Beaufort Watershed Stewards (BWS) have been holding their collective breath this past week as grant application funding announcements were anticipated for our proposed Annie Creek Stream Mapping Project.
We received not only full funding of our grant request from the Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF) but also allocation of the full amount requested from the RDN Drinking Water & Watershed Protection Program — a two-for-two win! We’ll have waders in the stream as of the first week in May.
Annie Creek is located in Area H, its headwaters, to be determined, originate just north of Highway 19 and nearby Echo Valley Farms. The mainstem, approximately 7 km length, completes the last stretch of its reach under Hwy 19A then draining into the Salish Sea adjacent to the Qualicum Landing development.
Annie Creek is one of 7 creeks in Area H that BWS has been monitoring water quality parameters biweekly since March 2024 and was sampled for 6PPD-Q during 2025 as part of the BC Conservation Foundation tire wear toxin monitoring program. Of paramount concern, with biweekly and upstream spot sampling, has been high turbidity readings consistently surpassing RDN guidelines.
Field crews, consisting of a Qualicum First Nation member, BWS volunteers and professional biologists from Astraea Consulting, will ground truth stream channels to:
- Identify previously unmapped tributaries
- Identify existing habitat values and riparian conditions
- Identify reaches of the watercourses that are fish bearing
- Identify critical habitat features such as fish barriers and low-flow fish refuge
- Identify point sources for ongoing water quality concerns – in particular, turbidity pollution.
Mapping will follow the Sensitive Habitat Inventory and Mapping (SHIM) and Resources Information Standards Committee (RISC), results will be shared with regional and provincial agencies to support salmon habitat protection and future restoration planning. It will also provide a greater understanding of Annie Creek hydrology, habitat and health that will assist in planning of future development in the area.
Overall, this project will:
- Increase our community’s capacity and involvement in salmon habitat protection and watershed stewardship activities
- Increase collaboration among community conservation groups and the Qualicum First Nation
Should restoration and mitigation measures be identified and result in proposed future stream enhancement work, a desired outcome would be an increase of salmon populations in Annie Creek.
We are grateful to both PSF and the RDN for their financial support and recognition of the importance of undertaking this project on Annie Creek and for letters of support provided by QFN and the community.
The mapping of Annie Creek advances BWS’s mission to promote the health and resilience of local watersheds on the east side of the Beaufort Range and to ensure the quality and quality of freshwater for the future. Please visit www.beaufortwater.org to follow our work.