Fish and fish habitat have specifically not been well studied. It's been ad hoc and piecemeal at best. As an example, about 10 days ago the first overflight of the Nicola-Coldwater area was undertaken to look for potential urgent or significant problems for fish and fish habitat. It was only undertaken, because an informal group assembled—that included government people, to its credit—but PSF, my organization, had to pay for the flight. No government agency was in a position to support that flight.
Similarly, in the lower Fraser—and some members of this panel are part of this—PSF has been coordinating an informal group to get some organization on who is doing what. The groups are doing parts that they can do themselves, but there is no overarching plan to fully assess the impacts on fish and fish habitat and to look for urgent action that needs to be done more strategically.
My understanding is that DFO is looking at doing a more detailed assessment following freshet, which is reasonable, but there is a miss in terms of looking at things that could be done on an urgent basis in the near-term.