The Mermaid Creek Salt Marsh: Is Mother Nature in charge, or are we?

Graphic showing land decline of Mermaid Creek Salt Marsh. Photo courtesy of DHI Water & Environment, Inc.

The natural boundary of Roberts Bay near Sidney is shifting. The Mermaid Creek Salt Marsh, a small pickleweed and salt-grass delta at the mouth of Mermaid Creek on the southeast end of the bay, is shrinking.

Roberts Bay is of tremendous cultural and ecological significance to the region and provides habitat for many migratory and resident species of birds, plants, and wildlife.

When Sidney Council invited Peter Wainwright from Sidney Radio to present on the matter on Wednesday, the journalist came armed with an in-depth analysis of reports from multiple NGOs, the province, and the feds, as well as research he and a team of volunteers had conducted on their own. Busy council members could count themselves lucky someone else had done the legwork.

“I saw a problem, a planning problem, where it looks like the outcomes that are desired in the OCP (Official Community Plan) with respect to Roberts Bay are not likely to be achieved, and one of the things that Radio Sidney does is we try to bring information forward. So here I am,” Wainwright said.

According to Sidney’s OCP, Roberts Bay is a designated Environmental Sensitivity Area. The protection of the bay and the marsh has two main challenges: rising sea levels and sediment being transported into the marsh from nearby Mermaid Creek. Storm surges and atmospheric rivers—more numerous in recent years—are exacerbating impacts on both.

20 metres of marsh gone over the last 57 years

A Coastal and Oceans Resources Inc. report looked at what is happening with the salt marsh over time, using aerial photography and determined it has become significantly smaller since 1964. Between 1964 and 2021, DHI Water and Environment Inc. reported the marsh had migrated nearly 20 metres.

Using these and additional reports from the Pacific Salmon Foundation, Wainwright identified three key issues beyond sea-level rise impacting how planning should be approached in Roberts Bay: Flood Construction Levels (FCLs), a grandfathered setback, and common-law right to protect against erosion along the shoreline. FCLs are setbacks measured to keep buildings from being damaged by flood waters and are relatively easy for municipalities to implement.

Wainwright acknowledged there are also coastal processes at play that he cannot explain, so he emphasized the need for a comprehensive approach to address these challenges, including potential conservation covenants and collaboration with various levels of government.

Apart from its noticeable migration, the Coastal and Ocean Resources Institute (CORI) found that the Mermaid Creek Salt Marsh has shrunk more than 70% in the last 60 years.

Noticeable even by eye, says one councillor

Sidney Coun. Scott Garnett, who had taken a walk recently at Roberts Bay, said he’d been looking at the diagrams and trends from the CORI report in 2022—which show what the marsh looked like in 2021—and it appeared to him that it is even smaller now, only three years later.

“How much it is pulling back is definitely evident, even with the naked eye,” he said.

Roberts Bay is not the only estuary in the CRD that meets the sea—the Gorge Waterway Action Society has been working to restore and naturalize the Gorge Creek Salt Marsh at the mouth of Gorge Creek and the Gorge. The Esquimalt Lagoon by Royal Roads University is another ecologically important area that is home to eelgrass beds and migratory birds. The marshes in the Gorge and the Lagoon are also contending with the threat of sea-level rise. Wainwright suggested that given its accessibility in an urban setting—and because Sidney has collected a lot of data, studies and archival information on Roberts Bay over time—it could serve as a pilot project on how to address the issue of recession and sedimentation in the other areas.

Wainwright tried to answer that question himself when he and several survey volunteers mapped out various hard shorelines that had been built haphazardly over time in the bay. A hard shoreline is an artificial barrier, often made of concrete or steel, such as a seawall or a wharf used to disperse wave energy away from beachfront properties. They found 37 of the 42—or 88%—of the land parcels they looked at had a hardened shoreline to some extent, in the form of either full seawall, or partial seawall.

Wainwright  said he soon realized the Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF) was doing the same thing, only far more efficiently, so they halted the survey. The Pacific Salmon Foundation has been using a fishing dory dubbed  Wilbur to chart a marine version of Google Maps Street View, mapping the shoreline along the east coast of Vancouver Island. Its full report is expected to be released next year.

You likely won't see a seawall in Sidney

In Ross Bay, a seawall was built in 1911 to protect the historic Ross Bay Cemetery from erosion caused by waves pounding against the shoreline. That won’t likely happen in Sidney.

“The Sidney OCP is pretty clear on the vision for Robert's Bay and what they want to see happen is clearly towards green (natural) shores. In fact, you're not allowed to do sea walls or hardened shorelines if there is any alternative,” Wainwright said.

Ultimately, protecting Roberts Bay and the salt marsh will require a multi-jurisdictional solution.

Under the Oceans Act, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans plays a role in shoreline management. However, Wainwright is emphatic that much of the onus will fall on the province because it owns the shoreline. He also cautions that there are gaps in provincial policy outlined in the Wetlands Action Plan for BC and the Coastal Marine Strategy with respect to salt marshes. From the foreshore—the part of a shore between high and low water marks—up, the question of how to manage development and recreation around the bay becomes a municipal issue.

The municipality has jurisdiction over zoning in the bay around things like usage, such as boat launches and houses. Sidney Council can also implement conservation covenants—conditions that you can register on titles for conservation reasons.

“Are we fighting a losing battle if we don’t address the up-water issue of stormwater from Mermaid Creek?” Coun. Terri O’Keefe asks.

“I look at the hurricanes in Florida, and Mother Nature has decided that water is moving in. How much can we realistically do?”