As the largest-ever estuary restoration project in coastal BC, the Quw’utsun/Xwulqw’selu Estuary Restoration and Food System Revitalization Project will restore 173 acres of tidal marsh by reconnecting the river to the salt water of the Salish Sea. In partnership with Cowichan Tribes and the UBC Indigenous Ecology Lab, we’re also working to revitalize Indigenous food systems. This project has been endorsed by UNESCO as an official contribution to the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021-2030. 

Since we began protecting the Kw’a’luxw (Englishman) River in 1981, we have conserved 836 acres of land along the river and in its estuary. Bald eagles, turkey vultures, northern goshawks, Townsend’s big-eared bats, red-legged frogs, coastal cutthroat trout, steelhead, and coho and chinook salmon are just a few of the species that call this watershed home. Millions of Pacific herring spawn along the shore each spring, and salmon spawn in the river and its tributaries.