A Burnaby-based wildlife conservation group is predicting the cost for replacing an aging fish ladder near the mouth of Eagle Creek will be less than originally anticipated.
Nick Kvenich with the Eagle Creek Streamkeepers Society said the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has recently reassessed the site.
"When the fish ladder was partially destroyed this spring by some logs, they removed a good chunk of it," he said. "It looks like the modifications to replace it won't be that much."
This past June, Port Metro Vancouver and the Pacific Salmon Foundation gave the society a $12,500 grant to help fix the ladder by the end of this month. The series of low steps in the stream enable the fish to swim and leap up into the waters on the other side.
"We'll use those funds to replace it with a riffle. A riffle requires building up the bank with rocks so it works on a tier-by-tier level so they can get upstream," Kvenich said. "Whatever money is left over, we'll return it."
Kvenich's group started 16 years ago and spent the first five years removing garbage from the creek.
"I could have furnished a living room and a bedroom," he explained. "It began to get frustrating."
Kvenich was close to giving up but then he saw a coho wedged into a tree coming up to spawn.
"It brought tears to my eyes. What do you compare it to? After that, it just made you want to work harder to do things about it," he said.
Dorothy Wolfe has lived in the home adjacent to the creek for the last 50 years. She is no stranger to having people with a wandering eye walk into her backyard on a daily basis. "It's really wonderful when you see the look on their faces when they see the fish," she said.
The number of salmon coming through Eagle Creek has grown significantly over the years. Over 400 were recorded for the 2013 run, compared to the 20 to 30 during the first 4 to 5 years of the society's inception.
In the meantime, Kvenich will continue to work on behalf of the small fry.
"These fish are fighting for their lives. We need to make their journey as easy as possible."
