B.C.’s Lakes and Rivers – It’s time to protect them!

Hockey hero Scott Niedermayer’s childhood was spent paddling rivers and playing shinny on the frozen lakes of British Columbia’s Kootenay region.  Canada’s lakes and rivers, he says, are a big part of what makes us deeply Canadian.
That’s why making sure we protect our freshwater is tremendously important to Scott, who volunteers as WWF’s Freshwater Ambassador.

And he’s not alone. A poll commissioned by WWF-Canada and the Vancouver Foundation just over two years ago, shows a resounding 94 per cent of British Columbians polled want the protection of nature, wildlife and species made a top priority in new provincial water laws.

Sockeye salmon depend on seasonal river flow to travel upriver to spawn. Clayoquot Sound, British Columbia, Canada Photo Credit:               © © Joel Sartore/National Geographic Stock / WWF-Canada
Sockeye salmon depend on seasonal river flow to travel upriver to spawn. Clayoquot Sound, British Columbia, Canada
Photo Credit: © © Joel Sartore/National Geographic Stock / WWF-Canada

A newly re-elected B.C. government says it plans to keep its commitment to modernize the province’s century-old water law.  It first promised to pass a new Water Sustainability Act in 2012 and now says it will consult again in 2013 with the intention of passing a new law in 2014.  A new Act would protect B.C. groundwater for the first time and strengthen protection for living waters. One of WWF’s biggest concerns is to protect water for nature. That means protecting river flow – the water required in a river to ensure healthy ecosystems and healthy species, like salmon.
Join us. Share Scott’s video and help support a strong B.C. Water Act.