Tuesday July 9, 2024
Vancouver Sun —
An ideal natural salmon habitat of gravel beds and side channels on British Columbia’s lower Fraser River will be protected by the purchase of a private island by an environmental organization, with the help of the federal government and private donors.
The deal to buy the 248-hectare Carey Island near Chilliwack is a “big win for conservation” in the important ecological area between Mission and Hope known to environmental groups as “the Heart of the Fraser,” Steven Godfrey, Nature Conservancy of Canada West Coast program director, said Monday.
The conservancy announced it had bought the island off Carey Island Farms Ltd., which was using it to grow corn.
Godfrey said up to 90 per cent of the gravel shoreline of the lower Fraser River from Hope to Mission had been subject to some form of development.