This letter is in support of stopping the debris trap on the Fraser River. Most of the floating wood debris coming down the river is swept and collected to be chipped and disposed of on land.
That wood source is the basis of all the food baby salmon rely on as they migrate down the river. The wood should be collecting and rotting in log jams and on the shores and estuaries of the river.
Spiders, ants, worms, wood lice, flies and all their eggs are floated off this decaying mass in the spring when the snow melts and the rivers rise — precisely when the little baby salmon are coming out of the gravel.
That mass of insects floating down the river and collecting in the back eddies is the fingerlings “Save-on-Foods.” The salmon nursery desperately needs this vital source of food for their survival.
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I urge citizens to take a look at the wood debris collecting in the back eddies as the rivers rise. They will see the birds feasting and feeding their young. Walk the shorelines and carefully lift a piece of rotting wood and observe the number of insects in the decaying process.
This is all food for our baby salmon.
We have the power to decide what is more important: maintaining pristine boat propellers or saving our local salmon population? Stop the debris trap on the Fraser River and help keep our salmon alive.
-Eric Fryer, Agassiz
news@ahobserver.com
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