SEHAB ROUNDTABLE CONTRIBUTION - SOUTH VANCOUVER ISLAND                      1
Representative – Don Lowen
Community Advisor – Tom Rutherford
Community – South Vancouver Island from Cowichan to San Juan River, and Southern
Gulf Islands
October 27, 2007
Log Jams and Fish Passage
The Provincial Emergency Program (PEP), responding to public safety concerns related to log
jams on certain Vancouver Island streams, recently provided $.5M to address the jams. The result was an improvement in fish passage in the following systems: Koksilah, San Juan
and Sutton (upper Cowichan).
PEP engaged community groups with sufficient capacity to complete the work. 
RAR Not Working
Because of the Riparian Area Regulations, there is a growing perception among volunteers
that the Department is not able to protect fish habitat. Eg – A landowner who lives on a salmon-bearing stream with a long history of volunteer
restoration/enhancement, engaged an RP Biologist to assess the stream in the context of a proposed project on his property. The biologist requested a setback.
A neighbour engaged the provincial Water Branch with the same request. The Branch decided that the stream was “not a watercourse”, and the landowner subsequently filled in the stream.
Cowichan Roundtable – New Way of Doing Business
Please see Tom Rutherford’s October 27/07 presentation to the Board.
Poor Chinook Returns
Lower Georgia Strait and lower Juan de Fuca Strait chinook returns are exceptionally low this
year.  This includes the Nanaimo, Cowichan, Chemainus (10), Goldstream (2), Sooke and Nitinat (4K) systems.
Education
Stream to Sea
The Department’s education program continues to thrive on South Vancouver Island, thanks in
part to the Department’s commitment to provide warm bodies to support activities. About 120 classroom incubation projects will operate over the winter in Tom Rutherford’s area,
which includes 5 public school districts. The classroom incubation program continues to facilitate the development of other activities
such as Salmon Express, storm drain marking, shorekeeper and streamkeeper activities. The consistent participation of School Districts and the Department allows this evolution over time.
SEHAB ROUNDTABLE CONTRIBUTION - SOUTH VANCOUVER ISLAND                      2
Representative – Don Lowen
Community Advisor – Tom Rutherford
Community – South Vancouver Island from Cowichan to San Juan River, and Southern
Gulf Islands
October 27, 2007
The Goldstream Volunteer Salmonid Enhancement Association lost a long-time volunteer when Bryant Wood recently passed on. Before he died, Bryant requested that family funds be used to establish a project at the school that his grandchildren attend.
Very quickly, a partnership was struck between the school, the Watership Foundation, the Department and the Wood family to ensure that all materials and tech support would be provided to start a project this year.
The Goldstream volunteers will honour Bryant’s life at a ceremony on the River on November 2nd.
Regional Stream to Sea
About 25 Education Coordinators and Community Advisors attended the annual education
conference, held last August in Bamfield. Along with waterborne field trips, beach investigations and presentations on new online
curriculum, the group completed the next phase toward the creation of a strategic plan that will guide the program through to 2012. The group is considering changes to the structure of the Regional Education Steering Committee and of the Working Group model that was created to address action items between conferences.
The strategy continues as a systems-based collection of human and curriculum resources that adapts to the needs of many Pacific Region communities.