The Fraser River is so low that several patches of dry ground are showing through thin ice

By Tommy Osborne

Drought

Worsening drought conditions could mean disaster for salmon

Feb 16, 2024 | 5:52 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The Provincial Government’s most recent Snow Survey and Water Supply Bulletin revealed that our province only has 61% of its normal snowpack, with the Fraser River not faring much better at just 62%, as of February 1. This marks a sharp decline from last year’s February 1, where we were at 79% of normal, and also reveals a troubling trend for a potentially dry summer.

“We’re going into three years of drought. So although this this snowpack is low, we cannot forget that this will be year three of this journey, it’s cumulative over time,” said Wayne Salewski, the Chair of the Nechako Environment and Water Stewardship Society Chair.

The Fraser River, despite being the longest river in the province, is noticeably dry in Prince George. If you’d like, it’s possible to walk right to the middle of where the river should be, and potentially from one side to the other depending where you are. While the Fraser River is certainly running low, smaller streams have completely dried up across the province, which means disaster for our salmon population who need those streams, along with water in big rivers like the Fraser, to survive.

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“It’s not giving salmon fry a chance to move up the stream system during this particular era. And then, of course, we don’t have a chance to take them back out again until the following year. So our mortality rates, these are going to be high,” Salewski said.

Without a snowpack, the freshets have been drying out in just a couple of days. It’s not just water volume either, water temperature has been rising too with warmer days and less water to keep it cool. When you combine the lack of sidestreams available and potential rising temperatures, Salewski warns of problems quickly stacking up.

“Over the years, scientists have documented that where we used to have 30 and 40 pound Chinook salmon in the ocean, we now have eight and 10 pound Chinook salmon.”

There are still two or three months left in the snow season, so it’s still possible for our snow pack to recover. However, Salewski says there just isn’t enough time left, unless we get a ridiculously large storm.

“If the spring freshet starts early and the ground is still frozen, then that water just goes across the land base and into the systems and then down to Vancouver in a hurry. So we really want a large snowpack, a slow melt and a nice permeation into the into the ground levels to really do this.”

Given that we are in an El Nino winter, it’s likely these warmer conditions will continue. While more snow and moisture could be on the way, it’s more likely that we will once again be gearing up for our third dry summer in a row.

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