Funding will help farmers address nutrient runoff

SALMON ARM – Water quality in the Shuswap region will benefit from $100,000 in grants over the coming year through a new program launched this spring.

The Shuswap Watershed Council is making the funds available to projects aimed at protecting long-term water quality in the region through better nutrient management.

“What we’re looking for is projects in the ground such as things that can capture nutrients – phosphorus in particular – before it goes into the water,” says the council’s senior regional manager Mike Simpson. “We can’t necessarily pay for your soil testings and some of the requirements that you have to do as part of your regular business, but if there’s things that you can and want to do, maybe we can help with that.”

He hopes to see the gamut of initiatives by the April 30 deadline and suggests manure management and wetland creation on agricultural land as good project examples.

Simpson says projects will be evaluated on scope, scale and location. The funds may go to one large project or several smaller ones, depending on the applications received. The funds could even go to a group project that encompasses smaller projects on a number of farms in an area highlighted as having nutrient problems.

The grant program is the result of research the council undertook in partnership with UBC-Okanagan on nutrients and water quality in the Shuswap and Salmon rivers. The study identified which regions of the watershed and which land-use types contribute the highest concentrations of nutrients to the two rivers.

“Completing this study is a great accomplishment for the council,” says council chair Paul Demenok. “The results show us where new nutrient management initiatives would be most effective.”

The study indicates that small streams, ditches, groundwater and surface water run-off in the valley bottoms contribute nutrient-rich water to the rivers. The results also indicate that agricultural land contributes more nutrients on per-hectare than urban areas or forested land. (Specific agricultural uses were not singled out.)

The council is seeking nutrient management initiatives from landowners and farmers within the key problem areas.

“We’re looking for projects in the Lower Shuswap River, from Mabel Lake to Mara Lake, and the Salmon River, from essentially Westwold down to Salmon Arm Bay,” Simpson says.

More information about the grant program, and the new report on nutrients and water quality, are available online at [www.shuswapwater.ca].

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Forty-six regions in BC are eligible to participate in the federal livestock tax deferral program, announced yesterday, more than anywhere else in the country. The program allows producers who downsize their breeding herds by 15% to defer reporting the proceeds until the following year, when they buy replacement stock. But after multiple years of drought, the BC beef herd is cruising 25-year lows and some producers are calling for more support to maintain and rebuild their herds. For more, see: [www.countrylifeinbc.com/bc-leads-livestock-tax-deferrals/]

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4 days ago

After weeks and weeks of no moisture, there's rain in Kelowna today. While much more moisture is needed over the coming weeks and months to reduce drought conditions and the air smells of wet campfire, the slow, steady rain is very welcome for fruit grower#BCAg#BCAg ... See MoreSee Less

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5 days ago

The first Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust Grassland Set-aside Variety Trial Field Day was held at Delta's family-owned Tecarte Farms, August 27. Co-owner Bill Bates and DFWT executive director Christine Schmalz welcomed more than 35 people to view seven acres planted to different grassland blends specifically chosen to rejuvenate the soil and support the farm's blueberries. For the Bates family, it was time to try something different following the decline of the field's blueberry bushes over the past several years. "We tried everything, and nothing worked," says Bates. The blueberries were removed in May and the grassland crops planted about a week later.

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Bessette Creek is the latest watershed hit with a temporary fish protection order this year as the province moves to protect returning Chinook salmon. A total of 131 surface and groundwater users must cease drawing water immediately, with forage producers, greenhouses and nurseries impacted. "Declining flows in Bessette Creek reached record lows in early July 2026 and have remained below the minimum level required to support fish population survival," says the province. Bessette producers have embraced voluntary cutbacks, scheduled irrigation and other measures to reduce water use, and are also waiting on funding to boost water storage infrastructure. They're the second group of producers hit with a provincial order this year. Salmon River irrigators were told to top watering earlier this month following a reprieve to address wildfire risk. Growers in both the Salmon River and Bessette watersheds are urging the province to support new water storage infrastructure in advance of next year.

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There is a problem... having lived in the salmon river ( silver creek ) area, I remember a fish biologist telling family members that salmon only "survive" in high iron content creeks, they do not "thrive".... salmon river ( silver creek ) is a very high iron content, would stain clothes brown when i would use bleach... So don't expect high salmon numbers off of that creek , even in ideal situations...

I just wish they would take an interest in CHASE CREEK....went bone dry...100% of trout abd other species died...smell was terrible from rotting fish. Understand this has happened many times in the past. Chase Irrigation District totally responsible for this disaster. Now fishermen are complaining about major drop in water levels at Pillar Lake.

They could not mismanage things worse than they have. It's impossible for them to. The fact that farmers that we need for our animals are now suffering the consequences our governments have not protected us from, is absolutely fucking wild.