Dogwood News This Week: another assault
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- Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00
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news and action Friday May 26, 2023 Gosnell Creek on Wet'suwet'en territory is home to Coho salmon, Steelhead, Rainbow, Cutthroat and Bull Trout, Dolly Varden, whitefish and more. The B.C. government calls it “a pristine wilderness area with high fisheries and wildlife values.” Not anymore.

Coastal GasLink tried to lay their pipeline through this wild salmon wetland while it was frozen. Then, the whole thing melted. Now construction is halted because they can’t get vehicles in and the whole area looks like mud soup. Equipment is floating in water.
Local construction monitors took photos of the Morice River above... and below the drowned construction site. The pictures show Coastal GasLink trashing some of the last best salmon habitat on the planet.

The B.C. government lost control of this project a long time ago. The company has acted with such disregard for environmental protection and safety that there are now 12 stop work orders along various parts of the route.
But in some places, like Gosnell Creek, the damage is done. Environment Minister George Heyman and Minister of Energy Josie Osborne should have stopped this before it started. Now the least they can do is keep CGL from causing even more harm.
The company’s permits require they not allow dirt or other materials from construction into the surrounding environment. When sediment gets into wetlands and watercourses, it clogs up fish habitat and can suffocate salmon smolts.
Karla Tait, a C’ihlts’ehkhyu clan member whose territory includes Gosnell Creek, says the damage is yet another assault on the important work she and others are doing at the Unist’ot’en healing centre.
“The violent history of colonization, the Indian Act, the reservation system, and residential schools have sought to disconnect us from the healing and nourishing power of our lands.
“The future of the [centre] and its vital work in connecting our people with our culture and roots, with our way of life and medicine, with who we are as people, depends on the survival of our territories, and our territories are rooted in the survival of our waterways and wetlands.
“CGL promised that this would be a trenchless crossing and instead they have made a landfill of our bread basket. Salmon cannot survive without light and air.”
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