Photo credit: Diana Williams

The Codd Island Wetlands are within the municipality of Pitt Meadows, British Columbia, approximately 2 kilometres downstream from Blaney Bog. The area encompasses approximately 250 acres, includes the Blaney Creek floodplain, wetlands and tributary streams in the area east of Codd Island. It is one of the last remaining undyked floodplain wetlands within the entire Alouette River Watershed.

The wetlands provide a home for more than 191 species of wildlife, including red listed endemics like the Pacific Water Shrew and the Keens Long-eared bat. It is also one of the three known nesting sites in the Lower Mainland for the Greater sandhill crane. In conjunction with the Blaney Bog wetlands, the Codd Island Wetlands provide the single largest off-channel habitat for wild coho, steelhead, and cutthroat within the entire Alouette River watershed.

The Pitt Polder Preservation Society spearheaded the campaign to preserve the Codd Island Wetlands located in Pitt Meadows, BC. The privately owned wetlands was slated for industrial cranberries, which would have negatively impacted the salmon-bearing creek and the wildlife that call the wetland their home.

PPPS members Charline Hooper, Mike Gildersleeve, Dennis Williams, Kees Vandenberg, Wilma Robinson, Jennifer Peskett, Annette LeBox, Ric Cordoni, Michael Sather, Diana Williams, Beryl Cunningham and Leah McKie (not shown).

'Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world.'

Margaret Mead's words never seemed truer than on June 1st, 2004, the day the Codd Island Wetlands was dedicated as a Greater Vancouver District Park. Without the work of citizens who care passionately about saving a special place, Codd Island would have been destroyed for an industrial cranberry operation.

It seemed like a decade of work, not a 'mere' three and a half years of lobbying: writing letters and gathering signatures, phoning politicians and bureaucrats, fund-raising, giving slide presentations--anything to keep the initiative at the forefront.

The Polder Society was first alerted of the necessity to preserve this wonderful wetland by Bruce Clark of Fisheries and Oceans Canada in October 2000. The Society tirelessly lobbied Municipal, Provincial, Regional and Federal levels of government since that time. The Municipality of Pitt Meadows was the first funder to come on board, followed by the Land Conservancy of BC, the GVRD, the Province of British Columbia and Pacific Estuary Conservation Foundation. Private funders also contributed: most notably a $20,000 gift from artist Robert Bateman.

Most of the conservation work was accomplished quietly behind the scenes. And yet, on June 1, 2004, the volunteers who stood there on the makeshift stage in the wetland, listening to the politicians' speeches, knew how much work it took. They knew how hard it was to stop people in front of Save On Foods to explain the importance of the wetlands and ask them to write or sign a letter. They knew how hard it was to phone government bureaucrats again and again, knowing these officials wanted them to go away, yet knowing the necessity of perseverence. The Polder Society gathered and sent out more than 4500 letters from our community to various levels of government. A letter really does make a difference.

We would like to thank the following individuals for their time and effort and donations to the Codd Island Wetlands initiative.

Ruona Asplund, the Alouette Field Naturalists, Scott Barrett, Robert Bateman, Bergit Bateman, Sara Bates, Karen Beyer, Ron Blakely, Michael and Janice Buckingham, CBC Radio, Brian Clark, Bruce Clark, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada, Lisa Codd, Ric Cordoni, Beryl Cunningham, Ross Davies, Joan Domer, Helen Donnelly, Lynn Easton, Federation of BC Naturalists, Sylvia Frelich, Mike Gildersleeve, Chris Gordon, Bob Goos and the congregation of St.Paul's Lutheran Church, Rose Grabenhorst, Ingrid Hoflin, Janis Jarvis, Katzie First Nation, Leah McKie, Brendan and Erin Morrison, Jennifer Peskett, Brooke Nadasdi, Maria and Nadine Raynolds, Steve Robinson, Wilma Robinson, Chuck Russell, Michael Sather, Katrina Schneiter, Cornelius Sluis, David Suzuki, Yukiko Tanaka, Tourism Pitt Meadows,Vancouver History Society, Duanne and Kees Van den berg, Krysten Vogel, and Diana and Dennis Williams. We would also like to extend our thanks to anyone who made contributions or donations in other ways that we are not aware of or that we may have overlooked. Special thanks also to Westgate Save On Foods and the Marketplace in Pitt Meadows whose exemplary community spirit were very helpful in saving the wetlands.

Annette LeBox, Chair, Codd Island Wetlands Committee
Pitt Polder Preservation Society

Public Access and Use of the Codd Island Wetlands

No public access is available to the wetlands. When additional upland is acquired by the Greater Vancouver Regional District Parks (GVRD), wildlife viewing opportunities will be provided for the public at appropriate locations.

Aerial photograph of the Codd Island Wetlands

Photo credit: Chuck Russell