The few Vancouver creeks that have been daylighted is a tragedy. In just a century, we’ve covered over dozens of fresh water creeks that used to traverse Vancouver. In doing so, we’ve also annihilated the plant, marine, bird and ground animal wild life that thrived in these natural, unique ecosystems. A City green vision that fails to bring back the sound of bubbling fresh water creeks, ponds, and natural adjacent linear park ways that these creeks can offer would be a travesty. Visit the tiny portion of Hastings Park (PNE grounds) that is supporting the daylighting of Hastings Creek and a significant wet land, then envision this habitat at each of our Lost Creeks: http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/cityplans/stillcreek/lostcreeks.htm Going blue, now that’s a green policy.

False Creek used to end all the way out before Clark Drive as tidal flats 100 years ago, before the construction of a bulkhead near Quebec street to keep the tide back. These tidal flats formed an important estuary system for the salmon-spawning creeks which flowed into False Creek and is essential in bringing back any of these lost streams and the salmon they support.

Deconstruct the bulkhead and allow the tide to wash in and out through a series of tidal canals. The canals could lead to estuary parks where streams like Brewery Creek and China Creek could pour out directly into the ocean once again.

Bringing back the salmon to Vancouver. How green is that?

Downtown Vancouver lacks a central open space where people come first rather than cars. The green spaces that exist are all boxed in by cars on all sides. This creates an uncomfortable, noisy environment where nobody wants to stop and hang around.

Right in the middle of this, we have the Sears building: a gigantic, bland eyesore that is mostly empty. It blocks the view between several heritage buildings and adds to the claustrophobic feeling of downtown.

If Sears is demolished, an enormous space opens up from Vancouver Block to the Art Gallery. This could be modeled into a huge green multi-level plaza, which would become the focal point of downtown life. If in addition, Howe street is tunneled underground from Georgia to Smithe, including all the on/off-ramps for parking, a true car-free space develops that is nevertheless eminently accessible for both cars and transit.

It would be a place for food carts, European street-side patios, buskers, summer stages, and more.

Utopian photoshop:
http://acko.net/dumpx/vancouver-art-gallery-after.jpg

At one time there were an estimated 100,000 salmon and sea-run trout spawning in the more than 50 creeks and streams that spread across Vancouver. As the city grew they were buried beneath pavement and landfill, or were crowded out by development so that salmon could no longer spawn within them. One by one our streams were lost.

Amazingly Musqueam Creek survived and today is Vancouver's only remaining wild salmon stream. What does that mean? It means the Musqueam Creek Coho salmon are wild having spent their entire lifecycle in the wild, originating from parents and grandparents and great grand parents that were born in and spawned in the wild, stretching back for thousands of years.

Further, salmon are a keystone species in our coastal temperate rainforests making the Musqueam Creek ecosystem the most biologically diverse area in the City- that’s more species of fish, birds, insects, plants, fungi, lichen and mammals than can even be found in Stanley Park!

If we are going to be the greenest city our world than we must make room for the extraordinary variety of life- the species and ecosystems, that grow and interact with each other in our city. To do this we must save Musqueam Creek, now and for future generations. For more information visit www.mecsweb.org.

[Submitted via email by Terry Slack]

One way to improve the quality of migrating Juvenile salmon habitat in the Fraser River is to improve the quality of water going into the Fraser River and restore small pockets of important" tidal juvenile salmon ribbon marsh habitat"! Drainages from roads etc. located near road ends travel in open drainage ditches and is discharged directly into the North Arm of the Fraser River untreated . Creating Salmon Friendly Mini Parks at all the road ends in South Vancouver, Marpole etc. not only adds much needed greenspace, but these parks can be designed in a way to clean runoff water by planting small Salmon friendly wetlands" Wild Salmon Habitat" at each new road end park .

Salt marshes are among the most productive ecosystems in the world, and certainly some of the most productive that occur here on the BC coast (where we have a distinct lack of tropical rainforests and reefs). Salt marshes are nurseries for fishes and invertebrates, and provide an immense amount of food for other animals - especially migrating birds.

However, as the Vancouver coastline has been developed and re-developed many of these valuable habitats have been destroyed. This is not entirely a sad story, as much of the Vancouver shore has been redeveloped in to the Sea Wall and other community assets, but the city's lack of salt marshes is an environmental concern.

I'm not suggesting that we demolish the Sea Wall and try to return everything to the way it was two or three centuries ago. What I am suggesting is finding suitable locations in Vancouver to build new salt marshes or regrow old ones.

This may sound like a tall order, but it's just like planting new trees in a park - with pre-planning and a concerted effort we could bring back some valuable marine ecosystems, provide food for migratory birds, and show everyone the beauty of Vancover's marine life.

An important part of living in a "Green" city goes beyond clean air, water, & waste management. It also includes protection of our local wildlife. I am always shocked each year with the number of black bears that are put down by wildlife management staff. Is this the best "management" policy of our wildlife that Vancouver can come up with? It's time for Vancouver & its surrounding communities to get to the root of the problem, which is urban development infringing on wildlife habitats and depletion of their food sources. I always say, that if you want to live in nature, then you had better be prepared to live WITH nature. Destroying it every time it inconveniences us is not the answer.