News

Today the province of B.C. announced in Budget 2023 $100 million to kick start a Watershed Security Fund. This fund will support “wild salmon health, clean drinking water, biodiversity, flood resilience, economic opportunities, and reconciliation with First Nations.”

Stoney Creek Environment Committee needs your help to defend Stoney Creek – home to one of the last urban salmon runs in the Lower Mainland. In July 2021, a construction waste dump killed over 300 fish. Unfortunately, the threats continue today with spewing sewage and pollutants continuously threatening this precious waterway.

Watershed security is necessary to protect our drinking water sources, support sustainable local economies and food supplies, protect key habitat for fish and wildlife, maintain our natural defences against fires and floods, and support First Nations culture. Given how healthy and secure watersheds are essential for maintaining our day-to-day lives, a Watershed Security Strategy and Fund seem like things that should have been developed ages ago. But we’re just getting started now and we really can’t afford to wait any longer. 

Watersheds are the source of BC’s most precious resource – our freshwater. Our watersheds provide us with freshwater for drinking, agriculture, recreation, sanitation and also support many local economies in BC.

To bring a spotlight on the importance of BC’s watersheds, in 2021, Canadian Freshwater Alliance, in collaboration with Watershed Watch Salmon Society and CodeBlue BC launched the first season of The Freshwater Stream — a podcast about BC’s watersheds and the people who care about them. 

We launched CodeBlue BC launched back in January of 2020 and our efforts to secure and restore BC’s watersheds have taken big strides ever since — despite unforeseen hurdles, like global pandemics. We accomplished some pretty great things this year, but at the same time, the stakes have never been higher. Check out some highlights from 2021.

Gene Allen is a fifth-generation logger, born and raised in the Skeena Valley. From a lifetime of working in the cutblocks, Gene knows what current logging practices are doing to our watershed.

In the Cowichan Valley, a watershed-wide community with members across all occupational sectors and of all ages is taking a stand for water security in the Warmland.

The water from local Peachland resident Taryn Skalbania’s tap used to trickle out brown. That is, if any water came out of the tap at all.

"We got to get together. We can’t do this on our own. And if we don't do anything within the next five to 10 years, we are in trouble. Big trouble."

"We are all connected through this water and we're all connected through the potential for catastrophe."