Fraser River/FREMP

The Fraser River estuary, one of the largest estuaries along the west coast of North America, is a globally important ecosystem. As the estuary is located within a significant metropolitan area, it faces rising pressures due to increasing use of the Fraser River and growing urbanization.

In response to this pressure, the Fraser River Estuary Management Program (FREMP) was established in 1985. It is an intergovernmental partnership among federal, provincial and regional governments and port authorities to coordinate planning and decision-making in the estuary. FREMP and its partners work to protect and improve environmental quality, provide economic development opportunities and to sustain the quality of life in and around the Fraser River Estuary.

In 1994, FREMP adopted the Fraser River Estuary Management Plan (EMP), which provides a framework for intergovernmental cooperation on how and where current and future use of the water and shoreline will occur along with linkages to adjacent upland areas within the Fraser River estuary. The EMP integrates habitat management and recreation activities with strategies for water and sediment quality, log management, navigation and dredging, and urban and water related industrial development. The EMP applies to the wet side of the dike of the Fraser River downstream from Kanaka Creek in Maple Ridge and Pitt Lake in Pitt Meadows, to the Strait of Georgia and also includes Sturgeon Bank, Roberts Bank and Boundary Bay in Delta.

FREMP plays an important role in Delta by facilitating a coordinated project review of new developments and land uses along the foreshore. For more information, read the Coordinated Review Process report - { pdf 1.9MB }.

As part of this review, FREMP uses a habitat coding system that denotes different classes of habitat. See how this system works.

An overview of the habitat codes is as follows:

• Red Coded Shoreline (High Productivity)
  Red coded habitats include productive and diverse habitat features that support critical fish and wildlife functions on-site or as part of a more regional context. Development in red coded areas is restrictive but may occur provided that mitigation is applied through site location and/or design to avoid impacts on habitat features and functions of the area.
• Yellow Coded Shoreline (Moderate Productivity)
  Yellow coded habitats include habitat features that are of moderate value in structure or diversity due to existing conditions (e.g. surrounding land uses or productivity) and support moderate fish and wildlife functions. Development may occur in yellow coded areas provided that mitigation and/or compensation measures are incorporated into the project design.
• Green Coded Shoreline (Low Productivity)
  Green coded habitats include areas where habitat features and functions are limited due to existing conditions (e.g., developed for port or other urbanized uses). Development may occur in green coded areas provided that environmental impacts are mitigated through appropriate location, scheduling, design and operation and No Net Loss, and where possible a Net Gain, in the productive capacity of the site is achieved.
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