Interventions, both big and small, are neededEnvironmental restoration work in both watersheds could help slow the water down, reducing flooding and erosion, Ayers says. It could also give the water more opportunities to interact with the landscape as it moves through the whole watershed. Field work that took place as part of the Twinned Watersheds Project helped identify immediate restoration opportunities — particularly along streams and tributaries — to help increase water levels in and improve fish habitats.
Ayers says these restoration opportunities are low tech, such as building beaver-dam-like structures.
“We need to look for areas where we have the ability to slow the water down, store more water and make the river — or whatever little creek we’re working on — move a little bit more and interact with its floodplain more,” Ayers says.
During critical periods of drought, reducing water use helps as well, Ayers says. She notes that irrigation restrictions for farmers along the Xwulqw’selu River, ordered during summer droughts in 2019 and 2021, helped the river “bounce back fairly significantly.”
Making deliberate choices to not build or develop in the floodplain — in order to give the rivers room to move and meander as they once did — can also help improve watershed health, Ayers says. Roads, railroad tracks and urban development tend to force the rivers into one straight channel, and pulling back on that development can give the rivers more space to interact with the land. This can slow water flow and improve water storage in the riparian areas.
Pritchard says any planting and restoration work that private landowners can do in riparian areas helps, too. Making a conscious effort to not cut down trees and to leave deadfall in riparian areas benefits the health of the watersheds, she says.
The watersheds are in dire need of support, Pritchard says, and big changes need to take place — from the areas along the rivers to the upper reaches of the watersheds. That means restoring riparian areas, and it also means allowing forests to grow older and reclaiming some of the logging roads that snake through the watersheds. Getting there will take an overhaul of ecosystem management and land use practices, Pritchard says.
The Twinned Watershed Project is gathering the information needed to point the way forward, but it will take further action from governments and decision-makers to fund the restoration work and make the needed regulatory changes.
On that front, there’s hope, too. Cowichan Tribes and the Province of British Columbia recently agreed to collaborate on a Xwulqw’selu (Koksilah) Water Sustainability Plan, a first-of-its kind initiative to re-write the rules for land and water management in the Xwulqw’selu watershed. The plan aims to take a holistic approach to watershed health and could set a historic precedent for watersheds across the province.
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https://thediscourse.ca/cowichan-valley/twinned-watersheds-project?mc_cid=d9712c33b4&mc_eid=30488675cb