As an imminent temporary protection order threatens to dry out farms along the Salmon River Valley amid serious drought conditions, farmers in Silver Creek are wondering what can be done in the short-term to keep their farms viable, while questioning the long-term planning that has allowed the river to become depleted.
The BC Cattlemen’s Association has taken a leading role in working with the province on finding solutions to this year’s historic drought, chief among them being to add water storage capacity by building dams at lakes feeding into the Salmon River and Bessette Creek, both of which bear salmon, whose protection is the reason for the forthcoming order.
Kevin Boon, general manager for the Cattlemen’s Association, told The Morning Star Wednesday that the temporary fish protection order could come “any day,” or it could come a couple weeks from now.
Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship Randene Neill met with farmers along Salmon River and Bessette Creek Thursday morning to hear their concerns, and to provide information on what might be coming down the pike.
Speaking to The Morning Star Thursday afternoon, Neill said the fish protection orders for Salmon River and Bessette Creek will be delayed as long as possible while the results of new voluntary efforts take shape.
Boon said a number of producers in the area are voluntarily shutting down their water consumption to 20 to 30 per cent of their allotment, as a way of taking the initiative ahead of the coming protection order.
Neill confirmed that these irrigation schedule reductions began among farmers along the Salmon River several days ago, and along Bessette Creek on Wednesday.
“It takes five or six days to really see a difference, and what I said to them this morning is that I really want to wait and see if the efforts that they’re making will make a difference because number one, I don’t want them to have to stop watering,” the minister said. “I want to give them a chance to see if we can get those water levels up with the voluntary irrigation schedule that they have.”
Boon said the problem relates to changing weather conditions that go back well before the recent warm weather.
“This is a result of a winter where we didn’t get snowpack,” Boon said.
“The unfortunate thing is we can’t make it rain, and there wasn’t a bunch to store. But in all this, we’ve also realized how important it is that we create the infrastructure we need to get ourselves through this so we don’t face this again.”
There’s a limited set of actions that can be taken in the short-term, said Boon, but as is the case in Greater Vernon where drought conditions and water shortages are concurrently taking a toll on agriculturalists, water scheduling is being viewed as a top priority to ensure crops are being watered as efficiently as possible.
The issue is dire, according to Boon, who said there is a “real threat” of Salmon River and Bessette Creek going completely dry this summer.
“That doesn’t mean they’ll dry up forever, but if they do go completely dry or down to a trickle, we know that the survivability of those fish is going to be definitely out the window,” Boon said.
Farmers in the area that The Morning Star spoke to aren’t able to merely worry about the survival of fish populations; they also have to worry about their livelihoods.
When the Salmon River temporary protection order hits, it will completely shut off water for farmers along its banks until it is lifted.
Trudy Schweb and husband Warren have run Schweb Family Cattle since they took over the fifth-generation farm on Salmon River Road in 2015. The former loggers have about 160 acres under irrigation and roughly 240 adult cows to feed.
Like other farmers in the area, the Schwebs have been hit with drought and fish-related protection orders that limit their water usage in the summer since 2017, with the exception of 2024, Schweb told The Morning Star Tuesday, July 21.
She said in past years the farm has been able to manage water shut-offs due to fish protection orders because those orders have come in August, when mature salmon are typically swimming up the river to spawn.
“But now, they’re worried about the juvenile fish, which are in the river right now,” Schweb said.
Minister Neill confirmed this, saying water levels in the area are the lowest that’s ever been seen, with records going back 80 years. That means not only are stream flows currently insufficient for juvenile fish, but even drinking water for some areas could be at risk, she said.
“We have to weigh all of those options and make the best decision. So we’re working with the producers and the farmers in the area. They know how dire it is. They are giving 100 per cent. And so we just want to wait a few days at least and see how that’s going,” Neill said of the timing of the protection order.
For farmers, it means water could be cut off a month sooner than in past dry years.
The extra month under the protection order has huge implications for farms in the area, said Schweb.
July is peak growing season at Schweb’s farm, with ample heat and water in normal years making for “marvellous” forage crops to feed their cattle.
But with this month’s intense heat, and wind further drying out their crops, the Schwebs have been frantically moving their sprinklers to try to maximize their water efficiency, all with the knowledge that their water could be shut off entirely to protect fish populations.
The Schwebs’ high-expense period is the months of the year they have to buy feed. With the inability to grow three crops this year due to water shortages, that high-expense period is being extended into the time of year they’re normally, quite literally, making hay.
“We could have cows coming home off pasture in a month because there’s no grass,” Schweb said. “There’s a lot of spots on our pastures that normally have dugouts or there’s watering holes or little creeks, but a lot of these have all dried up. We’re constantly checking water sources to make sure these are still going.”
The consequences of this situation are serious for farmers in the area.
“If we’re forced to bring cattle home early because pastures dry up, the daily cost of feeding a herd of that size is substantial. If feed supplies become critically short, many ranchers may once again face the heartbreaking decision of reducing their breeding herds,” Schweb said. “Those are not decisions anyone wants to make, because every cow that’s sold today represents years of genetic investment and reduces our ability to produce Canadian beef in the future.”
Ministry, Cattlemen’s Association working on solutions; beavers doing their part
“It’s not that we don’t have water. We have water, but we don’t store it properly,” Schweb said.
Boon, of the Cattlemen’s Association, agrees.
The association is working with the province to put dams in the area to be able to manage water flows in the Salmon River and Bessette Creek.
“There’s some actual sites that have been identified where we used to have dams in place and they’ve been decommissioned. We’ve got one, for example, that we’re very close to where we’re hoping to have a dam,” Boon said.
The hope is to install a weir at one of the lakes above Falkland.
Both Boon and Neill said plans are underway to access water from Bolean Lake, near Falkland.
In fact, beavers have already been doing part of that work. Boon said the stream running from Bolean Lake can only handle a certain amount of water before its banks are breached, and beaver dams have helped prevent that waste of water.
“Those beavers have helped us immensely,” Boon said.
He added the plan is to release some of the water through the beaver dams to help fish and farmers alike downstream.
Ultimately, a man-made dam is needed there for long-term water storage, Boon said — and that’s just one of several sites being investigated.
“There’s some other (lakes) up there that we can do as well that we’re starting to identify. If we can get five or six of these, we can get that amount of water that we need at those critical times.”
However, Boon said red tape is slowing the process of fixing or recommissioning old dams and building new ones. He said well intended regulations around dam safety have compiled to form an onerous and costly process for managing these dams. This problem, he said, dates back to 2010 when the 1930s-built Testalinden Dam in Oliver failed, wiping out a few houses and triggering major safety reforms.
Boon emphasized the reforms were well-meaning, but the resulting regulatory system is stifling the work that needs to be done now.
“We’re not a zero-risk society and we’re trying to be one,” he said. “We’ve got to get those costs down if we want to realistically be able to tackle our water issues.”
Minister Neill said “everything” is being put into making decisions that balance fish conservation needs with the needs of farmers.
“We work with our scientists and our biologists to look at the science and data to see what we can do to balance all of those interests,” she said. “It’s not an easy decision at all.”
Talks with producers will be ongoing as the situation is monitored hour by hour, Neill assured.
Schweb thinks an emergency needs to be declared so that the AgriRecovery program can be activated to provide assistance to farmers.
Even more important, said Schweb, is proper long-term water management that is alive to the current realities farmers face.
The hope is that improved water storage will put an end to protection orders that seem destined to reoccur on a yearly basis if nothing changes.
“We need landowners and government to all work together and we need it to be able to be not so difficult to do,” Schweb said.