$176M permanent salmon fishway announced for Big Bar landslide site on B.C.'s Fraser River
Construction will unblock the Fraser River for migrating salmon in time for 2022 early runs
The federal government is spending $176 million to install a permanent fishway through the site of the Big Bar landslide on the Fraser River north of Lillooet, B.C.
Design and construction work is expected to begin this winter with an operational date set for the start of the early 2022 salmon runs.
It's believed the massive landslide in B.C.'s southern Interior occurred in late October or early November 2018, but it wasn't discovered until June of 2019 when early returning salmon had already arrived at the site.
An estimated 75,000 cubic metres of rock fell into the remote canyon, creating a five-metre-high waterfall that blocked the natural migration of sockeye and chinook salmon from a good portion of the largest salmon-bearing watershed in the province.
Work has been ongoing at the site since 2019, despite the challenges posed by the rugged terrain and extreme weather in the summer and winter.
After blasting some of the rock, a "nature-like" fishway was constructed which allowed some salmon to pass at certain water levels. This past August and September, 160,000 migrating salmon were able to get past the slide site of their own, according to officials.
Another 10,000 fish were assisted over the slide, either in the pneumatic tube system dubbed the "salmon cannon," or by being put in a tank and driven around the blockage in a truck.
Watch: Aerial footage of Big Bar landslide site
Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan said Peter Kiewit Sons has been awarded the contract to design and build the new fishway. The company has been involved in blasting and construction work at the site since remediation efforts began.
According to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, emergency conservation enhancement efforts for at-risk upper Fraser salmon stocks will remain in place until the permanent fishway is complete.
"This is a long-term, sustainable solution that will not only protect, but help revive, our wild salmon populations in the Fraser River to their former abundance," said Jordan.
Salmon returns on the Fraser, which used to number in the many millions, are at an all-time low for a second straight year.
The Pacific Salmon commission forecast that almost 950,000 sockeye would return to the Fraser River this year but have downgraded the number to fewer than 300,000.