Resilient Coasts for Salmon: Nature-based Solutions for Climate Change (RC4S)

East coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

Dates : 2021-2026 (ongoing)

Project coordinator: Pacific Salmon Foundation

Classification

Risks

Solutions

Actors

Costs

Summary

Over a period of five years, Resilient Coasts for Salmon aims to raise awareness on the potential impacts of climate change, i.e., sea level rise, and the value of natural shorelines and nature-based solutions as adaptation strategies. Through the Stewardship Centre’s Green Shores® training and Green Shores Demonstration sites, the initiative promotes professional capacity-building and understanding of the value of nature-based solutions among the communities of the East coast of Vancouver Island. Resilient Coasts for Salmon is a collaborative initiative led by the Pacific Salmon Foundation with partners such as the Stewardship Centre for BC, World Wildlife Fund – Canada, Peninsula Streams Society and others, it is funded in part by the Government of Canada.

Actions

Resilient Coasts for Salmon aims to:

  • Educate local communities, First Nations, government decision makers, municipalities and property owners on current and potential climate change impacts, risks, vulnerability, as well as drawbacks of hard armouring in their local communities. This will be achieved through the development of numerous educational resources: community events, climate change primer, informational videos, webinars, an online Tool Kit to provide guidance on small and large scale changes stakeholders can undertake to reduce their environmental impact.
  • Create a valuable dataset on the extent of coastal hard armouring from Victoria to Port McNeill. This mapping initiative will include data collection by boat (high resolution imagery capture), as well as on foot via shoreline mapping workshops with local citizen scientists. In addition to collecting data on the extent of coastal modification, these activities contribute to raising awareness and initiating discussions on sea level rise, coastal processes, coastal squeeze, and impacts to forage fish and the greater food web. Besides, it will help better inform actions and adaptation to sea level rise. The Strait of Georgia Data Centre’s Marine Reference Guide will make publicly available the data.
  • Provide the Stewarship Centre’s Green Shores training to local coastal engineers, construction professionals, landscape architects, community stewardship organizations, First Nations, planners and other government staff, and consulting firms to build a community of professionals who can implement nature-based approaches.

Resilient Coasts for Salmon aims to:

  • Demonstrate the value of nature-based solutions in a community setting and restore areas of high-value salmon and/or forage fish habitat using Green Shores principles. Three demonstration sites (Esquimalt Gorge Park (Esquimalt, BC); Songhees Walkway pocket beach (Victoria-West, BC0; and Dyke Road Park (Comox, BC)) allow visitors and residents to learn about nature-based approaches and restoration. In these sites where sediments have eroded, operations such as beach nourishment will help to attenuate wave energy, and provide potential habitat for forage fish spawning. In conjunction with nature-based solutions such as planting and the removal of hard armouring, this hybrid approach seeks to reduce cumulative impacts, eliminate potential coastal squeeze, and provide habitat and shoreline stabilization.

Outcomes

The project is still ongoing. The project had major success in raising awareness by disseminating educational resources and reaching various groups through presentations, email outreach and community events. Individuals and groups have reached out to request printed copies of the educational primer for their own use, or to share with their audiences.

  • Reaching a wide variety of audiences to raise awareness through community events, workshops, training and meetings.

  • Working as a team to develop attractive, easily digestible educational materials.

Resources

Contact