As local leaders, we take actions to conserve, restore, and enhance watersheds and community values to benefit people and nature. Read more about our Watersheds Program Pillars below and some of our Legacy Projects.
A watershed describes all of the waterways that contribute to a body of water in an area. In south eastern B.C. the main watershed is the Lower Fraser. The Fraser Valley has smaller watersheds, such as Stave River and the Chilliwack/Vedder River, that are part of the Lower Fraser watershed.
Watersheds provide many important social, economic, and ecological values. They provide areas for recreation, fertile land for agriculture, and diverse habitats for many species of flora and fauna.
We take actions to conserve, restore, and enhance watersheds and their values to benefit people and nature across the Fraser Valley.
As local stewards we have a been actively restoring local waterways since 1997 and have a commitment to our projects. You can read more about some of these projects.
Valuing a balanced approach, the Watershed Program consists of 6 inter-connected programs that help us work towards healthy watersheds.
Habitat Restoration, Enhancement, & Compensation
"Improving our rivers, wetlands, forests, and biodiversity"
Habitat restoration, enhancement, and compensation includes:
• constructing new, or improving existing aquatic habitat, such as streams and wetlands, using excavators and other heavy machinery,
• planting wetlands and riparian areas with native trees and shrubs,
• increasing habitat complexity by adding features such as large wood and boulders to streams and wetlands,
• addressing barriers to fish passage by installing, replacing, or upgrading fish ladders and culverts, and
• addressing erosion and bank instability by using bioengineering techniques.
Environmental Monitoring, Mapping, & Maintenance
"Taking nature's pulse"
Environmental monitoring, mapping, and maintenance includes:
• collecting data such as fish presence, water quality, and plant survivorship to assess how successful a project site is and where improvements are needed,
• mapping to determine new project locations and watershed features,
• removing invasive species,
• pruning and fertilizing planted species,
• repairing beaver guards, and
• checking features such as large wood, boulders, and bioengineering to see if they are doing their job.
Environmental Education & Outreach
"Inspiring and educating people to care for watersheds"
Environmental education and outreach includes:
• engaging the public in volunteer events such as invasive species pulls and native vegetation planting,
• engaging school groups in educational field days to learn about local watersheds and their importance, and
• providing professional development and training seminars to members of the public and other professionals.
Watershed Planning
“Strategic planning of projects and programs to benefit society, the economy, and nature”
Watershed planning includes:
• understanding what a watershed is and their functions,
• managing water resources to reduce risks and increase benefits to society (people), the economy and nature,
• integrating landscape values and using a variety of water resource management tools to address environmental challenges from climate change and increased urbanization,
• collaboration from all levels of government, First Nations, private and not-for-profit organizations, academia, industry, agriculture, commercial sectors, communities, and individuals,
• large scale planning, local implementation,
• local scale restoration and construction projects, including making room for water and incorporating green infrastructure, and
• using an integrated approach to ensure the needs of society, the economy, and the environment are being considered.
Agriculture & Environment
"Finding mutual benefits to support agriculture and ecological values"
Our role in agriculture & environment includes:
• finding mutual benefits to support agriculture and ecological values,
• helping farmers understand the natural values on their farmland property,
• helping farmers improve farm practices to reduce environmental risk,
• mitigating effects of climate change through some types of on-farm improvements,
• farm site consultations to map out and identify property areas,
• identifying opportunities and implementing actions for farm practice and land/water management improvements (such as livestock exclusion fencing, riparian buffers, bioswale and wetland construction, pasture management support, manure management support, water management support), and
• supporting in understanding the AEM code of practice and applying it to individual farms and properties.
Climate Change & Carbon Offsets
"Local solutions to reduce our carbon footprint and the global climate challenge"
Climate change & carbon offsets includes:
• planning for local changes in climate and mitigating global climate change by incorporating climate change into project goals and objectives, and
• reducing our carbon footprint by determining the carbon output of completing projects and offsetting that carbon output by activities such as planting native vegetation, and building and enhancing wetlands.
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