Official complaint lodged against Trans Mountain biologist over unauthorized river work

A Fraser Valley-based conservation group has lodged a formal complaint with the College of Applied Biology over a Trans Mountain biologist’s role in the installation of matting to discourage salmon from spawning at stream sites where the company plans pipeline crossings. In the official written complaint, WaterWealth program director Ian Stephen quotes a Trans Mountain blog post of Sept. 12, 2017, that reads: “Trans Mountain fisheries biologist Calum Bonnington and his team are temporarily installing snow fencing flat down onto some sections of streambed that are intersected by the pipeline construction right-of-way and sections immediately downstream.” The letter adds: “Among quotes of the biologist Bonnington in the blog are that the technique is ‘a relatively new mitigative method’ and ‘a relatively new science, without a body of supporting evidence for its success.’” Stephen asserts in the letter that “this apparently unproven spawning deterrent method” was applied to eight streams, one in Alberta and seven in B.C., that Trans Mountain considered to have a high “fish habitat sensitivity rating” in documents filed with the National Energy Board. Among the fish species with conservation concerns found in those rivers are bull trout, chinook salmon, and Interior Fraser River coho salmon...more