Hydroclimatic controls and the influence of climate change on the timing of the kokanee spawning period in Peachland, BC

Congratulations to Emily Moore for successfully defending her thesis, “Hydroclimatic controls and the influence of climate change on the timing of the kokanee spawning period in Peachland, BC” in January 2024.

Please see her full thesis here.  

Tour Summary

On June 16, 2023, the Watershed Ecosystems Project team was joined by an extensive group of water researchers, local and provincial government representatives, Syilx community members, District community members, and source water users on an informative field tour of the sqʷʔa (Peachland Creek) watershed hosted by local watershed advocacy group, the Peachland Watershed Protection Alliance (PWPA).   

The tour served a variety of purposes for the Watershed Ecosystem Project’s research in the sqʷʔa (Peachland Creek) watershed including the facilitation of knowledge exchange, partnership building, and the development of individual relationships with the physical watershed.

Many members of the watershed community were present, shared their perspectives, and engaged in poignant conversations regarding current ecological health and frameworks of governance. Syilx elders, researchers, and community members were present, grounding the tour within the understanding of unrelinquished Syilx rights and title to the watershed area, and the important role of Syilx water sciences, laws, and cultural relationships in Watershed Ecosystems Project research.  

This tour illustrated increasing cumulative pressures amid a changing climate, highlighting the importance of interdisciplinary, whole-of-watershed approaches to support more robust understandings of interior watersheds.

Thank You!

The Watershed Ecosystems Project team is very grateful to have had this opportunity to learn from the community. Special thanks to the Syilx hosts for welcoming our group into the territory, the speakers, and to the PWPA for facilitating this well-organized and successful event. We look forward to continued collaborations and partnerships into the future.

Tour Photos

We are pleased to announce we are hosting an engagement workshop to share information on the Watershed Ecosystems Project with the community. The workshop is free and open to any community members who wish to engage with our Watershed Ecosystems Project researchers to learn more about our research activities, and will be an opportunity for the public to provide input and ask questions.

A special thank you to the District of Peachland for co-facilitating this event and providing a venue, and to the Partnership Recognition and Support Fund at UBC for providing funding.

Watershed Ecosystems Project Community Engagement Workshop

Registration (Free)

Please note that this event is free but registration is required.

We kindly request that interested participants register in advance on Eventbrite at: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/watershed-ecosystems-projectpeachlandcommunity-engagement-workshop-tickets-679539199037

Workshop Overview

UBC Okanagan’s Watershed Ecosystems Project represents an interdisciplinary approach to watershed science and governance research focused on the sqʷʔa (Peachland Creek) community watershed.

Centered around information sharing and relationship building, this workshop will serve as an opportunity for meaningful discussion around the ecological facets and governance frameworks of this watershed.

Agenda

*Coffee and snacks will be available for an additional 30 minutes following closing remarks for those who wish to stay and continue the discussion.

For More Information

If you have any questions regarding this workshop, please reach out to Marni Turek, Watershed Extension Facilitator, at Marni.Turek@ubc.ca.

We are pleased to share the article below that describes how graduate students Dawn Machin and Sarah Alexis are incorporating traditional Indigenous knowledge into their research about our relationship with siwɬkʷ (Water). You will also hear from Dr. Jeannette Armstrong about the importance of siwɬkʷ from a Syilx perspective in a short video embedded in the article.

You can read the article here:

An Indigenous Approach to Understanding Water

For more information on research being conducted by Dr. Armstrong and Dawn Machin as part of the Watershed Ecosystems team, please visit: Syilx Knowledge.

The Watershed Ecosystems Project team extends sincere congratulations to fellow member, lax̌lax̌tkʷ Dr. Jeannette Armstrong as she is honoured with the appointment of Officer of the Order of Canada for her contributions to Canadian literature and leadership in revitalizing the Syilx Okanagan Indigenous language.

Dr. Armstrong is a Canada Research Chair in Okanagan Indigenous Knowledge and Philosophy. Her work in assessing the impacts of cumulative anthropogenic effects, and other stressors on Indigenous Okanagan Syilx values in the sqw?a (Peachland Creek) watershed constitutes a central pillar of the Watershed Ecosystems Project research initiative. Through her work, the team is building relationships and establishing a vision for the watershed with Syilx knowledge and value systems as active elements toward better governance.

For More Information

https://www.gg.ca/en/order-canada-appointees-june-2023

https://globalnews.ca/news/9816492/penticton-indian-band-member-appointed-order-of-canada/

This past May, a team of three Watershed Ecosystems Project researchers including Dr. Sheena Spencer and graduate students Jinyu Hui and Emily Moore, attended the 2023 Annual Meeting of the Canadian Geophysical Union in Banff, Alberta, where both Hui and Moore presented their research relating to Peachland Creek and the Watershed Ecosystems Project.

The Canadian Geophysical Union, with over 400 members and five distinct Sections (Hydrology, Geodesy, Solid Earth, Biogeosciences, and Earth Surface Processes) functions as a national organization for geophysical scientists, offering annual meetings, award programs, exposure to funding opportunities, and advocacy in policymaking. (Canadian Geophysical Union. 2023. https://cgu-ugc.ca/ Accessed June 2, 2023.)

The theme for this year’s meeting was “Advancing Knowledge in Earth and Environmental Science”. Within the “Advances in Forest Hydrology” session, Hui’s presentation, entitled “The relative roles of climate and forest in peak flows in snow-dominated watersheds of British Columbia”, centered in a quantification of the contributions of climate variability and forest disturbance to changes in peak flows at the watershed scale. Hui outlined how her combined approach which includes paired watershed experiments determining the absolute impact of forest disturbance on peak flows, the employ of statistical and machine learning methods to establish the relationship between climate variability and peak flows, and the separation of their relative contributions, suggest that climate variability plays a more important role in extreme peak-flow events, and  intensive forest disturbances have the ability to increase the magnitude and advancement of the timing of peak flows in snow-dominated watersheds. 

Within the “CSAFM (Canadian Society of Agriculture and Forestry Meteorology)” session, Moore’s presentation, entitled “Hydroclimatic and environmental effects on the run timing of kokanee salmon in Peachland Creek, British Columbia”, provided a context of water scarcity and climate change in the Okanagan Valley, as well as the economic and cultural importance of kokanee to the region as driving factors for her research.  Moore outlined the objective of her project as the identification of relationships between hydroclimatic factors (such as precipitation, air temperature, and stream flow) and the timing of the kokanee spawning period with the goal of better understanding the conditions required for an ideal spawning run and the prevention of detrimental advancement of the spawning period, which places salmon at risk of exposure to high water temperatures. 

Dr. Spencer, Hui and Moore reflected upon many learnings from the conference experience, most prominent being a reminder of the immense value of sharing and discussion amongst researchers in collaborative settings, where contagious enthusiasm emerges as groups of innovative and dedicated people gather to connect, learn, and strategize around complex problems.

 Emily Moore, MSc Student, Department of Earth, Environmental and Geographic Sciences, UBC Okanagan presenting at the Canadian Geophysical Union Annual Conference May, 2023.

Jinyu Hui, PhD Student, Department of Earth, Environmental and Geographic Sciences, UBC Okanagan presenting at the Canadian Geophysical Union Annual Conference, May 2023. 

Article written by Rheanne Kroschinsky, with contributions from Jinyu Hui, Emily Moore and Sheena Spencer.

Mackenzie Myers presented a poster titled, “Investigating timber harvest impacts on streamwater quality using end member mixing analysis” at the EESC Research Symposium held at UBC Okanagan in April 2023.

Freshwater resources in forested catchments in British Columbia are under increasing strain due to forest disturbance, including anthropogenic influences such as timber harvest. Understanding the impacts of regional timber harvesting activities on streamwater quality requires knowledge of the flow processes and chemical controls of the watershed.

Mackenzie’s research focuses on modelling these processes towards a better understanding of forest disturbance impacts. Mackenzie is using isotopes and geochemistry to understand flow paths, residence time, and interactions between surface siwɬkʷ  (water) and groundwater in the sqʷʔa (Peachland Creek) watershed. An improved understanding of the watershed’s hydrological processes can support integrated watershed modelling and other water-related assessments.

Streamflow metrics, streamwater and precipitation chemical data, and stable water isotopic data is being collected over a two-year period, focusing on critical zones within the watershed such as Peachland Lake and streams adjacent to previous industrial operations, including mining activity and clear-cut areas. Extracted data, along with supporting meteorological information will be applied towards the model.

The tentative research goal is to quantify the partitioned source contribution of timber harvest areas on the chemistry of Peachland Creek watershed, along with other key end-member sources to be decided as modelling is initiated.

This research could aid in understanding the impacts of timber harvest on the watershed’s chemistry. Findings from this research may guide resource management decisions by municipal and provincial authorities, including timber and freshwater resource management.

 Mackenzie Myers, MSc Student, Department of Earth, Environmental and Geographic Sciences, presenting a research poster at the 2023 EESC Research Symposium held in April 2023 at UBC Okanagan.

Article written by Marni Turek (based on the abstract for the research poster).