Premier David Eby Allocates $130 Million for Indigenous-Led Wild Salmon Watershed Restoration

VANCOUVER — British Columbia Premier David Eby and Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship Nathan Cullen announced on Monday the distribution of $130 million in provincial conservation funding through the British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund (BCSRFI) to execute major watershed restoration projects across the Fraser, Skeena, and Cowichan River basins.

The initiative, delivered in direct co-management with sixty-five First Nations communities, funds the physical removal and replacement of more than 300 obsolete road culverts and floodgates that currently block returning adult Chinook, Coho, and Sockeye salmon from reaching over 1,200 kilometers of historic upstream spawning tributaries.

Restoring Keystone Wild Salmon Runs and Coastal Ecosystems Pacific wild salmon are the keystone ecological species of British Columbia, supporting killer whale populations, grizzly bears, coastal rainforests, and Indigenous cultural traditions, yet rising river temperatures and artificial migration barriers have caused historic population declines.

"Wild salmon are the beating heart of British Columbia's natural environment, our Indigenous cultures, and our coastal economy," Premier David Eby said at a stream restoration site along the Seymour River in North Vancouver. "For decades, poorly designed road crossings and industrial dykes blocked migrating salmon from reaching their native spawning grounds. This $130 million investment empowers First Nations watershed guardians and community volunteers to remove fish barriers, restore riparian stream canopies, and ensure wild salmon return in abundance to B.C. rivers."

Watershed Projects and Habitat Upgrades The grant package finances:

• 300 Fish Passage Culvert Replacements: Installing wide, open-bottom structural steel and wooden bridge arches allowing unimpeded fish passage during low and high flows.
• Riparian Tree Planting & Thermal Shading: Planting 500,000 native cedar, alder, and willow trees along agricultural riverbanks to cool summer water temperatures.
• Indigenous Watershed Guardian Programs: Providing multi-year funding to equip First Nations fisheries monitoring teams with underwater acoustic sonar counters and environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling kits.

Commercial and sport fishing associations, Indigenous hereditary chiefs, and river conservation biologists praised the government's decisive watershed funding, highlighting that restoring natural river flows is the most effective strategy to rebuild resilient wild salmon populations.