Probe prompts some farmland owners to improve fish habitat (with video)

Two farmland owners in the Fraser Valley have conducted wide-ranging remediation work and a third is under a provincial order to do so following a lengthy Vancouver Sun investigation into the environmental impact of farming on fish streams.

The Suns Minding The Farm series, published in June, probed several cases in which farmers had altered important fish habitat, and it also exposed the B.C. governments lax laws on farm manure runoff into fish streams compared with neighbouring Washington state.

More than six months later, The Sun has confirmed the following developments in the story:

A nursery in Aldergrove has completed extensive remediation work at Bertrand Creek, a critical fish stream in the Fraser Valley.

Landowners in Abbotsford have also taken steps to undo damage to the headwaters of the Salmon River.

An Agassiz farm family is under a provincial Water Act order to restore aquatic habitat converted to blueberry crops.

Washington is planning ever-tougher restrictions on manure applications, while B.C. continues to talk to farmers about the issue.

In Aldergrove, JRT Nurseries has completed numerous measures on Bertrand Creek, including riprap rock along a stretch of exposed shoreline, grass seeding and tree planting, page-wire fencing, silt fencing, and an irrigation system. The Sun investigation exposed alteration of fish habitat on the creek, including removal of riparian areas and the dumping of concrete blocks and plastic planting pots into the creek.

Biologist and Fraser Valley fish expert Mike Pearson assisted in the investigation of Bertrand Creek, which is home to the Oregon spotted frog, Salish sucker and Nooksack dace all listed as endangered under the federal Species At Risk Act as well as coho salmon, steelhead and cutthroat trout.

During a recent revisit to the site, Pearson acknowledged JRTs measures to stabilize the banks and limit further erosion into the creek. It wouldnt have happened if The Sun hadnt shown interest in it, he said, emphasizing that many more such cases go unreported and without investigation.

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Probe prompts some farmland owners to improve fish habitat (with video)