Water

Home -> Programs -> Coquitlam River

Red Fish Up the River: Restoring Coquitlam River Sockeye (and other salmon)

Salmon need healthy rivers to thrive and survive. Rivers cannot be healthy without intact habitat, free passage, and adequate flows of clean water. A five-year cooperative effort with BC Hydro Corporation has produced a promise of more water and millions of dollars for wild salmon. Watershed Watch continues to help direct a $2 million BC Hydro initiative aimed at restoring extinct sockeye salmon to the Coquitlam River and continues to work with First Nations on water flow and other environmental issues. Incidentally, Coquitlam literally means "Red Fish Up the River", and upriver migrating sockeye have long been known as red fish, or red salmon--in recognition of their prespawning colour.

See Watershed Watch's report Preliminary Review of Fisheries Conservation Gains within BC Hydro's Water Use Planning Process for more information on the WUP and what it means for salmon conservation.

Groundwater

Groundwater is an important and often essential part of wild salmon habitat. Yet, groundwater use is almost entirely unregulated in British Columbia, groundwater management rarely considers wild salmon, and British Columbia's water policy focuses mainly on surface water. The Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation provided support for the following Watershed Watch reports:

• Review of groundwater-salmon interactions in British Columbia Tanis Douglas 2006, for Watershed Watch
• Review of British Columbia's Groundwater Regulatory Regime: Current Practices and Options Randy Christensen, Sierra Legal Defence Fund, February 2007, for Watershed Watch
• Groundwater and Salmon: Proceedings of the Speaking for the Salmon Panel Discussion on Groundwater and Groundwater Legislation in BC, March 6, 2007, SFU Halpern Centre, Burnaby, BC Stan Proboszcz and Craig Orr (eds.) 2007
• Nicola Water Use Management Plan: Case Study Tanis Douglas February 2007, for Watershed Watch
• Township of Langley Groundwater Management: Case Study Tanis Douglas February 2007, for Watershed Watch

Home -> Programs -> Coquitlam River