Image: Outdoor Recreation Council of BC Rivers Chair Mark Angelo beside a stretch of the lower Fraser. The Heart of the Fraser is tied for BC’s most endangered river in 2025.
Photo credit: Outdoor Recreation Council of BC
Two of British Columbia’s most iconic waterways — the Cowichan River on Vancouver Island and the Heart of the Fraser in the Lower Mainland — share the top spot on the Outdoor Recreation Council of BC’s (ORCBC) 2026 Endangered Rivers List.
For more than 30 years, the ORCBC has released BC Endangered Rivers Lists to raise awareness about clean water and free-flowing rivers. The focus of this year’s list is to highlight two rivers where a little action could have a huge impact.
“These are both iconic waterways,” says Mark Angelo, ORCBC’s Rivers Chair and founder of BC and World Rivers Day. “The Fraser is one of the most productive rivers on the planet. The Cowichan is an important salmon stream, culturally significant to the Cowichan people, and a recreational asset for anglers and paddlers. All this is at risk. But on both rivers, we are seeing glimmers of hope.”
Image: Scenic aerial view of the Heart of the Fraser, tied for BC’s most endangered river for 2025.
Photo credit: Barry Stewart
Cowichan River: low flows and new solutions
Climate change is the Cowichan River’s biggest threat. Warmer, drier summers have led to increasingly low flows, dangerously warm-water temperatures, and fish kills — including the loss of an estimated 85,000 juvenile steelhead during a 2023 drought.
But there’s optimism on the horizon. Cowichan Tribes, the Cowichan Valley Regional District, and the Cowichan Watershed Board have developed a plan to raise the weir at Lake Cowichan by 70 centimetres. This will store spring water for release during summer months, helping restore healthy flows and cooler conditions for fish, without impacting maximum lake levels.
The project has secured $28 million in government funding, but it needs another $12-million. ORCBC hopes to find additional partners to complete the funding.
“There’s broad recognition the river is threatened,” Angelo says. “Now there’s an urgency to push this project to completion. If it takes five more years, how many more low-flow events will there be? How many steelhead will be left?”
Image: Cowichan River weir at the outlet of Lake Cowichan.
Photo credit: Graham Twomey
The Heart of the Fraser: progress amid pressure
There’s also mixed news for the Heart of the Fraser. The section of the Fraser River between Mission and Hope, east of Vancouver, remains one of the continent’s most important salmon and sturgeon habitats. Yet urban sprawl, agricultural expansion, and industrial development continue to chip away at its natural areas.
Encouragingly, conservation groups have made notable gains. The Nature Conservancy of Canada acquired Carey Island in 2024, while the BC Parks Foundation protected a large farm near Agassiz in 2023 and the Nature Trust of BC secured portions of the Nicomen Slough. Groups like the Pacific Salmon Foundation and the Rivershed Society are working with Indigenous partners to identify important conservation priorities in the Heart of the Fraser, Angelo says.
“These groups are making a real difference,” he says. “But we need all levels of government to develop a meaningful conservation plan that protects the Heart of the Fraser.”
Linking conservation, recreation, and the economy
For Louise Pedersen, ORCBC’s Executive Director, protecting rivers is also an investment in B.C.’s economy and quality of life. Outdoor recreation contributes more than $4.8 billion annually to provincial Gross Domestic Product (GDP), yet she says recreation is often overlooked in water management discussions.
“In this massive [Cowichan] project, there was a chance to add more recreational value, and it fell through,” Pedersen says. “Recreation is a major part of B.C.’s economy. It needs to be nurtured just like any other industry.”
Pedersen warns that rapid industrial expansion could undermine recent conservation gains. Both she and Angelo emphasize that healthy rivers sustain communities, industries, and ecosystems alike.
“We are seeing glimmers of hope,” Angelo reflects. “Investments in river conservation have big payoffs. Nature can heal itself if we only give it a chance.”
Image: Partners from many groups supporting the raising of the Cowichan weir which could then release more water in the summer to better protect the Cowichan River and its fish stocks. The Cowichan is tied for BC’s most endangered river in 2025.
Photo credit: Cowichan Water Board