Exploring biodiversity in cities with OurSquamish
Framing the issues of climate change and biodiversity loss in an urban context.
Last week, I had the pleasure of leading an interpretive walk of downtown Squamish focused on how cities can promote biodiversity in urban spaces. The walk was part of an ongoing meetup series hosted by placemaking society OurSquamish, an organization whose mission is to enhance Squamish’s urban public spaces through built infrastructure, education, advocacy, and events.
The goal of this walk was to frame the issues of climate change and biodiversity loss in an urban context and to educate community members about ways that they can get involved to shape their urban spaces for the betterment of both people and the planet.
The Blind Channel
Our first stop was Xwu’nekw Park, steps from the downtown core of Squamish. The park currently provides beach access to the Mamquam Blind Channel and a great view of the Stawamus Chief. At this stop, we discussed the historical context of the Squamish Estuary, noting how much the estuary has been developed over time.
One of the largest changes that occurred to the estuary in the last century was the diking of the Mamquam River, which used to flow directly into Átl’ka7tsem, Howe Sound. Today, the Mamquam flows into the Squamish River, with the Mamquam Blind Channel being a remnant of the once functioning estuary.
One of the biggest threats facing this area is sea level rise. Provincial modeling predicts that Squamish will observe an average sea level rise of 1.15 meters by 2100 which will threaten downtown with flooding during king tides and storm surges.
As a group we discussed the Xwu’nekw Park Sea Dike project, a project that will significantly upgrade the town’s flood resilience in the face of climate change. In addition to flood protection, the dike’s design incorporates natural habitat creation, most notably a tiered salt marsh planted with native sedge and grasses. Salt marshes provide important habitat to a variety of wildlife, including salmon, herring, shellfish, and birds. Salt marshes are known as “nurseries” for juvenile salmon as they provide food, refuge from predators, and a calm environment for salmon to transition from life in the river to life at sea.
Cleveland Ave
Our next stop was an innocuous downtown intersection across from a restaurant and hotel. Here, we talked about the impacts that paved surfaces have on the water cycle and water pollution. When cities pave over greenspace, rainwater is unable to be absorbed by the soil and instead enters the municipal stormwater system. In municipalities with combined stormwater/wastewater pipes, this often causes sewage overflows during storms.
Stormwater runoff also carries with it pollutants that accumulate on the road, most notably the tire chemical 6PPD-Quinone which has been linked to mass die-offs of coho salmon in urban streams across the pacific northwest. Reducing paved surfaces by encouraging non-car travel and protecting existing greenspace would help address this issue. In fact, a recent UBC study found that strategically placed “rain gardens” remove up to 90% of pollutants from stormwater, including the salmon-killing 6PPD-Quinone.
The Squamish Estuary
Our last stop was the Squamish Estuary, where we asked the question: what is biodiversity, and why is it important? In plain terms, biodiversity describes the number of different species inhabiting a certain ecosystem. Ecosystems with high biodiversity are more resilient to change, are harder for invasive species to colonize, and have the litany of benefits that intact, functioning, and healthy ecosystems provide to humans, free of cost. These benefits, such as water filtration, flood protection, recreation, tourism, shade, clean air, and mental well-being can be assigned an economic value using a concept called “ecosystem services”.
Sometimes calculating the economic value of an intact ecosystem can help sway decision makers towards protecting it. A recent report found that the Howe Sound watershed provides between $400 million to $4.7 billion of value to society, but its ability to stay valuable hinges on the fact that it is protected, restored, and functioning well into the future.
Take-home messages
One takeaway from our walk was acknowledging the reality that cities are mostly a place where humans live. The biodiversity of a city can never equate to an undeveloped ecosystem, but through intentional, thoughtful design we can better blur the line between natural and human spaces.
This is why I believe that it’s important that growing cities like Squamish concentrate their development in a smaller footprint, using land that has already been impacted by humans instead of sprawling outwards towards intact ecosystems. At the same time, Squamish can do everything it can to build liveable spaces for native plants and wildlife in its urban footprint. This can include pollinator gardens, natural shorelines, protecting urban trees, and encouraging community stewardship of parks.
All in all, it was a wonderful event and I went home with many new perspectives on issues that were brought up by the participants. Thank you again to OurSquamish for inviting me and I hope to be back in the near future!
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