Locals Raise Concerns About Plan to Flood 70-Hectare Vancouver Island Farm for Estuary Expansion Project

The project, which aims to convert the farm into marshland and marsh channels, has angered locals who say they weren’t consulted.

A sign erected by the Land Keepers Leadership Society, which is working to stop the flooding of productive farmland as part of an estuary restoration project in the Cowichan Valley, B.C. Jeff Sandes/The Epoch Times

A decision to flood a patch of prime farmland on southern Vancouver Island and expand an estuary has rallied local residents to form an organization and hire a law firm to try and stop the project.

The area in question is the Cowichan Estuary, a 400-hectare ecosystem nestled in scenic Cowichan Bay, about 50 kilometres north of Victoria, B.C. There, freshwater from the Cowichan and Koksilah rivers and nutrients from the land mix with seawater in the Salish Sea to create a rich habitat for aquatic life.