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Welcome to the official website of Chilliwack River Action Committee! The Chilliwack River has been the focus of extensive community stewardship projects in the past. However, in the last few years erosion has accelerated at several clay slides and stabilization work is now urgently needed to prevent further erosion, mud flows, mud slides and the resulting water siltation problems. Help us to help the river.
October 1st, 2007 Habitat Restoration Work of the Chilliwack River Action Committee for summer 2007: 1. Off-Channel habitat restoration to provide increased fry rearing and over wintering capacity for coho, steelhead and trout:
2. Clay slide stabilization to reduce siltation of the Chilliwack River:
All interested in preserving the health and sustainability of the Chilliwack River Watershed for future generations are urged to support. Help Habitat Fundraiser Raffle tickets $10 each Cash Prizes: 1st 1000, 2nd $500 and 3rd $250 Saturday, October 27 2007 12:00 to 2:30 pm Complimentary Lunch - Salmon BBQ Raffle Draw 1:00 pm Silent and Live Auctions Chilliwack Fish and Game Hall 48685 Chilliwack Lake Road Attendance not necessary to win a raffle prize. August 6th, 2005 Hi Everyone
from the Chilliwack River Action Committee,
HELP HABITAT
FUNDRAISER Raffle tickets,
$10.00 each, limit of 500. The river is always the winner. Please plan to attend. January 18th,
2005 This email came in today: Hello David, The Southern Fund Committee met last Tuesday, January 11th, to confirm their 2005 spending budget and to make their final selections for projects to be approved for funding. I am pleased to inform you that your project titled "Chilliwack River Off-Channel Habitat Project" was approved with a budget of $68,900 CAN. The next step will be to prepare a Contribution Agreement with you and CRAC which I anticipate will happen in February. Thank you for your interest in the Fund and congratulations on your successful proposal. Angus Mackay November
25th, 2004 I just received
in today's mail a letter for the Chilliwack River Action Committee
from the Pacific Salmon Foundation indicating funding approved in
the amount of $8,500.00 for our proposal for 2005 for the "Lovely
Pond/ Ryder Creek Restoration and Interpretative Project".
November
15th, 2004
Stabilizing
the Tolmie Clay Slide 2000 - 2004
Past logging, road building and development have contributed to the Tolmie Clay slide as an actively eroding area of over 400 meters in length with up to 20,000 cubic meters per year of glacial clay being deposited into the Chilliwack River, degrading downstream 28 kilometers of habitat for steelhead, salmon and other aquatic life with siltation. In November 1995 a major slump of over 50,000 at this slide area partly blocked the river. The work in the summer of 2004 by the Chilliwack River Action Committee has brought most of this problem area under control. Siltation degrades habitat by sealing spawning gravel and reducing the percolation of fresh water carrying oxygen that is needed for healthy incubation of fish eggs. It also negatively affects aquatic life that is important in the food chain for rearing of fry and smolts. Other related problems related to this clay slide erosion were the possibility of a major slide that could block the river, hazards for the public and reduced fishing opportunity for sports anglers from "colored" water. The Chilliwack River Action Committee has been researching, and planning for this work for many years. In 2001 Engineers from Golder and Associates were commissioned in partnership between the Fraser Valley Regional District and the Chilliwack River Action Committee to provide a plan that would be cost effective, fish friendly and satisfy government agency requirements. In 2002 they provided a plan of using groynes built to include LWD that would protect the slide toe from erosion as well as adding biodiversity and resting areas for migrating fish during flood events. These groynes are intended to lift the river flow and move it away from the slide toe to reduce erosion and collect other debris against the bank similar to a natural log jam. During the low water in the summer of 2003 four trial groynes were built near the upstream end of the slide area. In the November flood event of 2003 these groynes performed well at first but were overtopped in the peak of the flood event and erosion took place behind them. In the summer of 2004 these four groynes were rebuilt, made larger and higher. Twelve new groynes were added to bring the total to 16 groynes protecting 350 meters of slide area. The groynes were built to reach 1 meter above the highest 40 year flood level. However, seventy meters at the downstream end of the Tolmie Clay slide area remain unprotected which will be our project for next year. We went as far as we possibly could this year with a very tight budget. Handling big rock, large stumps and boulders requires very heavy equipment and is expensive. Our original plan was to stage the entire project construction over three years. Materials
used in 2004: Accomplishments: Costs for
2004: Our partners
were: For cost saving we will likely wait to produce an engineers final report until after next years work. The Chilliwack River Action Committee continues to work for a healthy and sustainable Chilliwack River Watershed. Thanks, David Lamson |
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