Once a vast expanse of water teeming with life, all that exists today of Semá:th Xo:tsa are hazy black and white photos of a lake no more. But that may change soon.
Semá:th Xó:tsa, or the Sumas Lake, was a 36 square kilometer lake in the Fraser Valley. It was an integral source of livelihood and sustenance for the Semá:th (Sumas) people. That was before it was erased and artificially drained in 1924, resulting in what is known today as the Sumas prairie.
In 2021, floods exacerbated by the climate crisis devastated the region, causing loss of $675 million in insured damage and hundreds of thousands livestock deaths. Since then, there has been significant investment into infrastructure to curtail future flooding and maintain the Sumas prairie. Amid these efforts, there have been calls for a different approach: restoring the original Sumas lake.
A recent report written by UBC researchers, the Sumas First Nation and members of the Fraser Fisheries Alliance, West Coast Environmental Law and the Raincoast Conservation Foundation estimated buying out the properties and returning the Sumas Lake would cost $1 billion, while preserving the status quo would cost approximately $2.4 billion.
According to the report, restoring the lake would also be a large step in Indigenous reconciliation and biodiversity restoration.
The area, now largely agricultural land, prior to its draining was once a major part of an Indigenous food system, and a habitat for marine and terrestrial plants and animals.
“That lake had supported five species of salmon, two species of sturgeon — white sturgeon, green sturgeon — hundreds of migratory bird species, all of these incredible plants, these medicines, these foods,” said Dr. Tara Martin, a professor in the department of forest and conservation sciences who co-authored the report.
“It was the bread basket for the Sumas people.”
In an interview with UBC Media Relations Chief Dalton Silver, Sumas First Nation also highlighted the importance of Semá:th Xó:tsa as a gathering place for Indigenous communities from across Coast Salish territory for harvesting fish and winter ceremonies.
Martin’s research concludes that a Sumas Lake return could be the single biggest salmon restoration project to date in the Lower Fraser, once the greatest salmon-producing river in all of Western North America according to Martin.
“We've taken a once incredibly complex system of streams and creeks and wetlands and lakes and we've obliterated it and turned it into basically one big super-highway,” said Martin.
“These little, tiny salmon come out of their natal stream, and they enter the super highway … so there's a very high mortality of juvenile salmon, because they have nowhere to meander and grow.”
But there are challenges ahead. While the report presents restoring the lake as the most viable solution, not everyone is supportive. Martin gave an update on the current status of the project, which is still being deliberated.
“Sumas First Nation is continuing to work on this issue and we’re continuing to support them. They are in discussion with local government around directions. The mayor of Abbotsford City Council has been very negative towards the idea of bringing back the lake.”
A technical memorandum commissioned by the city of Abbotsford found the potential costs shared by the report and another article published in the Fraser Valley Current were "grossly underestimated." Abbotsford Mayor Ross Siemens, in a statement to the Vancouver Sun said that restoring the lake would have negative impacts on the province’s food supply and economy, as the Sumas Prairie is home to highly productive agricultural land.
Despite the pushback, the Sumas First Nation and the other authors of the paper are determined to see Semá:th Xó:tsa restored.
“We’re at a time when doing the same old thing doesn’t work anymore. We’re at a time when we need radical solutions. We need transformative solutions … bringing back the lake is transformative,” said Martin.
“That’s the type of thing we need to be thinking about, not trying to build more dykes and keep nature away.”
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