Mapping Wetlands on Quadra and what that means on Cortes

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - The ICAN water security team and We Wai Kai Guardians are getting prepared to map Quadra Island’s wetlands. It is part of a much larger project which also involves monitoring the island's rainfall, streamflow and wells. As you will hear in the interview that follows, this project is also relevant  to surrounding islands like Cortes. Bernie Amell, a recognized authority in the design of constructed wetlands for water treatment, and in the restoration of streams and riparian habitats, is in charge of mapping the wetlands. 

“Three or four years ago, we started being concerned about climate change as it would affect the water cycle. This is a temperate rainforest country and we're already seeing with the cedars, a change in their range and healthiness.  So there's environmental reasons for being concerned, but there's also the human use factors. At what point do you say,  we basically can't have more human use? The sponge doesn't have more water in it,” he explained.

“We hear all kinds of horror stories about Pender Island, Salt Spring, Hornby. They're actually in much more serious immediate trouble as the climate changes because they don't have as good an aquifer development. I'm not saying  that's the point that Cortes or Quadra are at, it's just not knowing is  an uncomfortable place to be. So four years ago, we started looking at that  in the big picture:  climate change,  wetlands, the aquifers.” 

CC: How far have you got in the wetland project? 

Bernie Amell: “Right now  we're developing a field guide for citizen science teams to go out and use mainly plants, but also other ways of looking at the terrain for clues as to where the permanent wetlands are, where the seasonal ones are, where there are impermanent streams.”

“The team has separate project teams. Eileen Mckay is very strongly involved in this and there's a couple of other people who are knowledgeable in native plants and they're providing their expertise in developing this guidebook. Then we'll just hit the ground and go out and recruit people to come and bushwhack with us.”

CC: Should people in the surrounding islands, like Cortes, be interested in this mapping project?

Bernie Amell: “It’ll actually be quite relevant.  The more settled areas of Cortes are in the same kind of terrain that I'm talking about. The land that's farmable,  where there's some soil and you can actually grow things, is  glacial silt deposited stuff. You're probably very very similar to what we've got here and also the plant community is similar. I've been bushwhacking a little bit there, and the terrain and parts of Cortes is very similar  to what we see here.”