Progress Reporting – Lower Nicola River Watershed Connectivity Restoration Plan (WCRP)

Progress Summary

This WCRP was initiated in 2020 with a series of workshops completed with local partners and rightsholders, and the first version of this WCRP was published in 2021. Since inception, the passability of 67 structures has been assessed, and further habitat assessments were completed at 7 of these. Fish passage has been rehabilitated at 4 barriers: Skuhun Creek mouth and Highway 8 crossings, Clapperton Creek dam, and Murray Lake Creek at Maka-Murray/Maka-Michael FSR junction. This has resulted in improved or restored access to 19.86 km of habitat.

Some lateral habitat and thermal refugia investigations were also completed as part of this WCRP process; however, other groups active in the Lower Nicola have both pioneered and advanced this work beyond what was completed and reported upon here: In 2021, the Lower Nicola River watershed and many other parts of B. C. experienced devastating forest fires and floods. Prior to this, CWF worked with the Scw’exmx Tribal Council to assess high-ranking structures and undertake preliminary assessments of potential lateral barriers identified by local experts and knowledge holders. Much of the mainstem Coldwater River and Lower Nicola River was rearranged during the flood, and information gathered during the 2021 field assessment rendered obsolete. Recognizing that there may be other urgent restoration priorities in the watershed, the Planning Team decided that the areas of focus over the short term would be on reviewing LiDAR (light detection and ranging) and aerial imagery to develop a conceptual method for identifying thermal refugia using remote sensing technologies, focusing on the portion of the Lower Nicola River mainstem upstream of the Coldwater River, which had not been highly impacted by the floods. Since this time, intensive remote sensing and ground truthing has been undertaken by others in the watershed, including the Nooaitch Band with funding from the B. C. Ministry of Transportation and Transit, and Raincoast Conservation Foundation. To avoid duplicating efforts, longitudinal connectivity has since become the primary focus of this plan.

Rehabilitated Barriers

Table 8: Barriers to Pacific salmon and steelhead in the Lower Nicola River that have been addressed (either through removal, replacement, or modification to improve passage) as of May 2026. Habitat gain columns represent the amount (km) of upstream spawning or rearing habitat that was reconnected by these projects.
Barrier ID	Site Name	Watershed Name	Type of Rehabilitation	Rehabilitated By	Rehabilitated Date	Habitat Gain (km)*	Actual Project Cost ($)	Next Step	Notes
1011304238	Skuhun Creek @ Mouth (11304238)	LNIC	Removal/decommissioned			8.10		Post-rehabilitation monitoring	Mouth reconfigured to remove drop
196969	Murray Lake Creek (196969)	LNIC	Replacement - OBS	FLNRO	2024-08-31	3.03		Post-rehabilitation monitoring	Culvert and road are a significant sediment source to stream
197889	Skuhun Creek @ Hwy 8 (197889)	LNIC	Retrofit	MOTI	2024-07-31	7.43		Post-rehabilitation monitoring	Clearspan bridge with concrete apron became perched. Stream bottom built back up through crossing and backwatered.
36b0bcda-4671-45ff-8dea-d1fc8abe3a8d	Clapperton Dam	LNIC	Removal/decommissioned	CWF & LNIB	2024-08-01	1.30	332000	Post-rehabilitation monitoring	Important steelhead, Chinook, Coho stream

Annual Progress Report

Since April 2025, the following actions were completed:

Results of barrier assessments, habitat confirmations, and habitat investigations of Lower Nicola River tributaries were reviewed by the Planning Team and a team meeting held to discuss next steps for streams and structures based on field findings.
The connectivity models were updated to remove habitat from streams where field investigations revealed that habitat was not suitable for focal species, and to add spawning habitat to areas where spawning was observed and not captured by the model (primarily in Stumbles and Murray Lake creeks).
Outputs were incorporated into this WCRP.

Priority Barriers

Table 9: Structures in the Lower Nicola River that are confirmed as barriers to fish passage for Pacific salmon and steelhead with confirmed habitat upstream, as of May 2026. Barriers known to be partially passable are indicated by “yes”, with further details provided in the adjacent column. Habitat gain represents the amount (km) of habitat upstream of that barrier to the next structure that will be if that barrier is addressed. The number of structures in a set represents the number of structures that must be addressed concurrently to maximize habitat connectivity.
Barrier ID	Site Name	Watershed Name	Structure Owner	Structure Type	Partial Passability	Partial Passability Details	Number of Structures in Set	Habitat Gain (km)*	Next Step
197882	Stumbles Creek @ private (11304215)	LNIC	Private	Stream crossing - CBS	Yes	Proportion of individuals	2	0.46	Engage with barrier owner
197884	Stumbles @ Hwy 8 (11300751)	LNIC	MOTI	Stream crossing - CBS	Yes	Proportion of individuals	2	2.23	Engage with barrier owner