The Fraser River delta is the largest delta in western Canada. It is also an important coastal wetland ecosystem, as well as an area of explosive urban and industrial growth. The Fraser delta is a thick pile of sands and silts deposited at the mouth of the Fraser River over the last 10,000 years. The delta top is a near-featureless, flat plain crossed by the distributary channels of the Fraser River. Broad tidal flats extend up to 9 km west of the dyked portion of the plain to the delta slope which drops off into deep water of the Strait of Georgia. Tidal flats are also present on the southern flank of the Fraser delta in Boundary Bay.

Photo #1	Burns Bog, the largest peat bog in the Lower Mainland, began to develop about 5000 years ago on the flat, poorly drained surface of the Fraser delta. In the past, Burns Bog has been extensively mined for Sphagnum moss which is used as a soil conditioner; this photo shows one of the mined areas. In addition, peatlands on the Fraser delta are among the top three blueberry- and cranberry-producing areas in the world.
Photo #2	Tidal marsh at the front of the Fraser delta; behind the marsh is a sea dyke and the City of Richmond. Fraser delta marshes are a critical stop on an important bird migration route. Hundreds of millions of juvenile salmon also use the marshes and adjacent distributary channels. Large areas of marsh have been lost in the last 100 years due to dyking, dredging, filling, construction, and effluent discharge.
Photo #4	Silty and clayey sediments on the Fraser delta are some of the most productive agricultural soils in British Columbia. A high water table, however, causes water to collect on the surface during much of the year. Over most of the delta, the silts and clays are several metres thick, and overlie sands deposited thousands of years ago in former channels of the Fraser River.
Photo #5	Vancouver Deltaport, Canada's largest coal export facility, was built on fill placed on the tidal flats northwest of Tsawwassen. The Deltaport is one of a number of important engineered structures at the delta front (ferry terminal, river training walls, sewage outfall). The structures have changed the tidal flat environment by altering how sediment disperses at the delta front.
Photo #6	The western front of the Fraser delta; view west to the Strait of Georgia. A marsh, cut by a meandering tidal channel, is bordered seaward by unvegetated tidal flats. Offshore, muddy Fraser River water contrasts with blue water of the Strait of Georgia.