Watershed Stewardship Network

Beaufort Watershed Stewards are very excited to host a community event to share the cumulative results of our citizen science programs that help us understand the structure and current status of our local aquifers. We will present results from the Fanny Bay Aquifer (419) Study from September 2025 and our findings from three summers of data collection on our Aquifer Mapping Program. We will also discuss aquifer function during rainy seasons and during summer droughts. We will conclude with information on what we are planning our next aquifer study and a panel question period. More detailed summaries follow.

Aquifers Explained

Mike Wei, is a retired Physical Hydrologist with 40 years’ work on groundwater management in BC. Mike has also served as the provincial technical expert for groundwater legislation including the recent BC Water Sustainability Act. Mike will use a physical model to demonstrate aquifer function and explain what variables affect water levels and accessibility within aquifers.

Aquifers Mapping Results

Mark Lake, is a retired Geophysicist, who is responsible for Beaufort Watershed Stewards’ Aquifer Mapping Program. In collaboration with Mike Wei, Lucinda Leonard, (University of Victoria School of Earth and Ocean Sciences) and several University of Victoria Honours students, Mark has used resistivity testing and historical well data to estimate the physical parameters of aquifers on the eastern slopes of the Beaufort Range. Mark will present a summary of the group’ findings to date.

Break & Displays

Display tables will be set up around the hall with BWS members to answer your questions.

• Watersheds: Structure Functions and Threats
• Aquifer 419 Project
• Aquifer Mapping on the eastern slopes of the Beaufort Range
• Cumulative Effects Assessments of Six Watersheds
• BWS Citizen Science Programs Summary
• BWS Membership & Merchandise

Refreshments will be available.

Aquifer 419 Results

Kate MacMillan, is a current Honours student University of Victoria, School of Earth & Ocean Sciences. She is supervised by Mike Wei and collected data from 40 wells in Aquifer 419 (Fanny Bay) in October 2025. She will be presenting the results of that project.

What’s Next

Mike Mesford, is the Beaufort Watershed Stewards President, and is responsible for Ground Water Monitoring, Flow Monitoring, Data Management and “other duties as required”. He will discuss the cumulative implications of the presentations, and what the next steps are for Beaufort Watershed Stewards. This includes expanding well monitoring in Bowser’s Aquifer 416.

Question Panel

All speakers will be available to answer questions in a moderated panel session.

Curious about our local streams and who the Qualicum Beach Streamkeepers are?

Join The Qualicum Beach Streamkeepers at the MABR Education Centre to meet the Qualicum Beach Streamkeepers board and members! Enjoy coffee and snacks while exploring demonstration materials, maps, and planning discussions. Learn about upcoming projects and discover how you can get involved to help steward our local streams.

Friday March 6, 2026

1:00 -3:00 pm

124 West 2nd Ave Qualicum Beach

The Cat Stream Streamkeepers are looking for Smolt Trap Volunteers.

Do you want to learn more about our local salmon populations while helping to collect valuable data on the state of those populations? Join our Cat Stream Salmon Smolt monitoring project!

We are looking for 28 volunteers who are willing to give 1hour of their time either once a week or every 2 weeks in the mornings to check our smolt trap and record data on smolt numbers.

Training provided, although experience is an asset.

This project will launch in mid-March (exact date TBD) and will continue to late May or early June, depending on our season. We need to check the smolt trap EVERY day during this period, so if you available on weekends or weekdays and are interested, please connect with us!

Contact Stewardship Manager for more information.

The Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region Research Institute (MABRRI), in partnership with the RDN’s Drinking Water and Watershed Protection Program, has recently completed its 8^th year of wetland mapping & monitoring in the RDN. Since 2016, this project has focused on mapping, classifying, and monitoring wetlands across the region to better understand their hydrology, connection to groundwater recharge and ecosystem health.

In 2024, community volunteers continued to play a key role in this work. Over 30 volunteers have been trained since the project began, contributing to seasonal data collection at five long-term monitoring sites. Fieldwork combined photo-point monitoring with vegetation and water quality surveys, along with the collection and review of data from groundwater instrumentation installed at three of the sites.

This year’s findings underscore the complexity of surface and groundwater interactions, the seasonal variability of water levels, and the importance of ongoing long-term monitoring to better understand how wetlands function within the broader watershed. Recognizing the need for a more in-depth analysis of data collected over the past six years, MABRRI and the RDN have brought in a consultant to support data review and provide recommendations to strengthen future monitoring efforts.

Looking ahead, our team will work to continue seasonal monitoring, refine instrumentation methods, and share insights from the comprehensive data analysis.

If you're interested in learning more about this project, or would like to get involved, please contact Jacob Frankel at jacob.frankel@viu.ca.

The annual CWMN July training sessions will be held at the below dates and times:

• Thursday, July 25 – 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm at the Bowen Park Lower Picnic Shelter off Wall St, Nanaimo
• Friday, July 26 – 10:00 am to 12:30 pm at French Creek Hatchery on Miller Road (815 Miller Rd, Parksville)
• Monday, July 29 – 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm at Rose Park Road (Nile Creek; https://maps.app.goo.gl/bD5rFNqcDwtKWdzY8)
• Tuesday, July 30 – 10:00 am to 12:30 pm at French Creek Hatchery on Miller Road (815 Miller Rd, Parksville)
• Wednesday, July 31 – 10:00 am to 12:30 pm at the Bowen Park Lower Picnic Shelter off Wall St, Nanaimo

Please rsvp by emailing Lauren Fegan at lfegan@rdn.bc.ca with the results session that you will be attending.

On Tuesday, July 9th the RDN’s Drinking Water and Watershed Protection (DWWP) service hosted our annual Community Watershed Monitoring Network (CWMN) Results Session. The session was held at Nanoose Place Community Centre, with approximately 45 participants in attendance. Participants included: volunteer stewardship organizations, representatives from BC Ministry of Environmental and Climate Change Strategy and Ministry of Water Lands and Resource Stewardship, Islands Trust, Island Health, other RDN departments, and participants in DWWP’s volunteer observation well program.

At this years’ session, we invited guest speakers from the Province who spoke on benthic invertebrate monitoring and water quality monitoring in stormwater management. We also hosted a presentation from BC Conversation Foundation on a tire wear toxin monitoring program working to track levels of 6PPD-Q, a compound responsible for ‘urban runoff mortality syndrome’ to coho salmon in streams across eastern Vancouver Island.

A core component of this session was to present data results from the 2023 sampling year and prepare stewardship groups for water quality sampling in the 2024 season.

We also introduced our CWMN Strategic Planning initiative and provided an opportunity for participants to provide feedback on the initial proposal for the planning; the feedback that we received will inform future engagement sessions to collaboratively develop and implement a 5-year CWMN Strategic Plan that builds on objectives within the 2020 10-Year DWWP Action Plan to integrate various types of watershed data collection across the region to support stewardship, outreach, and policy.

The Strategic Planning initiative is being proposed for 2025 and will produce an implementable plan that outlines priorities for monitoring on each system that has community stewardship support. Currently, the CWMN focuses on surface water quality monitoring, but it has been identified that integrating more diverse monitoring objectives will ensure that the DWWP is supporting stewardship groups in their key objectives while ensuring that the monitoring that is occurring is addressing identified gaps that will inform longer-term planning and policy advocacy for stream protection, restoration, and enhancement.

Engagement with monitoring partners will happen at several stages during the strategic planning process, with each engagement building on learnings and shared priorities from previous sessions, established relationships with partners, and through referencing the multi-year data and knowledge established on stream systems.

At this stage, the DWWP team is preparing for the Strategic Plan slotted to take place over the course of the 2025 calendar year. During Strategic Planning, regular stream water quality monitoring may be paused to focus on engagement with community stewardship groups and volunteers.

Thank you to all who attended and participated in discussion on the proposed CWMN Strategic Planning initiative!

If you were unable to attend or have further feedback you'd like to share with us at this initial stage, we welcome you provide your input here.

You are invited to the Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN)'s 2024 Community Watershed Monitoring Network (CWMN) Data Results Session!

The Regional District of Nanaimo's Drinking Water and Watershed Protection Program is inviting you to the annual Community Watershed Monitoring Network surface water quality results session on Tuesday, July 9 at Nanoose Place (2925 Northwest Bay Road) from 11:00 am until 2:30 pm.

The session agenda will include:

• guest speakers sharing information on benthic invertebrate monitoring and tire wear toxin sampling,
• results from the data collected through the Community Watershed Monitoring Network in 2023, and
• planning for the surface water monitoring program in 2024 and beyond.

Please note:

• if your organization would like to bring materials to share and display, please email Lauren Fegan at lfegan@rdn.bc.ca to secure table space at the event,
• refreshments and lunch will be provided, and
• bring your questions, ideas and collaborative solutions-based mindset for the facilitated group discussion that will take place after lunch.

We look forward to seeing you there!

New funding opportunity available through the Province!

On March 6, 2023, the Province of BC made a historic investment by announcing an initial $100 million to ignite the formation of the Watershed Security Fund. Established through a collaboration between the Province of BC and the BC First Nations Water Table, the Watershed Security Fund represents a significant milestone in safeguarding the health of our province’s invaluable watersheds.

In this first year, the Fund’s Grants Program will start flowing commitments of $7-$10 million to communities, spread across two grant intakes in 2024/25, to address urgent and long-term watershed security needs. Together with the Grants Working Group, the Province endeavors to build a foundation of work, systems, and approaches that transfer over and evolve into the long-term multi-year grants program offered through the Watershed Security Fund.

Grant funding will support projects and initiatives that prioritize reconciliation, ecosystems health and climate resilience. Across a range of themes, funded projects will support healthy communities and sustainable economies. The Province recognizes the holistic, interwoven aspects of watershed work and understands that most projects will connect across several areas.

Funding Themes (Areas of work) include:

• Watershed Collaboration, Planning and Governance
• Watershed and Ecosystems Restoration
• Nature-based infrastructure
• Watersheds & Food Systems
• Monitoring and Assessment
• Land & Water-based Learning, Intergenerational Knowledge

The first intake opens June 3-26, 2024, for grants approved in September. The second intake is planned to open in late 2024/ early 2025 for grants approved in Spring 2025.

Learn more and submit an application at https://watershedsecurityfund.ca/grants/

Join RDN Parks in planting trees within the Nanaimo River Regional Park on Friday, November 17th. Details in the poster below!

For more information or to register to volunteer, contact invasivespecies@rdn.bc.ca

Join us on Thursday, November 23^rd, from 12:00 – 3:00pm at the Nanoose Place Community Centre for a catered lunch, door prizes, activities, and an opportunity to introduce your stewardship group to potential new volunteers.

The RDN’s Drinking Water & Watershed Protection team is grateful to be partnered with environmental stewardship groups from across the region, whose dedicated volunteer work make the Community Watershed Monitoring Network program a possibility. We are delighted to host an in-person event to express our appreciation and gratitude for your participation.

This event will also be open to the public, so those who may be interested in learning more about volunteering with a stewardship organization and participating in the Community Watershed Monitoring Network can connect with you and get involved. There will be opportunity to introduce your group to potential new volunteers by having a display table, providing a short presentation, and/or sharing your stewardship story!

Please register to attend by emailing waterstewardship@rdn.bc.ca by November 10^th, 2023.

In your email, let me know:

1. If your organization would like to have a display table at the event. We will provide tables for display materials and are happy to offer assistance with developing and printing materials that highlight your group. The venue is booked for a couple of hours before and after the event, so there is plenty of time for setting-up and taking-down displays.
2. If you would like to give a short 5-minute presentation about your group and the important work you do. There will be a projector, screen, and microphone available at the venue for presentations, if desired. If you are planning to present with PowerPoint slides, we will also have a computer available so you may bring your presentation on a USB or email your presentation to waterstewardship@rdn.bc.ca prior to the event.
3. If you have photos that you’d like to share of watersheds and water stewards. We will be putting together a photo slideshow of local streams and the folks who work hard to care for them. If you have any photos that you would like to share, please don’t hesitate to send them now and throughout the monitoring season to waterstewardship@rdn.bc.ca.
4. If you would like to share your Stewardship Story. We will have an open-mic session, where participants will be invited to share their Stewardship Stories, such as how they became involved in stewardship work, what motivates them as an environmental steward, and how they are connected to the watersheds they care for. If you wish to share, you may let me know and prepare your story beforehand, but impromptu stories are also welcome!

We are very much looking forward to seeing you there!