On June 26th, members of the POLIS team spent the day in the Cowichan and Xwulqw’selu (Koksilah) watersheds to discuss strategic goals, understand water issues, and engage with community partners and stakeholders.
They day began with POLIS co-director Oliver M. Brandes presenting at a meeting of the Cowichan Watershed Board about the ongoing development of the provincial Watershed Security Strategy and Fund, its potential, and implications for the region. For more than fifteen years, the POLIS team has provided ongoing briefings to the provincial government outlining detailed priorities for a Watershed Security Strategy and Fund, including our most recent submission in April 2023.
Some of the POLIS team at the Cowichan Estuary Lookout. From left to right: Shayla Auld, Oliver Brandes, Rosie Simms, and Intern Damien Chang. Photo: Kelly Bannister.
Joined by Tom Rutherford, Director of Strategic Priorities at the Cowichan Watershed Board, the POLIS team then convened at the Cowichan Estuary Nature Centre to discuss the history and evolution of the board and the watershed security obstacles being faced by different interest groups in the Cowichan and Xwulqw’selu watersheds. For thousands of years the Quw’utsun’ People used the estuary to harvest salmon, shellfish, and herring roe in a sustainable manner. Today, however, the estuary is threatened because of human activity.
It is important to advance regional watershed initiatives, like the Cowichan Watershed Board, as examples of applied forms of watershed governance in B.C. This need for a more integrated approach to local activities and decision-making is exactly what is being contemplated under the emerging provincial watershed security regime.
One key lesson emphasized by Tom Rutherford is that features of a landscape, such as the estuary, are always products of history and institutions—and they also shape the community that they nurture. As a nexus between the past and the future, the Cowichan estuary shapes relationships between community members and informs governance solutions.
In the context of governance solutions, the POLIS team has played an active role as advisors and supporters of the Cowichan Watershed Board and Cowichan Tribes for many years. Our work centres on co-governance, collaboration, and trust- and capacity-building between Crown and Indigenous governments and creating space in colonial institutions, laws, and processes that better enable sustainable ecological outcomes and Indigenous laws and priorities.
The next stop on the outing was the Cowichan River railway bridge, where Oliver spoke about the relationships between Indigenous, local, and federal government entities when it comes to watershed governance in the region. The team discussed how the environmental flows of the Cowichan River have historically been (and continue to be) impacted by past decisions and ongoing choices of all three groups, whose policy-making borders intersect and overlap at the historic bridge.
Rosie Simms, POLIS Director of Place-Based Initiatives, represented Cowichan Tribes at a Xwulqw’selu watershed community information night.
To conclude the day, the POLIS team attended a community information night on the Xwulqw’selu watershed at the HUB at Cowichan Station. The Xwulqw’selu watershed is home to an impressive mix of restoration, research, monitoring, and community watershed initiatives—all of which are working to address the significant challenges the watershed is facing and advance a broader vision of sustainability. The event brought together numerous organizations and community members to learn, ask questions, share thoughts, and sign up to get involved. Rosie Simms represented Cowichan Tribes at the event and shared information about the Xwulqw’selu watershed planning process, which launched in May following the signing of an historic government-to-government agreement between Cowichan Tribes and the Province of B.C.
