THE ROAD SALT AND PACIFIC SALMON SUCCESS PROJECT
ABOUT
The Road Salt and Pacific Salmon Success Project is investigating the effects that road salt may have on streams across the Vancouver Lower Mainland. Collaboratively with thirteen stream stewardship groups, the University of British Columbia (UBC), Simon Fraser University (SFU) , the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), researchers and volunteers are exploring the impact of road salt on the development and physiology of coho and chum salmon and on the benthic invertebrates they eat.
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28
Creeks
13
Stream Stewardship
Groups
7
Researchers
9
Graduate
Students
1
Community
to Engage
OUR GOAL
Habitat degradation poses a significant threat to freshwater streams. Our goal is to determine the impact of road salt on aquatic ecosystems, with a particular focus on coho and chum salmon and the benthic invertebrate community that supports them. We strive to raise public awareness regarding the excessive use of road salt, with the ultimate objective of advocating for more stringent planning and regulations for how it is applied.
LEARN MORE ABOUT SALT AND SAFE SALTING PRACTICES
HOW IT STARTED
The Stoney Creek Environment Committee (SCEC), a Streamkeeper organization in Burnaby, BC, monitored conductivity – a proxy for salt contamination – in Stoney Creek for over a decade and noted the occurrence of conductivity pulses that exceeded water quality guidelines, which appeared to align with road-salting events. Alan James, one of the SCEC’s dedicated volunteers, voiced his concerns to researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Simon Fraser University (SFU), the BC Institute of Technology (BCIT), and staff at the Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) Pacific Science Enterprise Centre (PSEC). A consortium of researchers at the UBC, SFU, and BCIT, in collaboration with 13 stream stewardship organizations and PSEC’s Community Engagement Coordinator, was formed. The consortium, led by Dr. Chris Wood at UBC, submitted their research proposal to the NSERC Alliance Program and were awarded five years of funding for the Road Salt and Pacific Salmon Success Project in summer 2022. In its first year, the consortium established a network of 37 automatic conductivity loggers deployed in 28 creeks across the Vancouver Lower Mainland (VLM). With these loggers, devoted Streamkeeper volunteers continuously monitor conductivity and water temperature in their streams. Many have also performed benthic invertebrate and larval fish surveys in their streams, to get a better understanding of the health of salmon and invertebrate populations. Using the data collected by Streamkeeper partners, researchers at all three institutions have started laboratory and field experiments on the toxicity of salt to developing salmon and benthic invertebrates.
STAY UPDATED
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Salmonid Embryo (Carley Winter, UBC)