Demonstration Sites

The Resilient Coasts for Salmon project will complete at least three Green Shores® for Shoreline Development certified shoreline restoration projects on high value salmon habitat on Vancouver Island  to demonstrate a nature-based approach in a community setting. These projects will restore sites in a shore and salmon friendly way through the application of the Green Shores guiding principles:

• Preserving or restoring shoreline physical processes—the natural actions of water and sediment movement that maintain healthy shorelines.
• Maintaining or enhancing habitat function and diversity along the shoreline.
• Preventing or reducing pollutants entering the aquatic environment.
• Avoiding or reducing cumulative impacts—small individual effects that add up to large impacts on shoreline environments.

Working together with our partners, the following sites will be restored:

• Songhees Walkway Pocket Beach, City of Victoria
• Esquimalt Gorge Park, Township of Esquimalt
• Dyke Road Park, Comox Valley Regional District

Click on the map, which shows the location of the three confirmed demonstration sites, to be linked to an interactive version.

These sites allow for both “hands-on” training and provide a “before” and “after” example for the general public of the positive ecological, aesthetic, social and economic benefits of nature-based approaches.

The restoration areas will see significant benefits

Depending on the conditions at each site, activities may include the removal of rip-rap and other man-made structures, shoreline stabilization with riparian vegetation plantings, and eelgrass habitat restoration. Together, actions such as these will improve habitat connectivity along the shoreline and while also helping to reduce sediment and pollution entering the nearshore environment and restore important salmon and forage fish nursery grounds. The restored habitats provide will also provide resilience to climate change as eelgrass, riparian vegetation and marsh habitats sequester of carbon and buffer wave energy, while a natural shoreline allows for dynamic adjustment with sea level rise.

The aim is for all sites to achieve a Green Shores for Shoreline Development “Gold” Rating, the highest standard of nature-based Green Shores certification for shoreline development projects.

Once the restoration of the sites is complete, documentation of the process in the form of local signage, a series of webinars and a documentary style video will be posted to raise awareness and serve as continued learning opportunities.

If you are in the local area, stop by and check out our progress!