DARK SANDS AND SALTGRASS

This series explores the resilience of a unique wildlife refuge in Metro Vancouver weathering a century of industrialisation.

Located on the unceded land of the Musqueam on the Fraser River estuary, xʷəyeyət (Iona Island) and its Indigenous inhabitants have had food sources polluted and sensitive tidal marshlands fragmented and altered in the last century to accommodate an airport, wastewater treatment plant, and agriculture. Himalayan blackberry and cattail, introduced by human activities, choke native grasses and flowers. Despite the relentless development and pollution, xʷəyeyət still nurtures freshwater wetlands, saltgrass meadows, and rare dune grass ecosystems. The mosaic offers many songbirds and shorebirds a valuable place to rest and refuel during migration, and rarities such as the yellow-headed blackbird breed there.

Two jetties funnel the flow of the Fraser River away from xʷəyeyət’s intertidal wetland system and disrupt the sediment cycle which prevents the creation of critical young salmon habitat. The migration pattern of Chinook salmon is also disturbed, forcing them into saltwater before they have naturally transitioned from freshwater. Chinook have been declining somewhat steeply over the last decades, impacting the endangered Southern Resident killer whales who depend on Chinook as their primary prey. A project is underway punching passages through the jetties to restore sediment flow and Chinook’s ancestral pathways.

This series aims to portray the mosaic of xʷəyeyət – freshwater wetland, estuarine meadow, mudflat, forest, and invasive plant encroachment – to evoke the special diversity and resilience of a sensitive ecosystem cocooned within industries that threaten to expand and further alter its structure. A $9.9 billion expansion of the Iona Island Wastewater Treatment Plant includes an ambitious plan to restore native plants and pre-industry intertidal marshlands to xʷəyeyət by 2038. The series depicts a refuge in flux, enduring a century of pollution yet cautiously hopeful for a return to its beginning.