Image Credit: Kent Simmonds / CFJC Today
WATERSHED IMPACTS

BC Watershed Security Coalition keeping watchful eye on snowpack readings

Feb 10, 2025 | 5:04 PM

KAMLOOPS — According to the first round of snowpack readings, the province began the winter season in a better place than last year, and there’s hope for a trend to start forming, with the second snowpack bulletin from BC’s River Forecast Centre expected this week.

The data is crucial when anticipating streamflow conditions, including floods and droughts. But even if higher elevations have more snowfall than last year, valley bottoms and lower elevations are still in a concerningly dry place.

Neil Fletcher is the BC Wildlife Federation’s (BCWF) director of conservation stewardship and is also a member of the BC Watershed Security Coalition. The group has a keen interest in monthly snowpack bulletins, as notably dry and drought level conditions have persisted throughout the Interior.

“There’s a lot of interconnectedness between what we’re seeing in the winter and then what we might expect for the summertime, as well,” says Fletcher.

Mountain snowpack readings can relate to everything from flood and drought events, wildfire risk and the state of local watersheds.

“We’re seeing that some streams are drying out that never used to dry out before, so entire runs of salmon or other fish species could be at risk of being lost. That’s been a huge concern.”

The latest snowpack bulletin is expected this week, but the first snowpack reading for this year did show the North and South Thompson basins at 100 per cent of normal, which is considerably higher than the range the region was measuring at last year.

“It’s going to be a persistent issue. Some years of course there might be anomalies but we are seeing trends of lower snowpack over the years, as well as melting glaciers, there’s a whole bunch of things that holding water on the landscape does for us,” notes Fletcher, who adds that the BC Watershed Security Coalition and the BC Wildlife Federation agencies have been working on solutions to hold water in upper stream areas.

“One of the things that our organization (BCWF) has been doing is working to hold water on the landscape by following what beavers used to do for many, many years,” he explains. “We have a team that actually builds beaver dam analogs, which look like dams that beavers would have built to hold water on the landscape.”

However, Fletcher adds that more government funding is needed to make sure that mitigation work can improve.

In 2021, the provincial government provided $27 million in funding for watershed restoration and conservation projects. While the B.C. Watershed Security Fund was created in 2023 with a $100-million endowment, the idea was to use the interest from that investment to fund the conservation work, but Fletcher says the interest only generates around $5 million annually and more investment is required.

“Now is more important than any time to invest in healthier watersheds. We’re looking at fires or looking at drought. We’re looking at all sorts of impacts on the land base,” he adds.