Column: B.C. watershed security will require a billion-dollar investment

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By helping nature heal itself, we can mitigate wildfires, droughts and floods.

Watershed security funding is trickling out. We will need a torrent to futureproof our rivers, lakes and forests.

Building beaver dam analogues is one such innovative strategy for holding water on the landscape to regulate streamflow, creating wildlife and fish habitat, and keeping soils and forests well hydrated. First, the $100-million Watershed Security Fund announced last year is operated as an endowment to ensure long-term sustainable funding. But that also means as the endowment grows slowly grants are trickled out at just a few million dollars a year in amounts that are shared between many applicants.

Another 2020 study from the Department of Environmental Science and Resource Management at California State University found that beaver dams slow and store water, protecting fish habitat. They found that beaver-dammed riparian areas were relatively unaffected by wildfires compared to adjacent areas and created safe refuge for wildlife escaping wildfires.

 

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