Threats

Healthy watersheds provide clean drinking water, sustain farms and businesses, support salmon and biodiversity, and anchor Indigenous cultures. They also defend communities from an intensifying cycle of floods, droughts, and wildfires. Healthy watersheds have mature and diverse forests that absorb winter rain and snowmelt, replenish groundwater, and release water during dry summers. Wetlands reduce flooding and filter pollution, beaver dams hold water and slow wildfires, and natural streambanks keep rivers cool for salmon

Decades of poorly planned development have degraded many of BC’s watersheds, leaving them unable to do their job. Compounded by the growing climate crisis, B.C. communities now face increasing risks to their safety, economies, salmon, and drinking water.