Shuswap producers will have a chance to tap $15,000 worth of funding for watershed enhancement projects this winter.
The latest intake of applications for the five-year-old Water Quality Grant Program administered by the Shuswap Watershed Council (SWC) opened December 1.
“The Shuswap watershed is sensitive to large nutrient inputs,” explains SWC program manager Erin Vieira. “Our grant program is geared toward improving nutrient management and soil health.”
By keeping nutrients in the soil, the program aims to prevent them from entering Shuswap and Mara Lakes, where they can create damaging algal blooms that reduce water quality and impact recreational activities.
“In a worst-case scenario, an algal bloom can become toxic to people, pets and livestock,” an announcement of the application period states.
Since 2020, the SWC has provided 23 grants totalling $267,774 to Shuswap-area farms and stewardship groups for projects and practices that protect water quality, such as riparian planting and restoration, riverbank stabilization, wetland restoration, livestock fencing, off-stream watering for livestock, manure and effluent storage, cover cropping, irrigation and fertigation upgrades, and no-till practices.
Grant recipients earlier this year included Trinity Dairies near Enderby, which used the funding to upgrade technology and on-farm nutrient management practices. Westwold View Farms in Westwold also upgraded on-farm technology, while Owendale Farms of Lumby improved on-farm composting and the production of organic soil amendments.
The Invasive Species Council of BC secured funding for streambank restoration on Bessette and Duteau Creeks. At the same time, a hobby farm in Scotch Creek, owned and operated by Michele Roane and Kurtis Bischoff, sought funds to build livestock-exclusion fencing along a creek and install off-stream watering for livestock.
The deadline for the current intake is January 31, 2026. Successful applicants will be announced in spring 2026.
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