Funded Projects

Líl̓wat Nation is leading this project. The goal of the Birkenhead River Habitat Restoration project is to restore, improve, and increase habitat for salmon and other riverine species, and reduce ongoing threats to these habitats by:

1. Improving the availability of adult habitat to spawning areas.

2. Creating spawning and rearing habitats that are protected from high flows to result in increased incubation and rearing success.

3. Improving the success of Chinook moving through the Birkenhead River to adult holding, spawning and rearing areas.

4. Supporting instream resilience to extreme events such as drought and repeated highwater events.

The Birkenhead Chinook Salmon are particularly important as they are considered genetically unique within all the Fraser River stocks and have important life cycle considerations in the context of a changing climate. We are very concerned about the steep decline of Birkenhead Chinook Salmon stocks in the Birkenhead River from a food security and traditional spiritual and ceremonial practices standpoint.

The objectives for this project are to complete three high priority Chinook salmon restoration activities for the Birkenhead River:

a) placement of a gravel pad at the outlet of Birkenhead Lake;

b) targeted blasting of an impassable bedrock barrier that has caused a large wood jam upstream; and

c) construction of riffle ramps into Pasture Creek, using gravel and cobble, to facilitate the movement of juvenile Chinook.