Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain
The Xwulqw’selu Sta’lo’ (Koksilah River) is a culturally important river to the Cowichan Tribes, located on traditional Quw’utsun land on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The land, which was never ceded to Canada, is part of a watershed that faces challenges including decreasing salmon populations, low river flow, flooding, and land use changes.
Gleeson and team are working with the Cowichan Tribes and the provincial government to collaborate on the first water sustainability plan in British Columbia. About halfway through their 5-year project, the researchers are sharing how their work is guided by fi…
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain
The Xwulqw’selu Sta’lo’ (Koksilah River) is a culturally important river to the Cowichan Tribes, located on traditional Quw’utsun land on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The land, which was never ceded to Canada, is part of a watershed that faces challenges including decreasing salmon populations, low river flow, flooding, and land use changes.
Gleeson and team are working with the Cowichan Tribes and the provincial government to collaborate on the first water sustainability plan in British Columbia. About halfway through their 5-year project, the researchers are sharing how their work is guided by five "woven statements," representing their intentions and values. The findings are published in the journal Community Science.
These statements include a commitment to uphold Quw’utsun rights and laws, an intention that community-based monitoring and modeling will inform water and land decisions about the river, and a commitment by researchers to share their practices and outcomes. Just like the horizontal wefts and vertical warps in traditional Coast Salish weaving practices, these statements overlap and connect with their research goals, projects, and partnerships.
The research project has three goals: to improve understanding of current and future low flows in the Xwulqw’selu Sta’lo’ through community science; to promote community engagement with water science, water governance, and Indigenous Knowledge; and to examine how this community science work can be useful to shared watershed management.
To accomplish these goals, the researchers use traditional scientific practices deeply grounded in the river itself. The community science project includes hydrologic monitoring, modeling of low river flows, and quantification of groundwater flows into the river. In 2024, 44 volunteers participated in the community science project.
The 5-year project is part of the larger Xwulqw’selu Connections program, which supports a shift toward water cogovernance between the Cowichan Tribes and the provincial government through the Xwulqw’selu Water Sustainability Plan. The program could inform other community science collaborations between governments and Indigenous peoples, the authors say.
More information: Tom Gleeson et al, Situating Place‐Based, Community‐Engaged Watershed Research at Xwulqw’selu Sta’lo’, Community Science (2025). DOI: 10.1029/2024csj000120
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Citation: Watershed sustainability project centers place-based research (2025, December 4) retrieved 4 December 2025 from https://phys.org/news/2025-12-watershed-sustainability-centers-based.html
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