Funded Projects

The Lower Similkameen Indian Band (LSIB) is leading a three-year, Indigenous-led low-tech process-based restoration (LTPBR) project with the BC Wildlife Federation, which will restore natural processes in wildfire-impacted areas using simple, hand-built structures that mimic beaver activity to re-establish natural hydrologic and ecological function within the headwaters and key tributaries of the Similkameen River. This project will build LSIB’s capacity to design, implement, and monitor restoration efforts that strengthen watershed security and uphold the Nation’s inherent responsibility to care for syilx- sməlqmix lands and water’s right to flow and distribute across the landscape.

The first year will focus on site scoping, planning, and design, including identifying priority areas through meetings with knowledge keepers and Traditional Ecological Knowledge Assessments. The second year will move into implementation and monitoring, constructing beaver-dam analogues and post-assisted log structures to slow and cool water, raise water tables, reconnect floodplains, rehydrate wetlands, and improve water quality and habitat complexity.

Key project objectives include identifying at least two priority restoration reaches within each watershed, conducting baseline monitoring pre-restoration, implementing the LTPBR to restore habitat and encourage natural beaver recolonization, conducting post-restoration monitoring, and building lasting partnerships and technical capacity for continued Indigenous-led LTPBR planning, implementation, and monitoring. Indigenous-led projects strengthen local relationships, promote environmental monitoring capacity, and build data sovereignty for syilx-sməlqmix community for strategic restoration activities.