Grant funding for nutrient management projects

Shuswap farmers and landowners can improve their nutrient management strategies with funding from the Shuswap Watershed Council.

SWC’s Water Quality Grant Program is accepting applications until April 30 for projects focused on the valley bottoms of the Shuswap and Salmon rivers.

“One of the SWC’s primary objectives is to protect and maintain the water quality in Shuswap and Mara lakes,” explains SWC program manager Erin Vieira. “In particular, we’re focussed on reducing nutrient inputs to rivers and lakes.”

Excessive amounts of nutrients, especially phosphorus, are known to contribute to algal blooms, which reduce the quality of water for drinking and recreation, and can become toxic for people, pets and livestock.

“The goal of the grant program is to help farmers and landowners keep nutrients on the land and in the soil, being used by crops and vegetation – not washing off into nearby creeks and rivers through rain, snowmelt or flooding,” says Vieira.

In the first year of the program, $65,470 was distributed to five farm-based water quality improvement projects.

Funds covered seed costs for a cover crop project at Lakeland Farms; construction of an engineered berm at Hillside Dreams Goat Dairy; an effluent collection tank at Swaan Farms; pipes to a new concrete lagoon for the cheese plant at Grass Root Dairies; and fencing material for a partnership project in the Salmon River valley between the BC Cattlemen’s Association and Splatsin First Nation.

“After the positive outcomes achieved with the 2020 program, we’re very pleased to offer our grant program for a second year,” says SWC chair Paul Demenok. “We look forward to creating new partnerships in the Shuswap to protect our water quality while simultaneously helping farms and other land holdings reduce their phosphorus footprint.”

Up to $85,000 is available this year.

“The grant program is one of the ways the SWC is taking action on our research findings,” Vieira adds, referring to a three-year research project between SWC and UBC Okanagan.

Research results showed the greatest proportion of nutrients in the lakes originating from the settled valley bottoms of the Shuswap and Salmon rivers, where there are farms and homes.

Find more information about the grant program 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

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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.