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The Campbell River WUP Process. Roderick Haig-Brown.
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Roderick Haig-Brown “What we need and must somehow find in this last part of the twentieth century is a land and water ethic perhaps better, an ethic of land, air and water. It is perfectly possible to have settlement, industrial development and reasonable exploitation of primary resources without condemning our children to generations of poverty and deprivation because we have ruined the land that should support them” Nominated in 2005 as one of the all time "Greatest Canadians", Roderick Haig-Brown was a pioneer in the environmentalist movement.
Campbell River Tyee Club In the summer of 1924, a few fishermen gathered in the Willows Hotel in Campbell River and decided to organize a club somewhat along the lines of the famous Tuna Club of Catalina Island. The purpose was to standardize the sport of salmon fishing in B.C
Campbell River Weighted Usable Area Curves: Reach 2 Rearers 35000 CH Fry CO Fry ST Fry ST Parr 30000 25000 20000 WUA (sq m) 15000 10000 5000 0 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 Flow (cms)
Lower Campbell River • The loss of gravel recruitment and in-river spawning habitat in Campbell River is directly linked to construction and operation of John Hart Dam. • After 50 years of operation, additional spawning habitat was lost and the current Chinook spawning capacity is now only 33% of the historic or target capacity of 4000 adults.
Campbell R Elk Falls Canyon Campbell R Elk Falls Canyon
Post WUP Agreement -what worked • Improved working relationships between B.C. Hydro, DFO, MOE, Recreation Groups and Community Interest Groups (increased level of trust) • The Campbell WUP is a living adaptive process that is re-examined every 5 years • Interest groups walked away feeling that their situation had improved • Minimizing the PM s helped simplify analyses and clarify keys concerns
Post WUP Agreement-want didn’t work • WUP was very time consuming for technical staff • Operational issues are still a problem e.g. outages, • Overwhelmed by the number of PM interaction between plants, reservoirs and rivers • In contrast to the Campbell, the Cheakamus WUP spent more time with data collection but did not get a resolution likely because there was a poor understanding of the PMs • Didn’t ensure what is proposed and agreed on can be accomplished by the equipment and operators
WUP Monitoring Issues • Poor Baseline- ability to measure productivity vs. flow (often require 10+ years of data to establish baseline) • Often a difficulty even measuring a 25% change in fish productivity • Flow studies may be limited to quantifying production under a single flow regime