Editor:
I am writing regarding recent articles and letters in the paper about the proposed cut blocks in Roberts Creeks watershed. As president of the SC Streamkeepers for the past six years, I have walked Roberts Creek from the estuary to the falls every week counting spawning salmon. I want to speak for them.
It is important to realize, Roberts Creek has the last remaining significant wild salmon run on the southern Sunshine Coast. It is precious.
The decision and basis to log these large portions of 40 to 80-year-old trees is based on reports that don’t take into consideration the significant weather events we are experiencing. The infrastructure downstream is not built to withstand the new reality of significant rain events. The increased risk of large flood events would deposit silt, mud, and debris on the last spawning grounds in Roberts Creek. This would disseminate the redds (nests).
I have seen hundreds of females with no tails left, only a stub. They wore them down building their redds (nests), moving the gravel away so they can lay their eggs and then coming back to cover their precious legacy. In the spring, we see the evidence of the sacrifice when we witness the little fluttering fry emerging from the creek’s streambed!
The government departments seem bent on the status quo by using antiquated information or data that is skewd in favour of the corporate world.
If we do not speak up now, demand changes, we will no longer have any spawning salmon in Roberts Creek or anywhere else. This would be one of the saddest legacies of my generation. We could have prevented it.
So, let’s do everything we can to save wild salmon in Roberts Creek.
Shirley Samples, President, SC Streamkeepers Society
Roberts Creek
