In cities, biodiversity is put at risk when:
Locally, an example of lack of stewardship would be the Burnaby Mountain Conservation Area (BMCA) and the Burnaby 200 Conservation Area. Despite the City of Burnaby and the community (including the “Burnaby Mountain Preservation Society”) having put in place an excellent Burnaby Mountain Conservation Area Management Plan in the year 2000, the Plan has not been upheld for over a decade. The biodiversity inventory has not been updated since 2000. Unauthorized trails have been forged through protected habitat zones, trails have worn away fragile soils such that native vegetation cannot take root, signage has been defaced and invasive species have become more rampant. Many of the trees are dying.
The City of Burnaby also appears to have done little to protect and advocate for Stoney Creek where fish kills have occurred due to construction waste being poured down storm drains.
Metro Vancouver has decided to densify within what it calls the “Urban Containment Boundary” so as to preserve rural and agricultural land in Pitt Meadows, the Township of Langley and parts of Richmond and Surrey. Draft Metro 2050 Regional Growth Strategy
This means that Metro Vancouver’s urban municipalities such as Burnaby have to “build up” and closer together. The City has also looked to parks and green spaces as places to locate buildings and infrastructure.
New residential housing in Burnaby may be responsible for the 3% decline in tree canopy between 2014 and 2020. See https://www.nsnews.com/highlights/are-metro-vancouvers-urban-forest-goals-sunk-8718515.
Conservation Areas are particularly important for the protection and preservation of biodiversity. The Government of Canada defines “conserved areas” as areas that safeguard biodiversity for present and future generations by reducing stresses from human activities. Conserved areas also provide opportunities for people to connect with nature. Conserved areas include protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures (like a bird sanctuary or marine protected area).
Conservation areas in Burnaby include:
In April 2000, the Burnaby Mountain Conservation Area was described by Burnaby’s City Manager, Ms. Friars, as follows:
The Burnaby Mountain Conservation Area was originally a forest of large western red cedar, western hemlock and Douglas fir. Logging at the turn of the century cleared virtually all the large trees, except for several ravines on the southern and northern slopes. The forest structure was altered to large deciduous species in their early successional stage……
Burnaby Mountain represents an important island of wildlife habitat in a predominantly urban area. According to Conservation Data Centre classifications, at least eleven species of provincially Blue- and Red-listed wildlife may be found at or near Burnaby Mountain based on the types of habitats present and the geographic ranges of the species. The conservation area is large enough to support populations of medium-sized mammals. Black-tailed deer, coyotes, foxes, raccoons, and black bears have been observed visiting the mountain slopes. More commonly found are small mammals such as bats, squirrels, rabbits, moles, voles, shrews and mice.
Bird species are typical of early successional coastal forest habitats and the mountain represents an important bird migration stop-over. There is a year-round habitat for a range of songbirds including dark-eyed juncos, spotted towhee, wrens, song sparrows, and chickadees as well as primary and secondary cavity nesters including woodpeckers and nuthatches. The Management Plan identifies 88 potential or confirmed bird species based on consultant research and information from the Vancouver Natural History Society.
Watercourses found within the conservation area are concentrated on the southern and northern slopes of the mountain. The western and eastern slopes are generally devoid of major watercourses although ditches associated with trails or utility lines provide relatively stable drainage channels during periods of heavy runoff. Stoney Creek, Eagle Creek and Silver Creek on the south slope support fish populations. Stoney Creek in particular is recognized for providing important salmon habitat in the Lower Mainland, supported by volunteer stewardship. Simon Creek on the north slope, contains relatively good habitat for fish and may benefit from future enhancement efforts. Occasionally, cougars have also been sighted in and near Burnaby Mountain Conservation Area. Residents also observe bobcats in the area.
In January 2022, the City of Burnaby endorsed the SFU gondola project – see https://burnabybeacon.com/p/council-endorses-gondola-project – seeming to rely, in part, on misleading ridership information from TransLink that suggested there were 25,000 transit users going to SFU and back every day when, in fact, there were half that number and most of those transit users were taking buses up the other side of the mountain than where a gondola would run.
A local citizen’s group voiced overall concerns about the proposed gondola in a letter and Background document sent March 18, 2023 to George Heyman, B.C. NDP Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Citizens’ letter to Minister George Heymann or BCMA Background Information.
The local citizens group’s concerns include the following:
Running non-conservation infrastructure through the conservation areas must be looked at in the context of cumulative human impacts: the resilience of the conservation areas is also at risk from recreational over-use, droughts from climate change, dying plants and trees, airplane noise (due to recent navigational changes that has seen some airplanes being brought in to YVR near the conservation area) and, potentially, a wildfire or toxic fumes from a tank farm fire.
In 2022, the main bus route that would be replaced by a gondola (the 145 bus route) carried an average of 2,270 people per weekday back and forth to SFU. The 143 bus route that would also be replaced carried 725 people per weekday. The 3S gondola can carry 4,000 to 5,000 people PER HOUR. In other words, a gondola would be overkill. The transit needs of people going to and from SFU on the Gaglardi Way side of Burnaby Mountain can easily be met by running another bus route on the existing road network.
When transportation needs can easily be addressed using the existing road network, why proceed with an urban gondola through this “important island of wildlife habitat”?
A staff report prepared for a Burnaby City Council meeting held on February 6, 2023, recommended building a 21 acre green waste and organics recycling facility (GRO) on the Fraser Foreshore Park ecological reserve – see https://www.burnabynow.com/local-news/20-acres-of-burnaby-park-could-be-converted-from-wetlands-to-waste-facility-6494227
The Fraser Foreshore Ecological Reserve is a remnant of once extensive foreshore wetlands along the banks of the Fraser River. The Ecological Reserve exists primarily for the protection and preservation of nature – wetlands, streams, plants, wildlife and birds. It is a place where people who want to know, or be reminded of, what undisturbed nature looks like can catch a glimpse of that. It represents the preserve of the people of Burnaby for generations to come.
A City of Burnaby sign at the Fraser Foreshore Ecological Reserve states:
The eastern portion of Burnaby Fraser Foreshore park is a 16 hectare ecological reserve containing a diversity of habitat types which are becoming scarce on the Fraser River; mature cottonwood forest, river estuary, tidal lagoon, tidal meadow and old field meadow. The restored estuary and tidal lagoon a part of a salmonid enhancement project to provide critical nutrients and habitat for juvenile salmonids, as well as other fish and wildlife species.
Some of these habitats are newly restored and are still maturing. The open meadow adjacent to the lagoon is being managed as an ‘old field’ with the mix of grasses providing food and habitat for small mammals such as mice and moles. These in turn provide prey for raptors such as hawks and owls. Watch for hunting activities by birds of prey in the meadow and nesting water fowl in the lagoons. These are signs of a healthy, functioning habitat.
On February 6, 2023, Burnaby City Council voted unanimously in favour of the proposal to remove 21 acres from the 39.5 acre (16 hectare) ecological reserve in Fraser Foreshore Park and build the GRO facility there. Strong public opposition caused the City to back down on this plan.
On September 25, 2023, Burnaby City Council voted to allocate funding to build two childcare facilities, playgrounds and “drop off” areas, stated to be primarily for the benefit of City and RCMP staff, within the Deer Lake heron colony’s protective buffer zones on land that had been earmarked for inclusion in Deer Lake Park. See https://burnabybeacon.com/p/deer-lake-daycare-spaces-announcement-2023.
Burnaby’s Pacific Great Blue Heron colony is located in the black cottonwoods of Deer Lake Park — just south of City Hall’s West Building. The colony began in about 2005 when four nests were identified at Deer Lake. In 2013, there were 139 active nests but the number of active nests has declined since then.
In 2022, a biologist counted 68 nests and, in 2023, an additional nest was counted. Nowadays, the herons are laying, on average, one egg per nest per season instead of two to five. Biologists are unsure why the egg count here is declining.
Great Blue Herons were first listed as a “species of special concern” in 2010 under the federal Species at Risk Act and they are on the B.C. government’s “Blue List.”
The Province sets out “best management practices” that aim to protect wildlife in the face of development pressures. They are contained in the “Develop with Care 2014: Environmental Guidelines for Urban and Rural Land Development in British Columbia” and the “Great Blue Heron Fact Sheet” – https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/environment/natural-resource-stewardship/best-management-practices/develop-with-care/fact-sheet-11-herons.pdf
Local governments are urged to “design and locate developments to avoid disturbing heronries and feeding areas. Talk to the local government about ways to concentrate development in areas with lower environmental values…..”
The Great Blue Fact Sheet requires local governments to identify and mark out a 60 m. buffer area around the heronry “where there will be no activities (not even recreational trails). Naturally vegetated buffers help to shield the nests and young from human disturbance and predation by Bald Eagles, crows, and ravens.”
It also states, “An additional 200 metre ‘no disturbance’ buffer is recommended during the nesting season, especially for colonies not previously accustomed to people and their activities” (the province defines “nesting season” as Jan. 15-Sept. 15 to include the times when the chicks are being hatched and before they are old enough to fly and forage on their own).
It has recently been confirmed in a report from the city’s environmental consultants that the proposed childcare site lies 30 per cent within the 60 meter “no activities” buffer zone and 100 per cent within the “no disturbance” buffer zone.
The City of Burnaby is prepared to construct buildings, driveways and playgrounds in an area where the Fact Sheet says not even recreational trails should be allowed! And civic workers were seen excavating the site in April 2024 — during nesting season.
The Pacific Great Blue Herons moved into a corner of Deer Lake Park that has no vegetative buffer to the west or north (especially, since the city created its new solar parking lot).
Now, the City is taking away an important vegetative buffer to the east of the heronry. The City has taken down at least 17 very large western red cedars as well as bushes and understory that had been providing the herons with protection from eagles, as well as foraging ground. See https://www.burnabynow.com/local-news/burnaby-chops-down-trees-for-daycare-facility-resident-concerned-for-nearby-herons-8211792
North America has lost almost 3 billion birds since 1970. The leading cause of declining bird populations is habitat loss and degradation.
A local group of residents started a Petition that called upon Burnaby’s Mayor and Council to relocate the childcare centres to an area with lower environmental values. The Petition garnered over 12,000 signatures, however, the City declined to certify a digital Petition.
The BGP strongly supports affordable childcare in Burnaby, however, like others, we question why an equally suitable location has not been found elsewhere for these two centres.
