Tag Archives: Loss of Wetlands

SRD Defers Feasibility study for Caddisfly Wetlands Restoration Project

Wetlands are key resources to address climate change and help maintain surface water flow during dry periods. But they are also largely disappearing.  According to a recent study in Nature, since 1700 approximately 3.4 million square miles of wetlands have been lost in the United States, Europe and China. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources estimates that 70 % of the wetlands in southern Canada disappeared prior to 1990. In densely populated areas, that figure is close to 98%. Unfortunately wetlands are often found in the same areas where humans like to live and this problem has been amplified by the critical need for affordable housing. 

Both of the most populated Discovery Islands are attempting to assess their water budgets while they look at further development. Quadra Island is mapping its wetlands, as well as carrying out rainfall, streamflow and aquifer studies. On Cortes Island, the Community Housing Society is seeking funding to carry out a study of Cortes Island’s water resources. 

Meanwhile the opportunity to apply for a $30,000 grant for the proposed Caddisfly Creek restoration project may have been lost, or at least deferred, because of Campbell River’s concerns about the possible impact on their plans for development.  

Continue reading SRD Defers Feasibility study for Caddisfly Wetlands Restoration Project

Saving the Cowichan Estuary from drowning in a climate-fed ‘coastal squeeze’

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

High atop a dike hemming the Koksilah River as its fresh waters meet salt, red-winged blackbirds call out as they patrol their territory.

Noisy heralds of spring, the blackbirds return to the Cowichan Estuary each year to nest and protest human intrusion with sharp signature trills from the brush along the riverbank.

Today the interloper is Tom Reid, conservation land management program manager with the Nature Trust of British Columbia (NTBC), who stands atop the 15-foot-high rock embankment he is working to destroy.

The dike, built to fortify farmland stolen from the estuary, is stifling the tidal marsh vital to the survival of a host of endangered salmon and bird species that rely on it for breeding, feeding and migration, he said.

Continue reading Saving the Cowichan Estuary from drowning in a climate-fed ‘coastal squeeze’

The Dillon Creek Wetland Restoration: What did they accomplish?

There was a celebration at Linnaea Farm on Friday, March 31. While they will continue to monitor the site until at least 2026, Cortes Island’s first wetland restoration project is largely finished. The surrounding community was invited to tour the project, enjoy a potluck supper and watch Beatrix Baxter’s documentary film ‘Replenish: Bringing Back the Dillon Creek Wetland.’

“We’re just at the end of a three year grant. The Environment and Climate Change Canada ‘Eco Action Community Funding Program‘ ends today. We have a little bit of funding for this next year of monitoring and maintenance and we’ll be pursuing additional funding for future years of monitoring and maintenance,” explained Project Manager Miranda Cross.

Continue reading The Dillon Creek Wetland Restoration: What did they accomplish?

Confusion around the proposed Anvil Lake logging road

Cortes Currents published a factually incorrect story about the proposed Anvil Lake logging road on Tuesday, August 30, 2022.

Few people knew this, because I pulled the story before it was broadcast on Cortes Radio.

Nick Reed, a local resident, told me, “The concern is mainly the wetlands that this road has to go through, and what effect that will have on Gunflint (and Anvil) Lakes. It is the last wetland on the southern part of Cortes.”

Mark Lombard, general manager of the Cortes Forestry General Partnership (CFGP),  responded, “The CFGP never builds roads through wetlands.”

Continue reading Confusion around the proposed Anvil Lake logging road

Reflections on the extraordinary power of slow water

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The advance of the climate crisis, marked by its extremes — droughts or deluges, fires or floods — makes abundantly clear the human habit of trying to contain and control water isn’t working. 

For her new book, Water Always Wins, National Geographic Explorer Erica Gies criss-crossed the globe, witnessing some of the unanticipated results of modern society’s preference for engineered solutions. 

Continue reading Reflections on the extraordinary power of slow water