Introduction to Richmond
Click here for a history of Richmond by Thomas Kidd
The municipality of Richmond, British Columbia (map), is an island municipality comprised of 22 islands* located in the estuary of the Fraser River, one of the largest river systems in North America. While the majority of the municipality sits on Lulu Island, other islands include: Barber, Don, Duck, Gilmore (Whitworth), Gunn, Iona, Kirkland, Lion, Lulu, Mitchell (Twigg, Eburne), Richmond, Rose, Sea, Shady, Swishwash, Williamson, and Woodward. Lulu Island is the largest and most developed of the islands, while many of the smaller islands, such as Swishwash, are primarily natural areas. One island, Sea Island, supports the Vancouver International Airport.
Richmond is a place of dualities. While the northwest quarter of Lulu Island** has become urbanized in the last 20 years, the majority of Lulu Island remains rural, with active farming of crops and dairy cattle.
Winter in rural Richmond, photo by Brian Klinkenberg
Prior to settlement, Richmond was a place of marshes, blueberries and fishers. In 2001, Richmond is still a place of blueberries and fishers and farmers, but the vast bogs that once covered more than one-third of the island have mostly given way to agriculture or urban development. The fires of Lulu Island that once were prevalent, written about by E. Pauline Johnson, are no more. The fogs have declined and the fishers cling precariously to their way of life, battered by the changes in the river and the ocean, and the decline of the very fish that are the heart of their community. The farmlands are disappearing in places as urban sprawl overtakes western Lulu Island. An elaborate dyking system now protects Richmond from the rushing waters of the Fraser during flood tides and lend us an )artificial) sense of security, allowing us to forget our history and our place. By stemming the tidal surges and the floodwaters, and by draining the bogs and marshlands on Lulu Island, we have altered, perhaps forever, the ecology of this place. But most of the other islands remain wild. Waterfowl still fill the sky, and their demanding bugles still make us pause and look up. But they can only be a fraction of what was here before European settlement. Richmond, or at least Lulu Island, is now a tamed land.
Or is it?
Sturgeon Banks is an extensive marshland that is located on the western perimeter of Lulu Island..
Notes:
* Ross (1989) lists 25 historical islands of Richmond. Today, with infilling and other changes, the municipality recognized 17 islands (Brownlee, personal communication, 2006.
** Note that while much of Lulu Island falls within the municipality of Richmond, the eastern portion of the Island is part of the municipality of New Westminster.