A relentless torrent of wood debris being swept downstream by the fast-flowing Fraser River is creating severe navigational hazards for recreational boaters, including in the Strait of Georgia.
Bob Pearson has lived and worked on the Fraser River for 50 years, and owns two commercial marine businesses on Canoe Pass downstream of Ladner.
“It’s unbelievable, just solid,” he said Wednesday. “One of my boats had to go over to Active Pass and he said all the way across the Gulf he had to drive half speed to avoid the debris.”
Pearson said he also spoke with a customer from Mayne Island fishing near Active Pass, who reported his outboard motor being destroyed by wood debris. A sandbar in Canoe Pass across from Pearson is amassed with beached wood.
He discouraged small recreational boats from travelling the Fraser River. “The tide is running so hard it never stops. It doesn’t back up, there’s so much water flowing down. Anybody going out into the river now is just asking for major trouble.”
He also urged the province to ease current restrictions on individuals sawing up logs on beaches, as a way to help reduce the wood-debris problem.
Brian Staines, harbourmaster for the Ladner Harbour Authority, said he hired a tug-boat operator to remove debris to protect the public wharf at Wellington Point Park on River Road near Westham Island.
Half of the boat ramp at Ferry Road was also closed this week due to debris.
Bob Pearson, who has lived and worked on the Fraser River for 50 years, discourages small boats from going on the Fraser River. ‘The tide is running so hard it never stops,’ he says. ‘Anybody going out into the river now is just asking for major trouble.’ (Photo: Nick Procaylo, PNG)
Staines said it’s the most wood he’s seen, and predicts it could get worse.
“I’ve never had to have a tug-boat guy basically on call for the whole week, running around clearing stuff,” he said. “And it’s just beginning, I think, as far as the amount of stuff coming down.”
Staines also emphasized the risk the debris poses to smaller vessels in the Strait of Georgia. “At night there’s whole trees floating around and you don’t know where they are.”
Alec Finnsson, president of the Mission Harbour Authority, said the rising waters of the Fraser pick up fallen trees on flooded shorelines and undercut the roots of trees along the riverbanks.
“There’s not many boats out on the river right now because of the high water,” he said. “We’ve seen some pretty big stuff coming down. We’re seeing more debris than 10 years ago.”
The B.C. government operates a debris trap near Agassiz, but refused Postmedia News access to the site, citing flood-related priorities elsewhere in the province. A series of booms extend out into the river to capture wood.
Said Pearson: “That debris trap hardly works at the best of times. When you get issues like this, it’s not going to handle it. It’s impossible for anyone to deal with.”
Alec Finnsson, president of the Mission Harbour Authority, says the Fraser River’s rising waters pick up fallen trees on flooded shorelines and undercut the roots of trees along the riverbanks. (Photo: Larry Pynn, PNG)
Jordan Turner, spokesman for Emergency Management B.C., said the debris trap captures up to 100,000 cubic metres of debris annually.
Before the trap was commissioned in 1979, the lower Fraser River was not navigable at times during the spring freshet due to the massive amounts of floating debris in the river, he said. Co-operation among the forest industry, the provincial government and the federal government led to installation of the debris trap, he said.
The trap is estimated to save more than $8 million in cleanup, repair of vessels, bridge maintenance, and damage to foreshore infrastructure and riparian habitat, he said. The province contracts with Drake FRDT Operations to operate the site, with removed wood ground into hog fuel.
The trap has an annual budget of almost $1 million, and is currently about 70 per cent full.
The Canadian Coast Guard has also issued a Notice to Shipping warning mariners to exercise caution navigating the lower Fraser due to high-flow conditions. Concerns include: “Reduced air draught under bridges, navigation buoys may be unreliable and temporarily swept out of advertised positions, an increase in deadheads and floating wood debris, including significant changes in channel depths resulting from increased sedimentation and river scour.”
The federal government is out on the river, providing daily new soundings and updates on channel conditions.
Kevin Obermeyer, president and CEO of the Pacific Pilotage Authority, said large ships are not affected by the wood debris. The river is flowing so quickly at present that scouring of the river bottom is more of an issue than sediment buildup, which is expected to occur closer to July, he said.
Obermeyer commutes aboard the West Coast Express and monitors river conditions from his passenger seat. The timing of the coast guard Notice to Shipping comes much earlier than normal, he noted.
“There’s a lot of debris in the water, and it’s quite large, big logs coming down,” he said. “A small fishing boat with a fibreglass or aluminum hull could well have a problem.”
BC Ferries said its operations are not affected by the wood debris.
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