Living Lakes Canada is receiving $1 million from the Healthy Watersheds Initiative, which is delivered by the Real Estate Foundation of BC and Watersheds BC, with financial support from the Province of British Columbia as part of its $10-billion COVID-19 response. The funding will go to development of a collaboration with Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities in the Columbia Basin to determine water monitoring priorities, and to train 25 people to conduct water monitoring and water-related restoration work. The data will help build climate resilience throughout the region, where melting glaciers, drier weather and diminished stream flows are signs that climate change is affecting water resources.
River Talk — Movement grows to build weir/dam across Koocanusa Reservoir
Completed in 1973, the Army Corps of Engineers dam was designed to regulate how spring snow melt in the Kootenay River watershed (87% of which originates in Canada) enters the downstream watershed. It has done so effectively, but at a considerable price to local residents. The upper end of the reservoir in Canada bears the brunt of the storage draw down each spring, and in dry years, the reservoir’s moonscape does not always refill to a level that allows for much recreation. The control over these water levels is 100% vested in American operation of Libby dam.