Exciting Changes in the Estuary

It has been a very busy year with the opening of 300m of the Training Berm construction taking place from January until April of 2022. This first stage was to provide a partial opening that could be studied during the summer freshet and analyzed to determine how consistent the real time observations compared with the modelling of the opening. The material removed for the 300m opening included over 40,000 cubic meters of overburden sand/rock/gravel along with the underlying armour rock. Most of the upper sand/rock/gravel layers was transported to the Squamish Oceanfront lands and most of the remaining armour rock was donated to Squamish Nation for refortifying the Cheakamus River where it is eroding above the Cheekye River confluence.

Monitoring for fish passage and biophysical changes has continued in the 2022 field season and is currently being summarized by InStream Fisheries Research Inc. One hundred juvenile Chinook salmon were tagged (70 wild and 30 hatchery) and released in the upper Squamish River. The fisheries crew were able to monitor 66 of these fish and observed 21% entering into the Squamish estuary via various portals including swimming around, entering through the new fish-friendly box culverts as well as through the 300m opening. Fisheries monitoring will resume in May of 2023.

The next stage of the project is to modify the remaining 550 m to allow a full 850m opening from the yellow gate south. The original wind surfing launch site has been left as a stand-alone island now referred to as Spit Island. This has allowed the wind sport community to continue to launch from this desirable location. Access to the site is now via water instead of driving all the way down.

Anyone visiting the Training Berm / Spit at low tide will notice a weir was left in place. This ensures that sedimentation and gravel bars within the Squamish River will not migrate over into the central estuary basin. Furthermore, the removal of the upper 4m of the original Spit berm allows over 80% tidal exchange daily and provides ample opportunity for outmigrating juvenile salmonids to enter into the nutrient rich waters of the central estuary.

Once all permits and approvals have been secured the plans are to resume work this coming January 2023 to modify the remaining 550m.

Photo by J. Buchanan