By Barb Brouwer
Contributor
Columbia Shuswap Regional District directors agreed to add muscle to a request that Ottawa continue to fund B.C.’s Invasive Mussels Defence Program.
The issue was brought to light by a Jan. 18 letter The Okanagan Basin Board sent to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, several federal ministers, B.C. MLAs and MPs, Indigenous and tourism organizations and others including the CSRD, calling for immediate action to prevent invasive mussel introduction to the province.
“It has come to our attention that federal funding to support B.C.’s Invasive Mussel Defence Program may be reduced or cancelled this year, and further, that other funding partners are citing a lack of federal leadership as justification to cancel or reduce their funding,” wrote Okanagan Basin Board chair Sue McKortoff. “This is just as the threat of invasive mussels has dramatically increased, with a confirmed infestation in the transboundary Columbia Basin.”
As well, McKortoff cited areas of Canada where invasive zebra and quagga mussels have been found and called for immediate, long-term federal funding assistance for B.C. to support prevention efforts or plan for significant higher management costs in the near future.
“If invasive mussels arrive in B.C., they will severely impact Pacific salmon by depleting the food web in their spawning and rearing habitats in the Fraser and Columbia River systems,” she wrote, noting First Nations in B.C. have spent decades restoring these systems and their salmon populations, and an infestation would undermine the recovery of these fisheries. “Effects will be seen in marine environments where reductions in Pacific salmon populations will reduce a key food source for Orcas and other marine species.”
McKortoff complained that of the $750 million allocated to the new Canada Water Agency, $420 million will go to the Great Lakes region over 10 years to deal with issues such as algae blooms which have been exacerbated by invasive mussels. Despite the fact that invasive mussels represent one of the biggest threats, there will be no money for national and regional transboundary freshwater challenges and opportunities, she said.
“It would take only $4 million/year allocated to B.C. invasive mussel inspections to protect the Canadian Columbia Basin, the Fraser Basin, Peace Region and other major western river systems,” McKortoff said. “The Province of B.C. already allocates over $1 million/year to this program, but without federal and other partner funding, these efforts will likely fail,”
Area E director Rhona Martin reiterated the major risks invasive mussels pose to the Shuswap and, at the Feb. 15 board meeting in Salmon Arm, received unanimous support for the CSRD to send a similar letter.
“This is a huge issue for our region as well and to reduce this project is very short-sighted,” she said.
Read more: Kelowna Chamber leads regional push to keep invasive mussels out of B.C.
Read more: Preventing invasive mussels in the Shuswap