Respecting our rivers on B.C. Rivers’ Day and every day

Courtney Taylor
Cariboo Advisor


Every bathtub has a drain, and every drain leads to a river, and every river leads to the ocean.


One of problems that face rivers, river valley walkers learned Sunday, is the amount of contaminants that end up in them, which in turn ends up in the ocean.


The pile up of garbage at the mouth of a river as it meets the ocean is called a gyre, and the gyre in the pacific is twice the size of Texas said City Interpreter Mary Forbes, and host of the annual Rivers’ Day Walk.


It is for reasons like this that the last Sunday in September is B.C. Rivers’ Day, to create some awareness for our rivers.


In the lakecity, the guided walk in the river valley was lead by Forbes.


The focus of the walk was all about nature, and more specifically the pink salmon that spawn in Williams Creek.


There were about dozen participants of the walk, including fisheries biologist Kathy Campbell. She was in town from Vancouver Island as part of a five-week environmental course she is teaching from the Vancouver Island University.


“I’ve always participated in a Rivers’ Day hike or walk back home, and was looking for something in Williams Lake, I saw a poster and thought I should be a part of it,” said Campbell.


Forbes was full of information, sharing with everyone interesting facts along the way about things such as what to do in a bear encounter, identifying bear scat, facts about salmon, and of course information about rivers and the problems they face.


“The challenge the Williams Lake faces is the water being too eutrophic, which means there is too much nitrogen in the water and not enough oxygen,” said Forbes. “Salmon like lots of cold and lots of oxygen.’


Forbes also talked about rivers being drains carrying the garbage out to the ocean, and all the crazy things that are being found in the ocean, and in fish. Forbes does say that Williams Lake’s water treatment plant (which happens to be situated along Williams Creek and consequently drains into the Fraser River) is fantastic, but it can only do so much.


Sunday may have been River’s Day, but for our rivers to continue to flourish, people need to celebrate them everyday, and remember that everything that goes down a drain ends up in a river.