The District of Squamish is working on a project to remove the abandoned Jimmy Jimmy (Judd) Slough culvert in the Squamish River dike and replace it with a new, larger culvert in order to re-water the slough.
The District is aiming to complete construction in August in order to fit within the fisheries window and at a time when flood risk is considered low.
The new culvert will be equipped with an automated two-gate system that would allow water to enter the slough in a controlled manner.
Upper Jimmy Jimmy (Judd) Slough was once a branch of the Squamish River until construction of dike largely cut off flows to the area in the 1970s.
When the dike was first built, a small culvert was installed in the Judd Slough, which was later closed off because of flooding issues. Lack of water flow to the slough resulted in the sediment accumulation within the slough, which has degraded the fish habitat.
The district will now excavate the dike, take out the old culvert and replace it with a properly designed culvert and gate system to re-water the slough and improve fish habitat.
David Lassmann says
We have seen these kinds of projects before, they are attempts to rectify an issue that was created decades earlier. During these decades the habitat has changed and become populated with species that need the new habitat. For example, Judd Slough and the creek that comes from it have become home to beavers and Wood Ducks. These species will be eliminated by the proposed change. This restoration effort will hardly make the tiniest dent into the habitat destruction that was brought about by the dyking of the Squamish River (and others). The fact is that the rivers no longer have the larger part of their floodplains and therefore cannot create and sustain new channels as a natural process. Our puny efforts to replace the lost ecosystem are pitiful and futile. Our governments’ primary interest has been and still is the environmentally destructive development which is known as “progress”.