FRIENDS OF BOWKER CREEK SOCIETY

Creek and riparian area restoration and planting - this is one of the areas in which the society and its volunteers are most active. We have restoration work and planting initiatives happening regularly (weekly or less frequently) along many sections of the Creek in Oak Bay and at Kings Browning and Cedar Hill Park in Saanich. All this is done in cooperation with municipal representatives from Saanich and Oak Bay. Volunteer hours totalled over 430. Chum salmon initiative - our Chum salmon initiative work included learning how to make new incubation boxes reworking the Creek bed to make it less susceptible to damage in severe rain and flood events working with the hatchery to get eggs placing the eggs and monitoring them until time for release. Volunteer hours totalled 180 hours. Water quality monitoring - a team of volunteers regularly monitor water quality (temperature bacterial count and turbidity) document results track trends and work with municipal representatives to report issues and follow up to ensure problems are dealt with. Water quality is a primary factor in the potential success of our Chum salmon initiative. Volunteers provided approx. 80 hours of time doing the monitoring. Rain gardens - work progressed on x new and x existing rain garden projects throughout the watershed on school and church grounds and included a total of 44 hours of volunteer efforts at one of the schools Monterey alone. Volunteer hours totaleld approx. 100. Biodiversity corridor - working to encourage human and biodiversity corridor connections between daylighted portions of the Creek through an annual event participation on cross-municipality bodies and contributions to updated versions of major municipal plans. Volunteer hours contributed to this program total approx. 936 hours in 2024 Sharing information about the watershed in schools and at public events - we created an interactive three-dimensional model of the Creek and take it into school classrooms special initiatives such as Saanich's Earth Day and other public events such as Oak Bay's Bowker Creek Brush-up. Volunteers spent about 79 hours demonstrating the model.

Reimagining Lansdowne South - we began talks with the School Board community and Saanich municipality to reimagine a significant piece of school board land as a detention pond park and educational opportunity for the District similar to a successful project at Oak Bay High School in 2015. 30 hrs of volunteer time. Watershed-focussed advocacy - the Creek runs through three municipalities two of which updated their Official Community Plans this past year and one of which Saanich is also updating other major plans to address housing needs. In addition a Capital Regional District project the Bowker Creek Initiative is updating a 2010 Bowker Creek Blueprint that we have worked to ensure watershed health and actions to protect it are incorporated. 30 volunteer hours.