Province flags drought risk

Skirmishes over trade have put negotiations for the renewal of the Columbia River Treaty on ice, but a low provincial snowpack is underscoring the ongoing need for sound water management across the province.

The BC River Forecast Centre reports that the province’s snowpack was 27% below normal on March 1, heralding low freshet risk and the potential for drought later in the season.

While the snowpack is above levels seen last year, when it averaged 34% below normal, the report issued March 11 warns that lingering impacts from multiple years of drought point “towards elevated drought hazards for this upcoming spring and summer.”

The Chilcotin is the worst off, with a snowpack just 16% of normal, making it especially vulnerable to drought this year, as well as the Similkameen. Northwestern BC basins enjoy near-normal snowpacks for this time of year, good news for forage producers in these areas who have been hard-pressed to rebuild stocks since 2022.

The Lower Fraser, which includes the Fraser Valley, is at 69%, while the Fraser River at Hope is at 74%.

The province has made on-farm water management a priority, hosting workshops and making significant funding available for on-farm water infrastructure projects. Water management is a priority topic of the recently announced premier’s task force on agriculture and food.

The Columbia River Treaty, signed in 1965, is credited with significant impacts on agricultural activities on both sides of the Canada-US border.

Designed to provide upstream power generating capacity as well as downstream flood control, the treaty enabled significant expansion of orchards and vegetable farms in the mid-Columbia Valley in Washington to the alleged detriment of BC growers.

Negotiations with an eye to modernizing the treaty prior to renewal saw an agreement in principle reached last July, but this week the US hit pause on the renewal process pending a broad review of its international engagements.

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6 hours ago

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11 hours ago

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.