Operations Director, Dawn Roumieu

Watershed Watch is a founding member of the Coquitlam River Watershed Roundtable (CRWR). The Roundtable is a collaborative effort involving a diverse group of stakeholders who have a shared goal of securing the long-term sustainability of the watershed. The community-based Roundtable coordinates and implements activities that promote the health of the watershed.

This past fall, Roundtable Coordinator, Georgia Ohm, and Roundtable Support & Liaison, Margaret Birch, engaged with the public through numerous activities including:

• A Coquitlam River streamside litter cleanup in Port Coquitlam in partnership with Chandos Development.
• A B.C. Rivers Day streamside cleanup at Lions Park in Port Coquitlam.
• A public forum: What’s Up in Our Watershed? Advancing Our Vision for a Healthy Future! Roundtable partners and members of the community connected to discuss the progress of CRWR activities taking place in the watershed.
• Watershed-related education and activities at the Salmon Come Home event at the Hoy Creek Hatchery.
  

  The Roundtable helped remove 40 cubic metres of trash from the watershed this year!

 A slideshow of the Roundtable’s 2022 projects can be viewed here.  

The Roundtable also recently released an implementation update for the Lower Coquitlam River Watershed Plan (LCRWP). The LCRWP was developed by the Roundtable and the efforts of more than 60 multi-sector partners between 2012 and 2015 to respond to key pressures that affect watershed health and provide strategies for action. Since 2021, progress has been made to address pressures from stormwater, illegal activities and development. The LCRWP Fall 2022 Implementation Update can be found here.

kwikwəƛ̓əm Sockeye Restoration Program

Watershed Watch had the opportunity to attend a special cultural ceremony to mark the start of construction of the kwikwəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem) Sockeye Hatchery. This conservation-based hatchery is a critical step in the long-term effort to help restore sockeye to the skʷƛ̓əma:ɬ x̌acaʔ (Coquitlam Lake) watershed and should be completed by the spring of 2023. The kwikwəƛ̓əm First Nation has been working in collaboration with many organizations, including Watershed Watch, to build a sustainable run of sockeye back in their territory, as the construction of the Coquitlam Dam in 1913 eliminated sockeye from the Coquitlam River. More information can be found on the kwikwəƛ̓əm website.