On an ebb tide the level of the Fraser River starts to drop. Soon too, the level of Pitt Lake begins to draw down. All the way at the head of the lake, the water recedes in Red Slough, one of the most beautiful and rich estuaries in the Lower Mainland.

In the thick, mixed forest that grows around the slough, sheltering it in a bower of green, you can hear birds singing. From the waist high marsh grass a black bear emerges, his coat thick and glossy. He browses casually along the shoreline.

A narrow channel at the entrance to the slough starts to run like a river as the tide falls. Soon it is shallow enough that you can see the cutthroat trout, gliding through the weeds that wave in the current. A streamer splashes clumsily down by them and they dart for deeper water. In the spring, when the fry emerge, they’d have gone for it in a shot.

There are swirls along the lake shoreline. More cutthroat, feeding on salmon smolts that have emerged from the Upper Pitt River and are wintering in the lake.

Searching by canoe, we find channels that wind ever deeper into the slough. Drifting silently we watch as a beaver dives and swims underneath us. There's a swirl near the overhanging branches of an alder. A quick cast brings a strike and a trout comes to net. It's so quiet the sound of the splashing echoes back from the forest. It's hard to believe that the hurried world of Vancouver is just an hour away, by car and boat.

A forest of old growth cottonwood, fir and cedar stands around Red Slough and there is a pocket of big trees on the steep slopes above. Red Slough is more beautiful and more ecologically diverse than Stanley Park.

It’s wild and timeless.

It is a staging area for migratory birds.

It is home to black bear, cougar and deer.

Its waters are a nursery for young salmon - and a hunting ground for schools of hungry cutthroat trout.

In the fall big, silver coho move through the slough. And you can catch them from a small boat, or by wading the inlet, when the tide drops.

Red Slough is one of nature's miracles.

It is a remnant of a lost world, a remarkable treasure that is worthy of protection.

The government should protect this area from any development. A nearby log sorting dump, on a point of land between the slough and Pitt River, should be closed to industrial use as soon as the logging operation has phased out. The fuel tanks should be removed, the land replanted so people could camp there - if the land isn't too polluted from decades of oil spillage. If it is, it should be replanted, and left to restore itself.

With a little vision, a small but incredible park could be created at the head of Pitt Lake, on Vancouver's back step. It would be a good way to start encouraging more people to visit this remarkable area, where there is great fishing, bird watching, animal viewing and canoeing.

(NOTE: Access to Red Slough is by float plane or small boat. Or you can book a trip and lodging through Danny Gerak and the Pitt River Lodge. Most of his guests are there to fish the river - but if they fail to explore the slough, they are missing one of the best nature retreats in British Columbia.)