Findings show more habitat to be protected…

Visit www.wa-ter.ca for more detailed information about this news about the big-box shopping centre proposed to be build on the sensitive Salmon River floodplain..

Report shrinks plan
by Lachlan Labere
Salmon Arm Observer
February, 24, 2010

Ecoscape: Findings show more habitat to be protected.

A community-funded report suggests the size of the proposed SmartCentres development will have to decrease dramatically so as not to impose on fish habitat.

On Monday, the Salmon Arm organization Wetland Alliance: the Ecological Response (WA:TER) presented the Ecoscape Report to city council. The report, explained WA:TER president Warren Bell, contains a description of the entire Salmon Arm Bay area and goes beyond the provisions of the Riparian Areas Regulations (RAR), which only protects fish.

He said the report was commissioned to Kelowna-based Ecoscape Environmental Consultants (recommended by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans), and paid for, in part, by a grant from West Coast Environmental Law ($3,512) and the rest through donations ($6,341), because the organization felt there were errors and omissions in the qualified environmental professional (QEP) report prepared for SmartCentres.

Soils and vegetation scientist Alex Inselberg summarized some of the findings in the Ecoscape Report (available at www.wa-ter.ca). On one topographical map dated May 14, 1993, Inselberg pointed to grey linear areas running throughout much of the SmartCentres property. He explained these areas resulted from the river overtopping its banks, carrying sediment.

‘The significance of this particular image is that it actually happens to be the one-in-five-year flood event, which everybody is trying to figure out and which everybody has been trying to, as I understand, model as well,’ said Inselberg. ‘Well, a photograph is much better than a model because it shows you precisely what’s happening.’

Taking RAR’s streamside protection enhancement area setbacks into account, the Ecoscape Report leaves as little as 40 per cent of the SmartCentres property outside of protected fish habitat.

Recognizing the report failed to fully acknowledge traditional uses on the property, Inselberg stepped aside to give Switzmalph Cultural Society chair Bonnie Thomas the floor. Thomas encouraged working together with the city to bring forward an educational process to the public regarding traditional knowledge of plants and animals documented by her mother, the late Mary Thomas.

Bell said two more studies are planned for the property, one by geoterrain specialist Murray Road, and one by hydrologist Alan Bates. Bell noted both have already commented on how firming up the soils on the SmartCentres property will result in flooding on the neighbouring Neskonlith land.

Coun. Ivan Idzan asked Inselberg if there’s been any comment from DFO or the Ministry of Environment on the Ecoscape Report. Inselberg stated they are aware of the information.

‘They are at this point being very quiet, and I think they’re waiting to see what the developer comes up with,’ said Inselberg.