Funded Projects

Gitksan Watershed Authorities is leading this project to support environmental stewardship and build capacity within the Gitksan Lax’Yip surrounding the Kispiox, Skeena and Nass Watersheds. The project encourages knowledge transfer from elders to younger generations through hands-on watershed-focused programs that merge Gitksan traditional knowledge with Western science. These programs will empower Gitxsan youth to participate in community watershed planning and create a foundation for long-term watershed monitoring in the Gitksan Lax’Yip.

Youth will participate and learn to lead three main areas of work, which include assisting in operating a water temperature monitoring network; co-designing monitoring plans, collecting water samples and tracking seasonal changes for the proposed Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Pipeline; and leading low-tech, process-based restoration methods on key streams to reinvigorate cultural practices for fish passage that build ecosystem resilience. Youth will also contribute to the Interactive Lax’Yip story mapping platform to intertwine learnings with technical data, communications, and events that will help resurface knowledge from ancestral Gitksan sites on their relationships to salmon.