Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation partnership on restoration project in the upper Kennedy watershed
VANCOUVER ISLAND – Redd Fish Restoration Society and Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation have partnered on a restoration project to increase salmon spawning habitat in the ʔaʔukmin (upper Kennedy) side-channel on Vancouver Island.
Modeled after a popular restoration design in the 1990s, this groundwater-fed side-channel system was largely unsuccessful because it worked separately from the adjacent river system.
Following a flood event that filled the side-channel less than five years after it was constructed in 1997, the original contractors abandoned the project.
“It’s often pointed to as an example that restoration doesn’t work,” said Daphnee Tuzlak, Redd Fish Restoration Society fluvial geomorphologist. “But restoration projects need a lot of care and attention over time.”
Due to the side-channel’s potential to provide important spawning and rearing habitat for salmon, Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation Natural Resources Manager Saya Masso said the nation felt it was the “highest priority” for restoration.
“Salmon are really adaptive and resilient,” Masso said. “But we do have to help them – they do need our help.”
The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure is funding the restoration project. Since 2018, the Highway 4 – Kennedy Hill Safety Improvement Project has been underway to straighten and widen a narrow section of the highway that runs along Kennedy Lake. It entails blasting rock from a cliffside adjacent to Kennedy Lake, which is in close proximity to sockeye salmon beach spawning habitat.
The improvement project will create a safer and more reliable connection between Port Alberni and the west coast of Vancouver Island.
While construction of the project has not damaged the spawning habitat, rockslides from the project have disturbed valuable fish habitat along the lakeshore.
The ʔaʔukmin side-channel restoration project is currently in the planning stage to characterize and better understand what’s happening at the site.
After conducting extensive site surveys throughout the summer, engineers will be brought on to plan the construction and restoration of the side-channel. One of the biggest challenges will be to recreate the structure of the old-growth forest that was logged in the early 1960s.
“We’re trying to re-establish the fluvial processes that were destroyed by logging,” said Tuzlak. “We’re going to have to find a balance between creating some of that really important salmon habitat, with the longer-term work in the floodplain.”
This long-term approach is different from what was used in the past because the effects might not be seen for another 20 years.
When Masso looks ahead to that time, he said he feels proud that he hasn’t left a mess for his grandchildren.
“I feel proud that we haven't abandoned these rivers,” he said. “That we strive for a system of abundance for our grandchildren.”
About Redd Fish Restoration Society:
Redd Fish Restoration Society is a non-profit organization focused on ecosystem restoration, research, monitoring and education. For more than 25 years, Redd Fish has worked with five Nuu-chah-nulth nations on ecological restoration in their hahuułi (traditional territories) on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
Since the organization began in 1995, Redd Fish has completed over 87 kilometres of stream habitat restoration, deactivated 249 kilometres of high-risk logging roads, planted 101,771 trees and has raised and invested over $28 million in habitat restoration on Vancouver Island.
To set up interviews with any of our spokespeople, please contact:
Sarita Mielke | (250) 713-6755 | sarita@reddfish.org