on applications from West Moberly and Prophet River. A decision has yet to be issued in that case.

What if the cases go badly for Hydro, what of all the work done and the contracts let? “We’re doing the work that we can do with the permits,” Conway would only say.

Meiers argues that Premier Christy Clark is hoping to quickly accomplish as much as possible in the hope no court would reject the project. “She’ll run this job past the point of no return,” he asserts. “That’s bullshit.”

Esther and Poul Pedersen live on 65 hectares of farmland overlooking the dam construction. They allowed a protest cabin to move through their land and be placed on the lip of the north bank, on Crown land. 

More than half of their property is behind the reservoir stability line, they say, making it pretty much a sure thing they will have to move if the dam is constructed. “We’re waiting on the court cases, waiting in La La Land like everyone else in the valley,” Esther Pedersen said.

She is among a handful of locals named in a Hydro civil suit for their participation in the protest camp at Rocky Mountain Fort. “I was never a camper there,” she said. 

As for those signs stating the Peace River is closed, Hydro concedes it overstepped its bounds and is having decals placed over them. Any closure is still a couple of years away, and the federal government requires Hydro to create a portage system for vessels around the dam site. 

“The permanent river closure timing is still to be determined,” Conway said. “The plan is to keep the river navigable as long as feasible.” 

 lpynn@postmedia.com  

The Wilderness Committee is seeking immediate protection for 700 hectares of forest land in the West Kootenay following a new video showing countless western toads — a species of concern — crawling around logging equipment in the Summit Lake area near Nakusp.

“The toads are everywhere,” campaigner Gwen Barlee said in an interview Wednesday. “They’re in the cutblocks, on the road … under the tires of logging equipment. There’s no way in a million years that you can log in this habitat without killing toads left, right and centre.”

The B.C. government spent almost $200,000 to build a toad tunnel underneath Highway 6. More than a million toadlets migrate at once, moving en mass from the lake across the highway to forested habitat where they live for four or five years before returning to the lake to breed.

The Ministry of Transportation has called the event “among the great wildlife migrations in the world” and a “natural phenomenon.”

Protecting the migration route for toadlets later in summer leaving the lake is one thing, but one must also protect the area’s forest habitat in which they live for years, she said. 

“It’s so asinine,” Barlee continued. “I scratch my head. They turn around after they build the tunnel and allow their critical habitat to be destroyed. It says, ‘this is how we do logging in B.C., a province with no endangered species legislation.’ It’s clear as day this is going to be a disaster.

“We need the B.C. government to step in right now.”

Greig Bethel, spokesperson for the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, said staff met with Nakusp and Area Community Forest, which has logging rights in the area, on Tuesday.

“Our understanding is that the company will not be logging until winter,” he said.

The company recently graded the Summit Lake Forest Service Road but not because logging is imminent and will not grade if toads are present, he said.

He added that “any use” of the road by the public could potentially harm toads.

Hugh Watt, general manager for Nakusp and Area Community Forest, said the Wilderness Committee photos show heavy equipment present but not actually at work grading and that he finds the portrayal of the company “personally and professionally slanderous.”

lpynn@postmedia.com

with Canadian Press

Western toad in front of logging grader at Summit Lake, BC.

The federal government has appointed two British Columbians to a three-member review panel for the environmental assessment of the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 project in South Delta.

The panel includes David Levy, president of Levy Research Services Ltd. in North Vancouver. He has more than 30 years of experience providing scientific and management advice in fisheries and aquatic ecology. His clients have included the University of British Columbia, CP Rail, Vancouver Airport Authority, the federal government and First Nations. He also provided advice to the Cohen inquiry into the decline of Fraser River sockeye salmon.

Also named is Diana Valiela, who obtained her law degree from UBC and also holds a PhD and master’s degree in zoology from Duke University. She has served as adjunct professor in the UBC faculty of law and has worked with research and water-quality divisions of Environment Canada. She has served on numerous boards, panels and committees including the public review panel on the federal moratorium on B.C. offshore oil and gas in 2003-2004 and as a member of the National Energy Board.

Chair of the Roberts Bank 2 panel is Jocelyne Beaudet, a communications consultant with more than 30 years of experience in various fields related to the environment and public participation. The Nova Scotia resident served as a member of the Joint Review Panel for BC Hydro’s Site C dam.

The Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project is a proposed new three-ship container terminal near Tsawwassen.

lpynn@postmedia.com

B.C.’s largest hunting and fishing organization said Thursday it expects the province to require hunters to remove edible portions of a grizzly bear carcass. The regulation is already in place for black bears and other large game animals.

“We’ve supported the retention of grizzly bear meat,” Jesse Zeman, spokesman for the 50,000-member B.C. Wildlife Federation, said in an interview Thursday. “Sustainability, that’s the unifying theme, the big picture we’re pushing. How do we make sure we have grizzlies … 80 years from now?”

Zeman said that based on talks with provincial officials, the regulation should be adopted later this year. The federation would favour such a move, as it does news Thursday that the B.C. auditor general’s office is going to investigate grizzly bear management in the province.

Vivian Thomas, spokesperson for the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, said in response: “If any changes are made, they will be publicly communicated.”

Zeman said the federation supports more frequent inventories of grizzly populations as well as studies into cumulative impacts on the species, including habitat loss and traffic and railway-related deaths.

A requirement to remove edible portions of a grizzly bear carcass from the field, touted by Green party MLA Andrew Weaver in a private member’s bill in 2015, is not expected to carry much weight with long-standing opponents of the grizzly bear hunt.

“The motivation to shoot grizzly bears is not to obtain meat to eat,” responded Faisal Moola, the David Suzuki Foundation’s director-general for Ontario and Northern Canada. “This is not a food hunt, like bagging a deer or goose or moose for your table or freezer. The motivation to kill this majestic animal is purely for sport and sometimes for profit.

“Hunters motivated to shoot a grizzly for the thrill of it, I can’t understand how putting an additional obligation on them to remove the carcass is going to dissuade them from the practice. This is nowhere in line with the expectations of the vast majority of British Columbians to end the grizzly hunt.”

Zeman said he knows of resident grizzly hunters who eat the meat. “We call it grizzly bear hunting,” he said. “Bear ham and pepperoni are phenomenal.” He noted the meat must be well-cooked to avoid contracting trichinosis, a roundworm infection.

Scott Ellis, executive director of the Guide Outfitters Association of B.C., which caters to foreign trophy hunters, said he supports science-based wildlife management, adding: “I am pleased the auditor general is reviewing the grizzly bear science used in B.C. because it is world class.”

Zeman was involved in a 2009 study that showed that only about two per cent of resident limited-entry hunters listed trophy hunting as their prime motivation for shooting wild game. 

Premier Christy Clark has stood by the grizzly hunting despite repeated polls showing widespread public opposition to the blood sport.

A statement on the auditor general’s website states: “The purpose of this audit is to determine if the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations are effectively managing the grizzly bear population in B.C.”

Steve Thomson, minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, said in a written statement that the province “manages all wildlife, including grizzly bears, on the principle of conservation first” followed by First Nations’ needs.

About 35 per cent of B.C. is closed to grizzly hunting, he said, adding the province has created three grizzly bear management areas in the Great Bear Rainforest totalling 1.16 million hectares, 470,000 of which were previously open for hunting. 

“Grizzly bear hunting is the most carefully monitored hunt in the province,” administered entirely through limited-hunts for residents and a quota for guide outfitters, he said. 

The province estimates the current grizzly population at 15,000, with an average 272 bears killed annually in the past five years by licensed hunters — just under two per cent annually of the total estimated population.

Environmentalists welcomed the auditor general’s actions.

“We hope this investigation will answer troubling questions we’ve raised about failed government policy that is allowing trophy hunters to kill too many grizzlies,” Moola said.

The foundation and the University of Victoria Environmental Law Centre requested the investigation after providing the auditor general with a scientific study suggesting that B.C.’s approach to grizzly bear management is failing to protect the species.

The study by scientists from Raincoast Conservation Foundation, Simon Fraser University, University of Victoria and the Hakai Institute was published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE and analyzed 35 years of grizzly bear mortality data in the province. It suggested that the provincial government is failing to keep kills below its own upper targets for bears killed by humans, and that government limits on bear mortality are regularly being exceeded in management areas throughout B.C. due to the trophy hunt.

“Decisions to expand the hunt in 2013 ran counter to our conclusions, casting doubt on the assertion that this is a science-based hunt,” added Kyle Artelle, a biologist with Raincoast.

Environmental groups report that about 300 grizzlies are killed each year in the province’s annual trophy hunt and that grizzlies have also been eliminated from roughly 18 per cent of their original habitat in B.C. because of human impacts on habitat and other pressures. At least nine grizzly sub-populations in the province, including the North Cascades grizzly population east of Vancouver, are now on the verge of elimination, they add. 

“All British Columbians have a stake in ensuring B.C.’s grizzly populations are healthy,” Moola said. “Data on where and how many grizzlies are shot in the province should be clear and available to anyone.”

lpynn@postmedia.com

The Dirt on Drones 

Shaw Sabey and Associates Ltd. of Vancouver compiled data for The Vancouver Sun on unmanned aerial vehicles — commonly known as drones — based on 200 commercial applications received for insurance quotes across Canada. The insurance brokerage firm noted it is a common misconception that a homeowner’s or commercial general liability policy extends to flying a drone; in fact, it is a standard exclusion.

Percentage of commercial operators that also hold a pilot’s licence — 9

Average value of commercial drones — $3,861

Percentage of urban areas of operation — 26

Average hours of experience operating a drone — 75

Percentage of drone use in commercial photography — 36

Average premium quote for commercial insurance — $650

Minimum liability insurance required by Transport Canada — $100,000

Percentage of drones flown for work and/or research — 82

The current global market for drones — $2 billion.

A BC Hydro transmission line, buried for decades inside the George Massey Tunnel, may be relocated onto massive towers over bucolic Deas Island Regional Park as a result of construction of the new bridge linking Delta and Richmond.

Hydro currently runs a 230-kilovolt transmission line through the four-lane Massey tunnel, which Queen Elizabeth II opened in 1959. It is being replaced with a 10-lane, $3.5-billion bridge.

While the bridge won’t be opened until 2022, Hydro is expected to begin work on rerouting its transmission line as early as this fall.

Hydro has a right-of-way in the middle of Deas Island Park and is looking at three options for relocating its transmission line, with the preferred option involving the construction of two steel lattice transmission towers on Deas Island.

The towers would stand 75 and 120 metres tall — about half the height of the bridge — with bases measuring about 20-by-20 metres.

The former site of a salmon cannery, 70-hectare Deas Island Regional Park is popular for rowing and paddling (in Deas Slough), walks through the alder and cottonwood forests, and picnics alongside the main channel of the Fraser River.

A new Metro Vancouver report by regional division manager Marcin Pachcinski notes that the towers are one of a slew of anticipated impacts from the new bridge — including on surrounding farmland, regional growth patterns, air emissions, neighbouring Green Slough, noise and visual quality. 

Despite the visual impacts, Hydro believes that running the line across the Fraser River on towers would be the safest solution, and easiest for access and maintenance post-installation.

Hydro spokesperson Simi Heer said it is unknown how many trees must be removed, but said the project would “aim to minimize vegetation and environmental footprint impacts.”

Two other options under consideration include a transmission line located on the new bridge and an underground transmission line beneath the Fraser River.

A Ministry of Transportation contractor already has pile-driving equipment assembled next to the tunnel and the park to test for soil density. The results will help guide companies wishing to bid on the bridge contract, said ministry spokesman Ryan Jabs.

lpynn@postmedia.com

This is what the new Massey Bridge could look like.

The provincial government has issued new guidelines on how conservation officers should exercise discretion in the field when deciding to kill or spare the lives of bears and other large carnivores that come into conflict with humans. 

The new policies follow international controversy last July when a conservation officer was suspended and subsequently transferred to another job for refusing a superior’s order to kill two young black bear cubs on Vancouver Island.

“I cannot speak to that specific incident,” Chris Doyle, deputy chief of B.C.’s Conservation Officer Service, said Tuesday in an interview. “What I can say is that the (new) procedure provides the information to officers who can make decisions in the field based on the criteria on what makes a bear a good candidate for rehab or not.”

A copy of the guidelines provided to The Vancouver Sun reads, in part: “There are many variables that can influence the response to conflicts with large carnivores and officer discretion is not superseded by policy or procedure. An officer must be prepared to rationalize their decision-making when it varies from this procedure.”

Said Doyle: “The procedure provides the tools for the officers to have the ability to make the decisions. The officers in the field can make those calls, and here’s the criteria on how those decisions can be made. The reality is we want the cubs to stay wild if we can and keep them with their moms.”

Section 79 of the Wildlife Act states that conservation officers “may kill an animal, other than a domestic animal, that is at large and is likely to harm persons, property, wildlife or wildlife habitat.” 

Doyle noted that the availability of rehab centres to handle wildlife is also an issue, noting, for example, that Critter Care Wildlife Society in Langley was full with bear cubs last year. “This spring, we released 30 bears from that facility.”

The guidelines state that consideration should be given to the rearing and release of orphaned black bear cubs that are considered suitable candidates. “Young of the year must not display high levels of habituation to humans or be conditioned to human food sources.”

Officers have the option of contacting a wildlife vet or regional biologist if they require further clarification. “Only young of the year are candidates. Orphaned yearling black bears will be left in the wild.”

Grizzly bears are given priority over black bears for space in rehab centres, according to B.C. government guidelines.

Bears will only be relocated short distances where there is “no or very limited indication of food conditioning and no indication of aggressiveness” and where bears are healthy and not requiring parental care to survive. Those released will be fitted with an ear tag, electronic tag, tattoo (lip and groin), and preferably a transmitter. 

Grizzly bears are given priority over black bears for space in rehab centres, according to the guidelines, and can be moved over long distances such as to areas where populations are low.

The policy also states that ranchers are “required to follow best management practices for cattle and sheep to reduce the risk of conflict” with wolves and coyotes.

It adds: “Where a conflict caused by a wolf pack has been confirmed, the pack may be removed (killed).”

Wolves and coyotes with cubs can only be killed if a den is established within an area actively used by livestock during the spring and summer seasons and where livestock losses and harassment of livestock are confirmed.

Capture and relocation of cougars and wolves are not permitted under the policy, other than juveniles taken into permanent captivity where appropriate. 

Cougars are considered low risk and non-threatening if they are viewing humans from a distance, taking flight, or showing lack of attention. High-risk behaviour includes crouching, tail twitching, intensive staring, ears flattened, body low to the ground, rear legs pumping, or fur standing out.

Large carnivores should be destroyed when they show aggression to humans or become conditioned to human food.

Last July, a female black bear was killed for raiding a property for food near Port Hardy on northern Vancouver Island. Conservation officer Bryce Casavant refused to kill the two eight-week-old cubs and instead took them to the non-profit North Island Wildlife Recovery Association.

The cubs are due for release back to the wild later this summer, equipped with GPS collars to monitor their movements.

Conservation officers fall under the Ministry of Environment, but the new procedures were produced by the Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations, which is responsible for the management of wildlife in the province.

“We had input,” Doyle said. “I support the document.”

lpynn@postmedia.com

Preventing and Responding to Conflicts With Large Carnivor…

WestJet may have a reputation for its convivial flight crews, but take their photos without permission and you could become the subject of a police investigation.

That’s what happened this week during the flight of a WestJet 737 jet from Toronto to Vancouver.

According to a Transport Canada report, the WestJet crew witnessed “a few passengers on board who were taking pictures of everything. They felt it was suspicious so they asked to have police meet the flight upon arrival.”

With a translator’s help, police interviewed a “multitude of passengers” who “spoke a different language” not English or French, the report reads. Officers determined “they were simply taking pictures as they were on vacation and were unaware they should have asked the crew if it was okay.

“They apologized and deleted all pictures of the crew.”

WestJet spokesman Robert Palmer said Friday he was unaware of the incident but noted that the Transport Canada report is preliminary and unconfirmed.

He also noted that “anything that takes place on a flight that is deemed to be noteworthy is communicated out in the form of a dispatch or bulletin to us. This wasn’t.

“That said, if this account is to be taken as accurate, it certainly sounds as if it was all a misunderstanding and was resolved.”

lpynn@postmedia.com

Professional protesters may steal the headlines, but the vast majority of First Nations in northern B.C. are squarely on board with LNG development, John Rustad, the B.C. minister of aboriginal relations and reconciliation, said Friday.

Rustad, who was attending a Greater Vancouver Board of Trade forum, said the province has achieved 90-per-cent success so far in negotiating benefit agreements with First Nations related to LNG development in the North.

Some 36 First Nations are affected by natural gas development, primarily by extraction facilities and pipelines. Of some 20 projects in the works, he said, the agreements apply primarily to four main planned pipelines — Pacific Trail, Coastal GasLink, Prince Rupert Gas Transmission, and Spectra Energy.

Of the other 10 per cent not on board, he said: “We’re working on it.”

The Nak’azdli Whut’en First Nation of Fort St. James announced this week it would not proceed with any of agreements at this time involving the Coastal GasLink and Prince Rupert Gas Transmission. Band members still have questions about the project, according to a news release. “Some elements of agreements would need to be altered for clarity and to better reflect our interests and values for discussions to continue.”

A typical pipeline agreement with the province provides an upfront payment, more money when construction starts and ends, and revenue sharing as gas flows, Rustad said.

Just one pipeline project could represent $35 million to $55 million in upfront money to be shared by 16 to 20 First Nations, he said, with continuing shared benefits of $10 million a year.

The province is also providing up to $30 million over three years for training members of First Nations affected by a natural gas pipeline or LNG project, he said. More than 1,000 aboriginals have benefited so far, he said, with 85 per cent graduating and finding a job, earning on average at least $19 an hour.

Welding, carpentry and pipefitting are skills that can also apply outside of the LNG sector, he noted.

“A chief called me a few weeks ago,” Rustad told the forum. “He said last year he had five youths in his community who attempted suicide — one, unfortunately, was successful. He said, “This has got to change. This can’t go on. We need to build hope and potential for youth.'”

Of “professional protesters” in both aboriginal and non-aboriginal camps, Rustad said the government is committed to “doing it right” to protect against damage to salmon and the environment. He noted that Lax Kw’alaams hereditary chiefs have asked protesters against the Pacific NorthWest LNG project on Lelu Island near Prince Rupert to leave. “They don’t agree with the approach they are taking.” 

Artist’s rendering of Pacific NorthWest LNG’s proposed plant on Lelu Island near Prince Rupert.

Grand Chief Ed John of the First Nations Summit told about 250 people at the aboriginal business forum it is important that policies respectful of First Nations start at the top. He knows that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau supports aboriginal economic development but is less certain of the business sector’s position.

He urged industry to not be afraid to develop relationships leading to the sharing of natural resources to the benefit of both parties.

“You shouldn’t hide behind corporate doors and glass towers in Vancouver,” he said.

As recently as 20 years ago, there were only a handful of industry agreements being signed in the salmon-farming sector, or for minor mining and forestry projects. But a landslide of revenue-sharing and benefit deals with government, Crown corporations and companies have been reached in the past decade both in resource-rich areas of the province and in urban areas such as the Lower Mainland.

Progress came rapidly following the B.C. Liberal government’s philosophical change of heart in 2005 — one year after a landmark Haida Nation court victory on a consult-and-accommodate case. That led to calls for a “new relationship” with First Nations, and marked the beginning of the province sharing resource revenues with First Nations, the first province to do so in Canada.

lpynn@postmedia.com

A Delta turf farm that receives regional food waste for composting has a federal “damage or danger” permit that allows the use of firearms to harass and kill scores of nuisance gulls per year attracted to the operation.

David Hancock of the Hancock Wildlife Foundation said he is outraged at Environment Canada for issuing the permit, saying: “That’s incredible. I find the issuance of a kill permit to be an obscene way of handling an obvious turf-farm, self-induced problem.”

Hancock said in an interview that he received three calls on Sunday from individuals who witnessed multiple gulls being shot on the turf farm.

He has earlier expressed concerns that the location of the compost operation on 72nd Street — wedged between busy Highway 17 and Boundary Bay Airport — poses a risk to birds, including bald eagles, as well as to motorists and aviators.

“Don’t do it in the two most dangerous locations you could pick,” he said.

On Wednesday, numerous birds — gulls, eagles, starling and crows — could be observed on or near the turf farm, including next to the compost piles. Small aircraft passed low overhead.

Environment Canada says Westcoast Instant Lawns Ltd. has a 2016 permit under the Migratory Bird Regulations allowing the “landowner to scare only gulls with firearms, and kill a maximum of one gull per week if scaring alone is an ineffective deterrent.”

The turf farm’s owner — Daryl Goodwin, president of Enviro-Smart Organics Ltd. — said he has had an annual permit to kill for years, but that it’s only become an issue because someone raised a fuss about it on Sunday. Still, it has given him pause for thought: “After talking to you, I realize the public’s concern. We are considering forfeiting our bird permit.”

He said that loud bangers are used most of the time to scare away nuisance birds but that shootings occur about twice a year. “This killing of birds does not go on every day of the week.” 

Goodwin said he has owned the turf farm since 1994 and started composting around 1996, taking vegetable waste from local greenhouse growers initially and adding compost material from Metro Vancouver around 2010.

He said the federal permit applies only to gulls and that to his knowledge he’s been allowed to shoot 25 per year — not one per week.

“The nuisance is they sit on your roof and s— all over everything. And they sit on the equipment … and they just perch up and make a real mess.”

Asked how many gulls were shot Sunday, Goodwin said: “Put it this way, look at your hand? How many fingers have you got. I’m not going to quote a number.”

He said he also shoots starlings and crows because they require no federal kill permit. He never shoots eagles, and over the years bird enthusiasts have come to his property to view eagles, including Hancock and his foundation members.

“I love eagles, trust me,” he said.

The B.C. government confirmed that no hunting licence is required for starlings and for crows on private land to protect crops.

Goodwin said he has flown commercially and that “birds are a problem at all airports whether there is a farm that composts beside it or not.”

He noted that the airport also scares birds as do blueberry growers in the area with propane canons, and that farmers routinely kill starlings and other nuisance birds.

Environment Canada spokesperson Marissa Harfouche said the turf farm must report all activities conducted under the permit. Non-compliance may result in the refusal of future permit applications. Wildlife officers may perform random spot checks to ensure compliance. 

She added applications for kill permits are reviewed by staff to ensure they pose no conservation concern to the species. Gulls are covered under the federal Migratory Birds Convention Act, but that birds such as crows and bald eagles fall under the provincial Wildlife Act.

The B.C. government said it has not issued any kill permits to the turf operation.

Metro Vancouver spokesman Greg Valou confirmed that the turf farm is licensed to accept “pre-consumer food waste, post-consumer food waste and yard trimmings,” processing 98,048 metric tonnes of compostable organics in 2015.

“Though we occasionally receive odour complaints where Envirosmart/West Coast Instant Lawns are suspected, we are not aware of any public health and safety incidents caused by animals in the area,” he said, noting the farm is regulated by the Ministry of Agriculture.

A sign outside the turf farm encourages the public to “think green” and says the operation takes organic waste “that would otherwise go to the landfill” and turns it into a “value-added soil amendment for our farm and your garden.”

Airport manager Greg Fong could not be reached for comment. 

lpynn@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/lpynn

A businessman hauling food scraps from the Lower Mainland to the Fraser Canyon for composting is taking the Lytton First Nation to B.C. Supreme Court to ensure unfettered road access to his operation, 280-hectare Revolution Ranch.

Ranch president and CEO Ralph McRae is seeking an interim injunction, arguing that a First Nation bylaw restricting commercial trucks on the access road to his ranch is causing irreparable harm.

He says in his suit there has been “continuous and uninterrupted access” to the property, formerly the McKay Ranch, since at least 1879 along what is now known as Botanie Creek Road despite passing through two First Nation reserves. 

His company has owned the ranch since 2009. Roughly half of the compost produced at the site is used on the ranch (which also produces organic alfalfa, hops and cattle), and the rest sold to other farms. McRae also runs Northwest Waste, a major trash hauling company in the Lower Mainland.

The defendants named in the lawsuit are Lytton Chief Janet Webster and 12 band councillors.

Before purchasing the ranch, McRae says he received assurance from the B.C. government that Botanie is a “public road for all users.”

All that changed in April 2016 when the First Nation took the position that all traffic on the road through its reserves is subject to a trespass bylaw, court documents state. The First Nation and the greater Lytton community have long complained about bad odours from the compost operation.

The bylaw restricts commercial vehicles larger than a single axle and 9,100 kilograms gross-vehicle weight, which includes Revolution’s compost trucks. The First Nation also installed a prohibition sign and a steel-and-concrete gate on Botanie Creek Road.

McRae argues in the suit that the bylaw goes “beyond the authority” of the First Nation, adding the band has “falsely and maliciously asserted aboriginal rights and title” to the ranch itself. 

Band administrator Rosalin Miles said the First Nation’s counter claim will be entered on Friday, when the case is scheduled to be heard in court.

lpynn@postmedia.com

A goose sporting a strange collection of feathers is making for an odd duck in the West End.

The goose, sighted this week in the company of Canada geese at Sunset Beach, features an unusual pattern of white and darker feathers.

One theory is that it is leucistic, a term that describes a pigment abnormality falling short of albinism.

Another theory is that the bird is a hybrid love child, perhaps the result of the union of a Canada goose and a domestic goose or similar species.

“I don’t have much of a back story,” Greg Hart, urban wildlife programs coordinator for the Stanley Park Ecology Society, said Friday. “It’s just a neat bird that showed up.”

Canada goose with strange markings at Sunset Beach in Vancouver. 

He sees reports of similar birds showing up in the region about once a year, each time sparking the leucistic-versus-hybrid debate on bird forums. “Typically, field marks are what you use to identify these birds,” he said. “This, of course, is displaying field marks that don’t fit any bird. That’s the quandary.”

George Clulow, immediate past president of B.C. Field Ornithologists, said that based on photos provided by The Vancouver Sun, the bird may even have some DNA of a swan goose (a wild species that breeds in China and Russia, but is also domesticated) or Asian domestic goose.

“Upright posture, long neck, bill colour/shape and foot colour are all suggestive of this to me,” he said. “Other parent perhaps Canada goose.”

He noted that “odd ducks and geese (less often) are showing up in our parks quite a bit.” It’s also possible the bird is an escapee from a farm, though less likely given its urban environment, he observed.

 lpynn@postmedia.com

Canada goose with strange markings just off Sunset Beach in Vancouver.

Canada goose with strange markings in company with other Canada geese off Sunset Beach in Vancouver.

Canada goose with strange markings near Sunset Beach in Vancouver.

Canada goose with strange markings at Sunset Beach in Vancouver.

Sgt. Andy MacKay knows the value of not taking a lawbreaker to court.

The newly appointed coordinator of environmental restorative justice cases for the B.C. Conservation Officer Service argues that alternative sentencing — rather than being an easy touch for offenders — can be a powerful, lasting tool.

“I’ve had CEOs sitting in and they’ve said, ‘this is a lot harder than the court process,'” MacKay said in an interview. “‘I have to sit and be accountable to my community. Normally, we just have lawyers go and deal with this. It’s a lot easier to hide behind a lawyer than stand in front of a community.'”

Restorative justice, also known as community environmental justice forums, can be applied to individuals, including First Nations members, and large corporations. The province, victims and offenders must all agree to the process, and offenders must admit guilt. The public is not permitted to attend, as they could in a traditional court.

Conservation officers consider the circumstances of the case and the history of the offender and can choose an alternative sentencing route without asking Crown counsel for approval. 

Merritt-based Sgt Andy MacKay of the B.C. Conservation Officer Service supervises the service’s involvement in restorative justice. 

“It’s more about repairing the harm they’ve done, standing up and being accountable,” said MacKay, a conservation officer for 35 years in B.C. and Saskatchewan. “They’re taking responsibility for their actions.”

The offender won’t have a criminal record but their restorative justice record could come forth should they become involved in crime again — something that tends not to happen, he said.

MacKay, based in Merritt, recalls being involved in one sentencing circle in 2000 — a decade before restorative justice became more formalized within his department — related to hunting at night at Alkali Lake, near the Fraser Canyon south of Williams Lake. 

“We were dealing with eight to 10 complaints a year in that area. After the restorative justice process and the whole community sat in the circle — zero. I looked at that and said that is much better than going through court. It puts the power back in the community to resolve.” 

Individuals who fail to meet the terms of sentencing agreements won’t be tried through the criminal justice system, but it hasn’t been an issue. “Repeat offenders are way less using restorative justice system than the traditional court system,” MacKay adds. “It’s almost a negotiation process. When they are involved in deciding what should be the outcome, they are far more likely to comply with it.” 

The Conservation Officer Service has held about two dozen restorative justice forums for individuals since 2010, some with unexpected results.

Two members of the Lytton First Nation got into trouble over the wasteful shooting of three bighorn sheep in 2011. As result, the community created a three-day hunting course so that young aboriginals without role models can learn proper hunting skills each fall.

“The greater good is that more younger people have had dialogue with older experienced hunters,” said John Haugen, the band’s restorative justice coordinator. 

Of the two men involved in the sheep kills, one lives outside the province but the other maintains close ties with the community and continues to be affected by the process.

“He gained a lot better perspective of the resource, not just killing the animal but the respect for the resource that we fight to look after — wildlife, the land and fisheries,” added Kevin Duncan, a representative of the Nlaka’pamux Tribal Council. 

Restorative justice forums can be held in a gymnasium or a meeting room in a hotel or even an airport. They can take place as soon as within a few weeks of the offence and over just a few hours, while cases dealt with in the criminal justice system typically drag on for one or two years.

“It’s definitely a much better turnaround,” MacKay said.

Typically, a facilitator interviews the parties in advance, including a discussion of the range of fines that might be levied based on previous cases. During the sentencing circle, the guilty party makes an opening statement, followed by the victims and community members, ultimately ending with “offender support,” MacKay said.

Environmental cases tend to be less emotional than those involving a wrong to a person. “It’s very respectful,” he said. “We’re not there to go (off) on the individual, it’s more on the act.”

Since 2010, nine companies have coughed up more than $650,000, money that went back to the affected communities. “Their community may be tarnished by the event, but at the end of it, the community is extremely happy,” MacKay said.

Among the largest restitution agreements to date, Encana paid $250,000 for a 2009 pipe failure near Dawson Creek that resulted in a sour gas release and the evacuation of local properties. The money went to a local volunteer fire department, to enhanced emergency preparedness measures and to wetland enhancement.

Teck Metals in Trail paid $325,000 for the 2012 release of mercury into the Columbia River and leachate overflow into Stoney Creek, money that funded several community programs including recycling, trail development and wildlife projects.

B.C. Trophy Mountain Outfitters of Lillooet paid $10,000 in 2014 after an employee accidentally shot a grizzly bear — money dedicated to helicopter monitoring of local grizzly populations, field research and DNA hair analysis, and collection of white bark pine.

No one from Teck, Encana, or Trophy Mountain would comment on the restorative justice process.

Lower Dean River Lodge in Bella Coola in 2014 paid $18,000 for logging within Lower Dean River Conservancy in violation of the Park Act, money that benefited youth outdoor activities, including swift-water rescue training and equipment for the Nuxalk Rediscovery Camp.

Billy Blewett of Lower Dean River Lodge said in a written statement that the restorative justice process was a positive experience after flooding destroyed the company’s 50-year-old lodge and business in the middle of the 2010 season.

He said the process “gave us a opportunity to sincerely apologize” to the Nuxalk people.

“The Dean is an extremely special place for us and it is a privilege to operate here,” he said. “Our company has always had a deep and active commitment to conservation and the history of our location and its people.”

lpynn@postmedia.com

Canada is listing nine B.C. species under the Species at Risk Act for the first time, ranging from a fly found in the South Okanagan to a lichen found in older forests within the Rocky Mountain Trench.

The federal decision follows the recommendations of a national group of scientific experts, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada.

COSEWIC chair Eric Taylor, a zoology professor at the University of B.C., said Tuesday: “This is just one of several positive signs the government is taking species at-risk seriously.” SARA requires the federal government to develop recovery and management plans for species listed. The act makes it illegal to kill, harm, harass, capture, or take an individual of a listed species, or to damage or destroy its residence.

The species on the list are as follows:

Okanagan efferia, endangered: A predatory brown fly, up to two centimetres, with striking orange-golden bristles behind their eyes. In B.C., known from five locations in the grasslands of the southcentral province. Threats include grassland habitat loss or degradation, wild fires and related changes, invasive plants, a warmer climate as a result of climate change and pesticides.

Olive clubtail, endangered: A dragonfly measuring up to 56-60 millimetres, with widely separated eyes, swollen abdomen tip and clear wings. The thorax is grey-green with broad, brown shoulder stripes and the black abdomen bears a yellow mark on the top of each segment, with yellow on the sides. A good indicator of health for warm, lowland rivers in south central B.C.

Batwing vinyl lichen, endangered: A rock-dwelling lichen characterized by leafy, medium-sized lobes, with an upper surface bluish grey or sometimes brown. Species is shiny, hairless, finely wrinkled when dry, and bears small lobules. Occurs at three or four sites on Vancouver Island, with a combined surface area of less than nine square metres. Threats include competition from mosses and increasingly dry summers.

Crumpled tarpaper lichen, threatened: Distinctive, with moderately sized leafy lichen featuring several broad, mostly rounded lobes. Found only in Canada, mainly within humid, older forests of the Rocky Mountain trench, about 65 kilometres east of Prince George. Loss of old-growth forests makes the species more vulnerable to disturbances such as wildfire, disease and insect outbreak.

Horned grebe, special concern: A relatively small water bird with a breeding patch of bright buff feathers behind the eye. Known for its spectacular courtship displays and approachable nature. The species’ Western Canada population is 200,000 to 500,000, mostly in Saskatchewan and Alberta.Threats include degradation of wetland breeding habitat, droughts, increasing predators (mostly in the Prairies), and oil spills.

Buff-breasted sandpiper is on the Species at Risk Act list for the first time.

Buff-breasted sandpiper, special concern: A medium-size shorebird that breeds in the Arctic and overwinters in South America. Males congregate to display to females during courtship. Habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation are primary threats. Breeding habitat overlaps mineral, coal, oil and gas development areas. Grasslands have been lost on migration routes. Exposure to agrochemicals a concern.

Peacock vinyl lichen, special concern: Measures two to five centimetres in diameter. The upper surface is pale to dark greyish or sometimes brown, bearing numerous, partly sunken button-like apothecia. Occurs from southern Vancouver Island north along the mainland inlets to the Homathko Valley, and eastward in the main valleys through the Coast Range. Threats include seasonal droughts and forestry.

The collared pika, related to the rabbit, is listed as a ‘special concern’  on the Species At Risk list. (John Nagy photo)

Collared pika, special concern: A small mammal, related to the rabbit, and one of two Pika species in North America. Found in alpine boulder fields interspersed with meadows. Sensitive to climate change, and fragmention of habitat and populations. Pikas survive best under cool, dry conditions and changes in either direction leave them susceptible to death from exposure. Loss of suitable alpine habitat is also a threat.

The magnum mantleslug is listed as a ‘special concern’ on the Species At Risk Act. (Kristiina Ovaska photo)

Magnum Mantleslug, special concern: A large slug, measuring up to 80 millimetres. Most distinct feature is a large mantle that covers most of the back. Occurs in southeastern B.C., northwestern Montana, northern Idaho and extreme northeastern Washington, within the northern Columbia basin and adjacent mountains. Threatened by logging, recreational development and activities, wildfire and warming temperatures.

A First Nation asserting control over its court-awarded title lands in the Chilcotin will be posting uniformed rangers at key access points to its territory this summer.

Tourists are welcome to visit the Nemiah Valley, provided that they don’t hunt or carry firearms, and that they follow the same provincial laws that apply elsewhere to safe and ethical travel in the wilderness, said Chief Roger William of the Xeni Gwet’in (honey gwe-teen).

That includes obeying campfire regulations, having a valid fishing licence, and not tearing up the wilderness with motorized vehicles. Tourists can continue to camp at provincial recreation sites during a five-year transition period, he said.

“You can come to experience the title lands as long as you obey (applicable laws of the wilderness),” he said. “As long as they follow that, we’re good.”

The rangers will work with provincial conservation officers to deal with any violations.

Tourists headed for the Nemiah Valley, about a three-hour drive southwest of Williams Lake, will be greeted by rangers during day hours, seven days a week, at three main access points — Davidson Bridge over the Taseko River, Henry’s Crossing on the north end of the Chilko River, and the Tatlayoko Lake Road-Chilko Lake Road junction.

Rangers will not issue permits, but will educate visitors about aboriginal title rights in the region and how they should behave.

On June 26, 2014, William, on behalf of the Xeni Gwet’in and the Tsilhqot’in (sill-co-teen) First Nation, won a Supreme Court of Canada decision unanimously recognizing title to about 1,750 square kilometres of Crown land and aboriginal rights across the larger region.

The Xeni Gwet’in is one of six First Nations comprising about 3,000 Tsilhqot’in people. The Nemiah Valley is located on a gravel road off Highway 20, the main route through the Chilcotin to Bella Coola on the coast.

lpynn@postmedia.com

The Vancouver Aquarium sees a beautiful white beluga, well fed, medically sound, engaged with trainers and swimming through a habitat free of predators.

Critics experienced in animal behaviour see a marine mammal exhibiting repetitive behaviour — also known as stereotypy — and call it a damning indictment on keeping cetaceans in captivity.

“They’re trapped,” said Rebecca Ledger, an expert in animal behaviour, during a visit to the aquarium with The Province. “Psychologically, they are not fulfilled and are behaving abnormally. That’s sad, especially since these are very intelligent animals. We’re not talking about cockroaches, we’re talking about cetaceans.”

Feeding time for the belugas at the Vancouver Aquarium.

Stereotypy can be a potentially self-injurious, highly repetitive behaviour — such as a polar bear pacing in a zoo — and can be evidence of everything from boredom to stress.

The younger of the aquarium’s two female belugas, Qila, regularly swims one length of its pool upright and the other length upside down, often surfacing at the same point for a breath.

But the aquarium says stereotypy behaviour is not an automatic sign of poor animal welfare.

President John Nightingale claims that Qila is engaged in resting behaviour during much of her swimming pattern and notes that humans can also exhibit stereotypic behaviour, be it having dinner at the same time or sleeping for a certain number of hours daily.

“What you want to know is whether that behaviour is negative,” he said. 

Rebecca Ledger is an expert in animal behaviour.

Ledger trained in animal behaviour and welfare science in Britain and serves as a consultant in Vancouver, a pet columnist for The Vancouver Sun, and an instructor at Langara College. She studied marine mammals as part of her undergraduate and postgraduate studies.

“I’m a scientist and what I see is what I see,” she said. “It’s very ritualistic, that’s the concern.

“It’s a red flag. I’ve seen it every single time I’ve been here.” 

The mental health of the aquarium’s belugas — specifically, Qila, born in captivity in 1995 — strikes at the heart of the debate over keeping whales and other cetaceans in captivity.

The aquarium’s position since 1996 has been that it won’t take whales from the wild again, although it remains committed to captive breeding for education and research.

“If we believe these whales are important in public engagement and important in research, we want to see that continue,” Nightingale said. “So, the only way that’s going to continue is if they reproduce in human care.”

Nova Scotia senator Wilfred Moore proposed a bill last year that would phase out cetaceans in captivity across Canada. Existing whales in captivity could remain — as could those rescued from the wild that are unable to be returned to the wild — but captive-breeding programs would end.

“They’re large, roaming, intelligent, sociable…” said Moore, who was spurred to action by the award-winning 2013 documentary Blackfish, about killer whales in captivity. “To have one of those creatures going up and down a concrete pool is just so harmful, so wrong.” 

On any given day, visitors to the Vancouver Aquarium or viewers of the online beluga cam can watch Qila swim her predictable clockwise pattern. 

The aquarium’s curator of marine mammals, Brian Sheehan, says Qila spends up to about one-third of a 24-hour period engaged in a swimming pattern, mostly during daytime hours. She may swim four or five identical patterns, then adopt a small variation. The closure of one eye is indicative of resting.

Sheehan describes Qila as a curious and playful animal that always wants to know what’s going on. She is quick to stop repetitive swimming to interact with trainers.

Aurora, her mother, born in 1987, typically rests at the surface — known as logging or log sleeping — in a smaller medical pool to the side.

Lori Marino is executive director of Utah-based Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy. 

Marino said she visited the Vancouver Aquarium a few months ago and immediately recognized stereotypy behaviour.

“Stereotypies are abnormal behaviours,” she said. “A stereotypy is not a habit or a scheduled activity. It is nothing like having dinner at the same time or sleeping for eight hours a night. 

“They (the aquarium) are trying to convince you that this circling behaviour is normal. It is not. When you see this kind of repetitive behaviour you know that the animal is not thriving. “

Aquarium vet Marty Haulena notes that all the tests and observations, including weight and appetite and X-rays, show that Qila is a “very healthy” beluga. Her swimming pattern could be a combination of patrolling, exercising and sleeping.

“Does Qila have some bad days? For sure, we all do,” Haulena said.

He added that her repetitive swimming may be the beluga equivalent of humans chilling out. “Is it just her way of zoning out and not having to think about something? Likely.”

Marino countered that while Qila may be sleeping some of the time, the overall behaviour “is not normal behaviour and is a stereotypy.”

She added: “It is particularly clear when she is swimming quite vigorously and even looking around. At that time she isn’t sleeping and yet she keeps circling and repeating the same pattern. … It is a stereotypy and indicative of psychological disturbance.”

A 2014 report on care of captive marine mammals by the Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services noted that stereotypy behaviour can be a strong indicator of “suboptimal holding conditions or other sources of stress.”

It also cautioned that “seemingly repetitive swimming patterns should be classified with caution, as they may be the natural result of physical restrictions of the habitat …”

The B.C. SPCA is officially “opposed to the capture, confinement and breeding of marine mammals for entertainment or educational display.” The organization supports the “phasing out of such programs as the full provision of the Five Freedoms is not possible for wild animals who require large and diverse aquatic habitats to live.”

The “five freedoms” are hunger and thirst; pain, injury, and disease; distress; discomfort; and freedom to express behaviours that promote well-being.

Sara Dubois is chief scientific officer for the B.C. SPCA, adjunct professor in the University of B.C’s animal welfare program, and founder of the new Animals in Science Policy Institute.

She sides with independent experts such as Ledger and Marino over those with “vested interests” such as Nightingale. “It’s concerning, definitely,” she said of Qila’s behaviour. 

Dubois encouraged the Vancouver Aquarium to follow the suit of the National Aquarium in Baltimore, which announced earlier this month that eight dolphins raised in captivity will be transferred to a protected tropical oceanside habitat by the end of 2020. 

SeaWorld also announced in March plans to stop both the breeding of killer whales and theatrical shows after years of pressure from the public and activists. Meanwhile, the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California is a leader in its field despite not keeping whales in captivity.

The Vancouver Aquarium has survived quite well despite the absence of killer whales on display since 2001 and can do so without belugas, Dubois argued. 

John Nightingale is the president and CEO of the Vancouver Aquarium.

Nightingale noted that the belugas have forfeited freedom for room and board.

“Here, they have regular meals, regular medical care. They don’t have what you might call the worries that a wild whale has,” he said.

David Mellor, a professor and animal welfare scientist at Massey University in New Zealand, noted that the aquarium’s own website states that belugas forage widely, sometimes socialize in groups of thousands, and have been recorded reaching depths of 1,000 metres.

“There is no way that can be duplicated in captivity,” he said. “That’s the crux of the argument. It’s impossible to even remotely duplicate the natural environment of belugas.”

Mellor says it can be an awesome experience for the public to see an “iconic species” such as belugas up close, but that doesn’t necessarily justify holding them captive.

Technology — everything from cameras to tags that relay information by satellites — has evolved to allow for research at sea without the need for captive research, he said. “It becomes an ethical issue,” he added.

Whale watching is another option, although that activity also has the potential to harass the whales, Mellor said.

The aquarium is planning a new Arctic exhibit that will be double the size of the belugas’ current pool.

The aquarium argues its captive belugas have generated research related to diseases, underwater noise, growth rates and the development of flipper bands for tracking individuals — all of which benefits management of wild belugas.

The aquarium has seven belugas. Five — an adult male and female, and three calves — are on loan to facilities in the U.S.

The aquarium is planning a new Arctic exhibit that will enlarge the belugas’ two-million-litre pool, built in 1990, by at least two-fold, said senior vice-president Clint Wright. Three of the aquarium’s belugas on loan may return once the new facility is built, providing greater opportunities for interaction.

“Nobody cares about these animals more than the people who are here, working with them,” Wright said.

Ledger said that even with a new and larger exhibit, the belugas may show curiosity initially, then may simply return to stereotypy behaviour over time.

“Most clever animals thrive on complexity and change and choice,” she added. “Given the choice, animals prefer freedom and space and to hunt for their own food and not be kept in small, socially restricted spaces.”

Transfer of the belugas to sea pens is an alternative to captivity, she noted. But the aquarium is not convinced of the idea. Marino is leading an initiative for the creation of a network of retirement sanctuaries or refuges for captive cetaceans in North America.

“I guess they’re worried about their bottom line,” Ledger said of the aquarium, which operates on a $40-million annual budget. “These are a huge attraction. And this is an organization that makes a lot of money.” 

The aquarium is confident it can provide the belugas with a high level of care in less-than-perfect surroundings. 

“It would be awesome to have a more appropriate social network for these guys,” Haulena said. “But we have what we have. Is it ideal? No. You’d want five or eight whales, unrelated animals, lots of mating, lots of calves. That would be awesome. That’s not our world.”

lpynn@postmedia.com

Sockeye returns are predicted to be so low this summer on the Fraser River that they won’t support a commercial or recreational fishery.

The Pacific Salmon Commission said Friday that the four-year cycle for this year’s sockeye runs has generated an average 3.9 million fish over the past half century, well above the 2.27 million fish anticipated to return this season. It is a median prediction, meaning that half the time the run could be higher and half the time lower.

“We don’t want to hide the uncertainty,” commission chief biologist Mike Lapointe said. “These forecasts are based on the number of fish that spawned four years ago. There’s a lot of stuff that happens in four years.”

This marks the third time in four years in which Fraser River sockeye returns have been a washout. “Unfortunately, it’s not as rare as we’d like it to be,” Lapointe said.

Several reasons are to blame for this summer’s dismal situation, including low spawning escapements four years ago and poor survival related to warm ocean conditions.

“Unusually warm ocean temperatures, now referred to as the ‘warm blob’, were observed in the central northeast Pacific Ocean throughout 2014 and 2015,” the commission said in a news release. “Warm temperatures of this magnitude and duration have not been observed in over 50 years.”

Due in part to early run-off from a warm spring, Fraser River flows are forecast to be at or below historic minimum levels during the sockeye migration. But cooler air temperatures more recently could actually benefit the fish.

First Nations get first crack at the returning Fraser sockeye for food, social and ceremonial reasons once spawning and conservation objectives have been met. First Nations may fall short of their anticipated allocation of about 1.1 million fish by 100,000 to 200,000 fish, Lapointe said.

The U.S. is anticipated to catch about 100,000 fish under the international treaty, with treaty groups taking two-thirds of that amount, he added.

Sockeye returns have been much better in Barkley Sound on the west coast of Vancouver, including those fish returning to the Somass River. 

lpynn@postmedia.com

A coordinated marine-debris cleanup described as the largest in Canadian history is underway all along B.C.’s west coast, from the remote wave-tossed beaches of Cape Scott and Haida Gwaii to the tourist-heavy Pacific Rim National Park Reserve.

It is largely funded by the last of a $1-million package provided by the Japanese government in 2012 for tsunami debris cleanup in B.C.

“This is the last hurrah,” confirmed Karen Wristen, executive-director of Living Oceans Society, the conservation group coordinating the effort on the western coast of Vancouver Island. “It will be the largest marine debris cleanup operation ever undertaken in Canada.”

A 9.0 earthquake and tsunami in Japan on March 11, 2011, killed 15,893 persons, injured 6,152 and left 2,567 missing.

The B.C. government says this year it awarded more than $330,000 to various groups engaged in the cleanup: $115,000 to the Haida Gwaii Tsunami Debris Committee, $85,000 to the Living Oceans Society, $70,000 to the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, $30,000 to the District of Ucluelet, $25,000 to the Ocean Legacy Foundation, and $6,100 to the Surfrider Foundation.

Wristen noted that over the past two years on Vancouver Island, various cleanup groups have worked independently, removing debris by chartered helicopters and by hand. But they encountered problems finding recyclers on Vancouver Island who could take industrial plastics, she said in an interview.

A helicopter is being used to list loads of debris to a barge that will work its way along the coast.

This year, the groups are operating as a team, using the helicopters to lift one-tonne loads of debris onto a single barge that will work its way down the coast over about a week in late August to early September.

The barge will end up in Steveston, with debris delivered to Richmond’s Westcoast Plastic Recycling, which can accept industrial debris that is not contaminated.

“It’s way cheaper to move by sea than land,” Wristen added. Hundreds of volunteers are participating, accessing beaches by foot or by boat.

The end of Japanese money raises concerns about the funding of ongoing cleanup efforts.

Rob O’Dea is a recreational sailor and project manager with Living Oceans who was among the first to report last year’s spill of bunker fuel oil from the grain ship Marathassa in English Bay.

He said it’s important to keep the tsunami in the public eye because debris will continue to come ashore long after Japanese government funding dries up.

A barge piled high with Japanese tsunami debris during a cleanup of the coastline last year. 

David Karn, spokesman for the Ministry of Environment, said all of the $1 million went to groups conducting shoreline cleanups with the exception of $69,000 to develop a mapping tool showing debris accumulations, types and related aerial photos.

In 2015, some 60,000 volunteers with the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, sponsored by the Vancouver Aquarium and World Wildlife Fund, collected about 175 tonnes of garbage from beaches across the country, both salt and freshwater year-round. Pacific Rim National Park Reserve is also involved in cleanups.

A coordinated marine-debris cleanup described as the largest in Canadian history is underway all along B.C.’s west coast, from the remote wave-tossed beaches of Cape Scott and Haida Gwaii to the tourist-heavy Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. This photo was taken in Sea Otter Cove in 2014. 

“The reality is marine debris regularly washes up on B.C.’s shores and it is almost impossible to differentiate between tsunami debris and general marine debris. Therefore, we cannot estimate how much debris is a result of the tsunami.”

To date, more than 285 tonnes of debris have been collected, mostly polystyrene, hard plastics including plastic bottles, fishing nets and fishing floats, processed lumber and wooden structures including boats and pallets.  

Wristen said in 2014 she estimated half the debris was from the tsunami on northern beaches, but believes that amount increased dramatically in 2015 with more debris with Japanese markings.

“Almost all related to fishing, including rubber totes and pallets, a lot from the oyster industry. My guess is tsunami debris.”

Wristen called on the senior governments to chip in and replace the Japanese funding.

“It’s a critical problem. Plastics are getting into the food chain. It will impact our fisheries and our trade interests. We’ve got to do something about it. And what we can do at the moment is get it off our beaches.”

Undoubtedly, much of the debris being collected cannot be directly linked to the tsunami.

The Japanese Ministry of Environment has estimated that 4.8 million tonnes of tsunami debris washed into the North Pacific. Of that, about two-thirds sank and one-third floated.

The Japanese government in 2012 also provided $5 million for cleanup of tsunami debris in the United States. In 2014, Japan additionally contributed more than $1 million annually for three years to the North Pacific Marine Science Organization, to address invasive species.

lpynn@postmedia.com

One of Vancouver’s most popular attractions was transformed into chaos Thursday after a motor vehicle struck three pedestrians, killing one of them.

Olya Horodechna was working at a Ukrainian bakery when the collision happened nearby at about 12:30 p.m. in the 1600 block of Anderson Street on Granville Island.

“I heard the noise and the car just moved very fast to the back … it looked like someone was moving from the parking lot,” she told Postmedia News. “It was just like one second. The car moved, hit the building and everyone started running.”

 Vancouver police said two pedestrians suffered minor injuries, but a third pedestrian was pinned under the vehicle and died. No names were immediately released.

 The driver remained at the scene, and was co-operating with the police investigation.

Police closed The Net Loft building and cordoned off the immediate area. The rear of a black Ford SUV was visibly crumpled up against the corner of the building.

Jonathan Gormick, a spokesman for the Vancouver Fire Department, said the severity of the incident prompted a heavy response from emergency crews, which included two ambulances, two heavy rescue outfits, a fire engine and command staff.

A structural engineer from the City of Vancouver was inspecting a two-storey wood building to determine whether it’s safe to enter, he said

The accident caused additional traffic snarls on the already busy Granville Island.

lpynn@postmedia.com

with files from The Canadian Press

Police and Fire Department crew at the scene of an SUV crash in the Net Loft at Granville Island, in Vancouver, BC., July 28, 2016. One person was killed in the accident with several others injured. 

An SUV struck three people and then drove into the Net Loft building on Granville Island Thursday afternoon. 

Police and Fire Department crew at the scene of an SUV crash in the Net Loft at Granville Island, in Vancouver, BC., July 28, 2016.

Police and Fire Department crew at the scene of an SUV crash in the Net Loft at Granville Island, in Vancouver, BC., July 28, 2016.

Police and Fire Department crew at the scene of an SUV crash in the Net Loft at Granville Island, in Vancouver, BC., July 28, 2016.

Police and Fire Department crew at the scene of an SUV crash in the Net Loft at Granville Island, in Vancouver, BC., July 28, 2016. 

The 50,000-member B.C. Wildlife Federation is in turmoil following numerous resignations in recent months at the organization’s Surrey headquarters, according to internal emails.

A letter of resignation from Peter Louwe, the organization’s communications coordinator and a former TV journalist, puts the blame on operations manager Cheryl Johnson and president Jim Glaicar.

In the Aug. 5 emails obtained by Postmedia News, Louwe further writes: “As I told the consultant, I see another two years of upheaval at the office at minimum, with a revolving door of staff brought in, then quitting, unless significant changes are made.”

In a counter email, Glaicar tells Louwe: “It is not surprising that you are leaving as your actions have not been conducive to a positive workplace.  As you have stated, we have recognized issues within our organization and built plans to deal with them.  

“Your previous employment with Greenpeace appears to have clouded your judgment regarding BCWF and its progress.”

In another email, vice-president Brenton Froehlich urges BCWF members to keep the situation out of the public eye.

“This is a moment when I would ask all of you to step back, take a breath and commit to putting the federation ahead of assumptions and personal interpretations,” he adds.

“The truth is that anyone can make an accusation and anyone can spin the truth out of context and create chaos.  As a professional journalist, Peter would know all about this — supported by the fact that he copied so many people in an effort to create further problems.”

Postmedia did not obtain the emails from Louwe.

The emails follow the suspension of former federation vice-president Ed George for three months over sexist and racist emails sent to staff at the hunting and fishing organization. George claimed he was the victim of a witch hunt, and unsuccessfully challenged his suspension in B.C. Supreme Court in March.

Louwe served as communications officer for Greenpeace for more than three years before joining the BCWF on May 14. He also formerly worked as a reporter, editor and writer at City TV for almost 17 years, until 2006.

“I was not aware that a number of staff members were deeply unhappy,” he writes in his resignation letter. “Shortly after I began work, five staff members resigned — that’s out of an office staff of 11.

“They explained to me, and others here, that they could not continue to work in the toxic workplace atmosphere under the current operations manager.”

He adds: “With my departure, nine staff members have quit in about two months.”

The president told staff he had hired a human resources consultant, Donna Carlson, to investigate and that her report would “pull no punches” and would go to the entire board for review, but that hasn’t happened, Louwe writes.

“I cannot work for an organization when I cannot trust its leaders. Thus, I’m leaving, effective immediately, although I do not have another job to go to.”

On Sunday, operations manager Cheryl Johnson said the organization takes matters involving staff seriously, but is unable to comment on human resources issues, citing confidentiality. 

She said it was “disappointing” Louwe chose to speak out publicly by sending an email to more than 50 people after they thought they had addressed the issues with him in private meetings. 

“Ultimately it’s just one person’s opinion and it misrepresents the good work the organization does in terms of preserving and conserving habitat and wildlife across the province,” said Johnson.

She said Louwe’s statement that his departure brings to nine the number of staff members who have quit in about two months was “not accurate,” but did not provide specific numbers, saying only “some staff has left over the last four months, and they have left for different reasons.” 

lpynn@postmedia.com

— with a file from Cheryl Chan