Walk with us down a small path lined by tall grass on the 258.4-hectare Addington Point Marsh property. To one side, blueberry fields extend into the distance, with the city of Vancouver visible beyond.  To the other side, a embankment with the water rising and falling like the tides throughout the day. Beyond, the marsh stretches out to the mountains.

In a bird box, a wood duck pokes out its head and surveys the scene before gliding to the water below. Little ducklings leap out to follow. On the path ahead, a black bear and two cubs cross before disappearing into the grass.

Continue down the path to a viewing platform and look out over the marsh. Watch a bald eagle fly far overhead and many other bird flitting over the water. In the neighbouring Wildlife Management Area, you spot a sandhill crane nest, one of only two nesting sites in the Lower Fraser Valley.

Think about the over 200 bird species and 30 mammal species thriving because this quiet space was protected from development in the busy Lower Mainland.

This magnificent property on the edge of Coquitlam was acquired in 1977. Adjacent to Minnekhada Regional Park, and managed as part of the Pitt-Addington Marsh Wildlife Management Area, this large conservation area in the heart of the Pitt River Valley provides important wintering, migration and breeding habitat for waterfowl, shorebirds, raptors, passerine and upland species of birds.” – Carl MacNaughton

Facts:

  • Addington Point Marsh was acquired in 1977 to protect 258.4 hectares of land in the heavily urbanized Metro Vancouver and is now part of the Pitt-Addington Marsh Provincial Wildlife Management Area.
  • The property consists primarily of a diked freshwater marsh, which is surrounded by steeply sloping wooded hills rising to the northwest and by flat agricultural lands to the southwest, with the Pitt River to the north and east.
  • Rare and at-risk plants and animals found in the marsh include pointed broom sedge, two-edged water-starwort, sessile-leaved sandbar willow, great blue heron, trumpeter swan, osprey, sandhill crane and bald eagle.