Pt 1 | What the river wants to be
4/22/202654 min
Estuaries are a meeting of two worlds: the river and the sea. They’re incredibly fertile ecosystems that sustain 80 per cent of coastal fish and wildlife in British Columbia. For thousands of years, estuaries were central to Indigenous agriculture on parts of the West Coast. Then a new kind of agriculture arrived, profoundly altering the landscape. IDEAS visits the Cowichan Valley, where an ambitious project aims to restore an estuary — and to revitalize language, culture and traditional agriculture.
Guests in this podcast:
Tom Reid is the West Coast Conservation Manager for the Nature Trust of BC.
Jared Qwustenuxun Williams is a passionate traditional foods chef who works with elders and knowledge holders to keep traditional food practices alive.
Dr. Jennifer Grenz is a Nlaka’pamux scholar and a member of the Lytton First Nation. She is the principal investigator at the Indigenous Ecology Lab at UBC.
Siil'na'mut Ken Elliott is a Cowichan elder and plant knowledge keeper who has worked in habitat restoration for decades. With his wife, he runs Ken Elliott's Native Plant Nursery.
Alyssa Zandvliet is a graduate student at Simon Fraser University conducting research with the Historical Ecological Research Lab at SFU and the Indigenous Ecology Lab at UBC.
Kim Lagimodiere is the acting marine projects manager at the Lulumexun Lands and Natural Resources department of Cowichan Tribes. She is also the coordinator of the S-hwuhwa'us Thi'lut Kw'atl'kwa (Thunderbird Protecting the Ocean) program.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
All your favorite CBC podcasts are now available on YouTube. The best in award-winning true crime investigations, hilarious comedies, vibrant pop culture conversations, and even more audio series are all available on CBC Podcasts YouTube channel. You'll also find exclusive video-first episodes, YouTube Shorts, and behind-the-scenes content from our hosts and producers that you can't find anywhere else. So if YouTube is your go-to source for podcasts, just search CBC Podcasts and hit subscribe, and you'll never miss the latest update.
Jennifer Grenz· Guest0:28
[upbeat jingle] This is a CBC podcast.
Nahlah Ayed· Host0:32
[gentle music] [water sloshing] Welcome to Ideas. I'm Nahlah Ayed.
Tom Reid· Guest0:38
I'm glad I, I'm glad I wore my boots. Am I the only one? Oh, no, geez.
Nahlah Ayed· Host0:41
I think you are. [laughs] I got this. Ooh.
Tom Reid· Guest0:44
Not anymore. Not anymore. I knew where I was going.
Nahlah Ayed· Host0:44
It's a cold, rainy day in the Cowichan Valley, the tail end of an atmospheric river that dumped 12 inches of rainwater on Southern Vancouver Island.
Tom Reid· Guest0:54
[laughs] Go again.
Nahlah Ayed· Host0:54
We will, um, become acquainted with the water that wants to be here. Producer Pauline Holdsworth is standing on a partially flooded grassy field, a field that's starting to look a little bit like the estuary it used to be.
Tom Reid· Guest1:08
You can see the land wants to return. Like, it's, it's almost like saying, "Okay, here I am," and it's been saying, "Here I am" for over 100 years since the dike's been built.
Nahlah Ayed· Host1:18
Water is pooling in depressions in the ground following the estuary's old channels.
Jared Qwustenuxun Williams· Guest1:24
Estuaries have hundreds of weaving limbs, and it's, it's almost