It took over 22 years, but it is really worth it to see the degraded land and watersheds begin to recover. There's still a lot of work ahead, but this project shows that we can return these dammed and sick river systems back to a healthier state: https://youtu.be/NTTmrdheoYc?feature=shared
Similar success with dam removals has been had on the Elwha River in Washington State.
#KlamathBasin #DamRemoval #TreatyRights #ProtectWatersheds #Salmon #Oregon #California
#Backroads on #DididahtTerritory.
This is part of the #SanJuanRiver & forests in the valley. The #watershed area is under ongoing #ecological threats by industrial #clearcut #logging. This is near #CarmannahWalbran #BritishColumbia provincial park.
The forests here are longtime foraging, mating & birthing grounds for the #CowichanValley Roosevelt elk herd. The San Juan is an important salmon bearing river. The old growth forests here are home to several #SpeciesAtRisk & #EndangeredSpecies.
There is ongoing eco activism work to try & protect more of the forests & #waterways in this #wilderness valley on Southern #VancouverIsland.
#SilentSunday #monochrome #Nature #WildFirst #landscape #photography #WorldInMyEyes #VanIsle #UncededNativeLand #Cascadia #environmental #StopDeforestation #StopEcocide #BCForestryReform #forests #ProtectTheWild #WildFirst #Conservation #PacificNorthwest #PNW #SaveOurForests #TreesOverGreed #BanCorporateLobbyists #WaterIsLife #ProtectWatersheds #NatureFirst #Degrowth #ClimateChange #CarbonSinks
Primitive colonial resistance. Powered by deep & pure love for Mother Nature & Creator.
#SilentSunday #StopDeforestation #ProtectWatersheds #ProtectTheWild #Conservation #Activism #StopEcocide #VancouverIsland #VanIsle #PacificNorthwest #DelayForDeferral #DirectAction #Roadblock #Cascadia #SaveOldGrowth #WorthMoreStanding #SaveAncientForests #PNW #DefendOldGrowth #BCpoli #BCNDP #BCForestryReform #BanCorporateLobbyists #ImplementBCOldGrowthReviewRecommendations #TreesOverGreed #Resistance
#CowichanRiver - there's salmon swimming in it but you can't really see them in vid.
Backroads access.
This is a major part of the #TwinnedWatershedsProject - joining #Koksilah to #Cowichan & #Chemainus #watersheds.
Learn more about the Twinned Watersheds Project:
https://cowichanwatershedboard.ca/twinned-watershed
#BCRivers #RiversOfVancouverIsland #BCWatersheds #WaterIsLife #PacificNorthwest #BritishColumbia #Cascadia #PNW #ProtectWatersheds #Nature #Rivers #VancouverIsland #VanIsle #Streamkeepers
Mini cascading #waterfalls along #FellowsCreek - one of several tributaries that feed into the #KoksilahRiver. It's part of the Xwulqw’selu #Koksilah #Watershed on Southern #VancouverIsland.
Backroads access view. In Summer, it dries up in multiple areas.
Fellows Creek is part of the #TwinnedWatershedsProject, which is co-led by #CowichanWatershed Board, #CowichanTribes & #Halalt #FirstNation. It launched in 2021 to document the state of the watersheds & identify possibilities for improving their #ecological health. #Salmon are specifically being studied as part of this 5 year project because they are a #KeystoneSpecies that helps signal the health of a watershed.
The Xwulqw’selu & Chemainus watersheds are both located in the highly privatized, highly degraded landscape of southeast Vancouver Island & face similar issues. The #rivers and their #tributaries have been deeply impacted by land use & #ClimateChange. Unlike the neighbouring Quw’utsun (Cowichan) watershed, the Xwulqw’selu & Chemainus rivers have no lake to store water, which leaves them more vulnerable to drought & dangerously low flows.
Learn more about the Twinned Watersheds Project:
https://cowichanwatershedboard.ca/twinned-watershed
#BCWatersheds #WaterIsLife #PacificNorthwest #BritishColumbia #Cascadia #PNW #ecosystems #ProtectWatersheds #Nature #Streamkeepers #WaterMonitoring #WaterHealth #Environmental #WaterfallWednesday #Ecology #hydrology
Salmon and other species in the Cowichan watershed are increasingly stressed by low summer river flows due to climate change. Join Cowichan Watershed Board's O-fish-al mascot, visiting scientists and others to learn what they are doing to help.
#PatrolasCreek is a stream on #VancouverIsland near #ShawniganLake. Patrolas Creek is near the #Cowichan station & Theik Indian Reserve 2. This creek is part of the Cowichan #Koksilah #Watershed on South #VanIsle. This is the creek from backroads access.
#BCWatersheds #WaterIsLife #PacificNorthwest #BritishColumbia #Cascadia #PNW #ProtectWatersheds #Nature #Autumn #Streamkeepers #Conservation
The #KoksilahRiver, Xwulqw'selu Sta'lo', #Watershed is located south of Duncan on #VancouverIsland and lies within the traditional territories of #Cowichan Tribes, #Malahat Nation and other #FirstNations.
The #Koksilah River originates on the slopes of Waterloo Mountain, southwest of #ShawniganLake. It flows eastward for approximately 44 km before discharging into the Cowichan/Koksilah estuary. The watershed area is approximately 302 square kilometres. The main tributaries of the Koksilah River are Fellows Creek in the west, and Kelvin, Patrolas, Howie and Glenora creeks, which enter the Koksilah about 4-6 km upstream of the estuary in Cowichan Bay, which it shares with the Cowichan River.
The Cowichan and Koksilah #Rivers were historically connected through side-channels where Duncan is currently situated. #Shhwuykwselu (which translates loosely to “Busy Place”) was a historical connection and intersection between the two rivers where people gathered before continuing up the Cowichan or Koksilah rivers. Today the place name Sh-hwuykwselu is still carried by a small lower tributary of the Koksilah River, and the name #Xwulqwselu is the name of a Cowichan village nearby.
#BCRivers #RiversOfVancouverIsland #BCWatersheds #WaterIsLife #PacificNorthwest #BritishColumbia #Cascadia #PNW #ProtectWatersheds #Nature
#Vancouver folks! Please let your family & friends know about Salmon Day in October! Volunteers are still needed too!
#WatershedWatch is co-hosting the second annual #SalmonDay on Saturday, October 5 along with #ResilientWaters, #Kwikwetlem #FirstNation, and #UBC's Zachary Sherker from the #PacificSalmonLab. The event will be held next to the community garden at ƛ̓éxətəm #ColonyFarm Regional Park.
We need #volunteers to help with setup and tear down, manning info booths, supporting exhibitors, and supporting attendees. No prior experience is necessary, we will get you up to speed at the event!
The event runs from 11 am - 3 pm. Snacks and drinks will be provided for volunteers.
#Carpooling from Coquitlam Central Station can be arranged. Pickup from the skytrain will be at 9 am. Email [email protected] to coordinate.
Questions? Email [email protected]
Note: Volunteer RSVP window closes on Thursday, October 3 but if there is still space and you want to attend, please send Meghan an email!
#YVR #Environmental #ecological #nature #WildSalmonAlliance #WildFirst #BCWatersheds #SaveWildSalmon #ProtectHabitats #ProtectNature #SaveEcosystems #Conservation #WaterIsLife #WaterProtectors #NatureGuardians #NatureStewardship #ProtectRivers #ProtectWatersheds #KeystoneSpecies #ClimateChange #BritishColumbia #WildSalmon #BCSalmon #PacificNorthwest #Cascadia #VancouverBC #VolunteerVancouver #VolunteersWanted
Where do we go from here?
Unlike the Cowichan River, the #Koksilah is an uncontrolled #river with no storage and as such, there are limited options available to manage flows. The only options available to us are to change our current practices around #LandUse and #WaterUse. Most importantly, the #KoksilahRiver is challenging all of us to work together to collaboratively identify and implement solutions that will impact us all. New collaborations and partnerships are emerging.
An informal “Koksilah #DroughtManagement team” has been formed to discuss how to collaboratively make short term in-season decisions and work with water users to navigate periods of low flow. This ad-hoc group is comprised of representatives from #FLNRORD, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Cowichan Station’s Koksilah Working Group, BC Dairy Association, BC Agriculture Council, Cowichan Watershed Board, Farmland Advantage, Water Survey of Canada, Cowichan Estuary Nature Centre and private forestry representatives.
In the longer term, an innovative government to government partnership has been struck between Cowichan Tribes and the FNLRORD to explore and scope the feasibility of initiating a joint #WaterSustainability Planning process, an innovative new tool under #BCWaterSustainabilityAct (2016).
For more information about the potential of Water Sustainability Plans, see Curran, D. and O.M. Brandes. 2019 Water Sustainability Plans: Potential, Options and Essential Content (2019) by Deborah Curran and Oliver M. Brandes, University of Victoria Environmental Law Centre and the POLIS Project on Ecological Governance.
https://poliswaterproject.org/polis-research-publication/water-sustainability-plans/
"As one element in the modernized provincial water regime, Water Sustainability Plans are a promising tool that can enable and enhance adaptive water management and new governance relationships that express core elements of government-to-government relationships for water and watersheds, as well as address the challenges of environmental flows, sustainable groundwater management, drought planning and protecting and enhancing watershed health."
Deborah Curran & Oliver M. Brandes
Water Sustainability Plans: Potential, Options and Essential Content (2019)
#BackroadAdventures #VancouverIsland #water #river #Shawnigan #DayAdventure #DayTrip #PacificNorthwest #ProtectWatersheds #nature #VanIsle #Cascadia #PNW #NaturesPower #WaterIsLife #ProtectWatersheds #ProtectNature #Hydro #RiversOfBC #RiversOfVancouverIsland #Indigenous #FirstNations #Historical #Cowichan #WaterFlow #RiverFlows #HydrologyManagement
What is clear is that the #KoksilahWatershed is experiencing erratic flow levels throughout the year which is #endangering the health of the entire #ecosystem. , It is also clear that impacts on the #watershed have been accentuated by #ClimateChange. With low elevation, the watershed is losing snow earlier and has more rain in the winter leading to more floods. The current trajectory of the #KoksilahRiver is dire and will impact everyone in the entire watershed.
" #GroundwaterExtraction has the most impact during low flow times of the year, when salmon depend on cooling groundwater inflows for their survival. If wells are drawing from shallow aquifers closely connected to the river, groundwater extraction will immediately reduce in-stream flows. In 2017, 2018 and 2019, in-stream flows in the Koksilah were forecast to become dangerously low, and provincial managers requested voluntary reductions in water use. In each of these years, an order to cease water diversion was under preparation in case voluntary efforts were not enough. In August 2019, a Fish Population Protection Order was issued under the Water Sustainability Act"
Gower, T. & arroso, A.
Tapped Out: A Special Report on Water Scarcity and Water Solutions in British Columbia (2019)
#BackroadAdventures #VancouverIsland #water #river #Shawnigan #DayAdventure #DayTrip #PacificNorthwest #ProtectWatersheds #nature #VanIsle #Cascadia #PNW #NaturesPower #WaterIsLife #ProtectWatersheds #ProtectNature #Hydro #RiversOfBC #RiversOfVancouverIsland #Indigenous #FirstNations #Historical #Cowichan #BritishColumbia
Cadmus 🌲
Ms. Que Banh