Emily Brown and Lindsay Martin studied wildfire risk in our Coastal Douglas-fir ecosystem. Here you can find the results of a community survey of wildfire risk concerns, a carefully researched guide for reducing wildfire risk on your property, and a comprehensive collection of resources for wildfire risk reduction and ecological restoration techniques.

WPS hosted water resources engineer Don Hodgins for a talk on potential effects of climate change on water security. Hodgins predicts that SSI will face substantial increase in water supply risk over the next several decades. By the 2080s, supply risk will be too severe to manage through simple mitigations . You can see Hodgins’s slideshow here.

Environmental scientist Timothy Lambert reports in our newsletter on toxic waste leachates from the Blackburn landfill (which operated 1966-1911). Although the landfill had few mitigation measures to avoid leaching toxic chemicals into Blackburn Lake, the practice of burning the landfill waste seems to have avoided significant contamination of the lake, at the expense of air quality.

Hydrologist Dave Gooding has monitored flow rates in Duck Creek, 2018-2024. In this report, he concludes that low-season flow rates are significantly below the legal limit proscribed by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans for a salmon-bearing stream.

WPS-affiliated scientist John Millson co-authored (along with P.S. Ross, A. Parkinson, and S. Scott) a scientific paper whose findings show the presence of biocontaminants in the Fulford Harbour basin. This may need to be mitigated to safeguard Indigenous shellfish garden harvesting practices.

In this issue of the WPS newsletter: Incoming WPS president Jean Wilkinson thanks outgoing president Maxine Leichter for her hard work on behalf of the society and reports on WPS business. • WPS-affiliated scientists Maggie Squires and Drew Bodaly have published a book based on their studies of watersheds on Salt Spring and Cortes Islands. • The WPS Board of Directors calls for volunteers to help with our MailChimp email list and Facebook page, and recommends a couple of film about fresh water. • Maxine Leichter reports on groundwater testing policies. • WPS film executive John Millson describes how the WPS will shift its public engagement strategy in the context of the COVID pandemic.

GW Solutions, an engineering firm based in Nanaimo and specializing in groundwater, has released a map and study of groundwater recharge rates on Salt Spring Island. The results show “a high contrast between areas on Salt Spring with low recharge potential (northern and eastern island, including the peninsulas), and areas with moderate to high recharge potential (west central and southern part of the highland).

Hyradulic engineer Don Hodgins has released two studies (first, second) comparing dry-season water supply from St Mary Lake and Maxwell Lake to human demand and licensing policy. He finds that current licensing policy is functional for average hydrological years but inadequate for drought years. He also warns that water shortfalls are likely to become more common as a result of climate change, and concludes that current policies do not “seem appropriate for future planning.”