Coastal restoration projects on Vancouver Island are getting more than $6 million in new money to support salmon and kelp.
On Tuesday federal fisheries minister Diane Lebouthillier announced the funding through the Aquatic Ecosystems Restoration Fund (AERF). The biggest beneficiary is the Kelp Rescue Initiative, based in Bamfield, which is helping to rebuild coastal kelp forests recently devastated by extreme climate-related events. The initiative will receive nearly $3.7 million over four years.
“Kelp forests are vitally important ecosystems on B.C.’s coastline. This new funding will help advance the critical science that is needed to understand how best to restore kelp forests, and to begin this important work. We’re exciting to be building partnerships with, and developing this work, with local First Nations around Vancouver Island,” said Julia Baum, co-lead on the Kelp Rescue Initiative and Professor at the University of Victoria, in a news release.
The Ditidaht First Nation will get $850,000 to restore the watershed in their West Coast territory, and the SeaChange Marine Conservation Society will get more than $1.8 million to continue restoration, monitoring, and educational projects, over the next four years.
The Haida Nation on Haida Gwaii will receive nearly $3 million over the next four years to “continue monitoring, adaptive management and restoration of historic marine-based log handling facilities in ecologically sensitive estuaries.”
According to a government news release, the AERF “supports projects that contribute to restoration priorities in coastal and upstream areas that have a direct impact on coastal aquatic ecosystems; contribute to the development and implementation of aquatic restoration plans; and stimulate partnership with Indigenous Peoples, conservation groups, and academia to address threats to Canadian aquatic species and habitats.”
