Areal view of the Surrey Bend and Fraser River
Surrey's Stanley Park on the Fraser River
By Tony Eberts - special to WCWC
British Columbians have an opportunity to save and savour a unique spread of forest, field and water at the very heart of the province's major population area.
In 1888, far-sighted Vancouver pioneers set aside the land that was to become world famous Stanley Park.
This year Surrey can have a riverside park equal in size to Stanley Park, but of even greater significance in terms of natural history, fish, wildlife and human heritage.
The site just west of the Port-Mann bridge is known as Surrey Bend - a thousand natural, undiked, undeveloped acres containing the greatest mix of wetland habitats left in the lower Fraser Valley. It's a sanctuary for a fabulous array of animal and plant species, and offers exciting opportunities for outdoor education and recreation, wildlife viewing and much more.
Click on image for detail.
Industrial and residential projects are pressing in upon this last major undeveloped tract of floodplain in the lower valley, this final link with both early settlers and the more than 7,000 year history of aboriginal state.
Once land-filling occurs and development follows, the wild beauty and natural balance of the ecosystem can never be brought back to the pristine state.
But there is strong hope that the Bend will soon be given park status, especially if the people of the Lower Mainland support the idea.
Recently, provincial and regional officials revealed that the start of what they call the Lower Mainland Legacy Fund, based on cost-sharing between the province, regional district and municipalities to acquire and designate certain lands as parks.
A key park purchase under consideration is Surrey Bend. The cost of buying those lands now in private hands to go with the land in the Bend already owned by the Greater Vancouver Regional District and the City of Surrey has been estimated at about $45 million. Recent assessments, however, suggest that a more realistic figure for the total value of the private land holdings at Surrey Bend would be little more than $16 million dollars.
Ironically, it was a 1975 plan by the Greater Vancouver Regional District to use its 80-acre parcel of Surrey Bend as a landfill-dump-site that put the spotlight on what was then a mysterious and little appreciated place.
There was loud and immediate opposition from Surrey Council, several environment groups, the provincial Water Investigations Branch and assorted individuals.
By the following year, Surrey Council had declared that Surrey Bend should be an ecological reserve - but the area was left zoned for industrial use. Considering the rarity and unoccupied Fraser River estuarine foreshore, it was hardly a surprise that various developments were proposed.
Also, in 1976, the Douglas College Institute of Environmental Studies produced an informational Booklet on the Surrey Bend controversy. In the introduction, Dr. Barry Leach of the Fraser Wetlands Habitat Committee says:
After an earlier study, the Institute concluded: "The drastic effect of land filling makes it very difficult to envisage any compromise between industrial/commercial development and the maintenance of the natural ecosystems or scenic attributes which give the area its unique value."
The most complete study of the Bend was finished in 1992 for the Fraser River Estuary Management Program and Surrey Council. It's known as the Kistritz Report.
"Surrey Bend is now unique in that no other fresh water marsh of this character remains in a fairly natural state on the Lower Fraser River."
The report envisions the Bend as a high quality, local and regional wildlife viewing and heritage site - a multi purpose concept including habitat conservation, wildlife management, outdoor education and recreation.
As well as significant runs of coho and cutthroat trout in the main stream, other species of salmon and trout are found off the other shore of Surrey Bend, and the prospects for bar fishing are excellent. And because the shoreline has never been roaded, it remains free of trash.
One needed improvement: a ban on locating log booms or rafts of logs along the shore. This would improve river views and end the buildup of pieces of bark and other litter, providing the prime fisheries habitat there-classified by the government as red zone area where no foreshore development is to take place -with greater protection.
Aquatic Ecologist Ron Kistriz was so impressed by the richness and variety of Surrey Bend he discovered during his study that he's now campaigning as a private citizen to have this very special place preserved for posterity.
