Important Restoration Work Continues in Xwaaqw’um
We would like to invite you to an information session at Xwaaqw’um this November 16th between 11 AM – 1 PM. Please join us in the first field on the left as you enter the Park. Come out and learn about the exciting new work:
Opportunities to volunteer with restoration work
Re-connect with Stqeeye’ staff on current projects
Hear about our land acquisition plans
Pick up an annual report
Learn about Thu-it running mid-November to December
Find out more about our upcoming appreciation dinner
We have been awarded 5-year restoration funding for work to be done at Xwaaqw’um. Restoration activities will increase the capacity of the forest and lowlands to capture and store carbon, while improving conditions for culturally important plants, medicines, fish and wildlife so that these can thrive once again. The grants will focus on climate change resiliency through forest management and wetland restoration. Stqeeye’ is privileged to work in the traditional home of our ancestors, bringing balance back to these sensitive ecosystems.
Did You Know?
Pre-contact, Xwaaqw’um was a large swamp with towering Western Redcedar and Grand fir that were 8 feet wide and that there were seven different species of fish in Lee Creek?
That there was a Quw'utsun village, with five longhouses, that supported food security for thousands of people with plant foods from the Garry Oak ecosystems including Camas, and plentiful seafood, sea vegetables, ducks, fish and game from the bay.
Xwaaqw’um (Hwaah-kwum) – means Place of the female merganser. The Xwaaqw’ (Hwaah-kw) is the female merganser, and they only nest in old growth forest. Hence there are none left nesting in Xwaaqw’um today.
20 hectares of area in this Restoration Project represents 3.8% of the Xwaaqw’um’s total size of 524 hectares.
This project will be undertaken in partnership with Cowichan Tribes, Cowichan Native Plant Nursery, BC Parks, Rewilding Water and Earth Inc., Ecora, Salt Spring Water Preservation Society, Briony Penn, Ren Ferguson, Tony MacLeod, Tim Kulchyski, Tara Martin, Jim Dumont, Pete Davidson, and School Districts 64 and 79, This project is funded by Environment and Climate Change Canada Nature Smart, Aboriginal Fund for Species at Risk, Public Conservation Assistance Fund, and BC Parks Licence Plate funds.
