The Yaqan Nukiy Wetland Project is Canada’s biggest Indigenous-led wetland restoration 

Since beyond living memory, the wetland at Yaqan Nukiy was a sprawling 7,000-hectare resource that nourished the area’s Indigenous People and wildlife from birds and bears to fish, turtles, and elk.  

That was true until a little over a century ago, but the intervening years have not been kind. Streams were diverted, marshes were drained, and floodplains were severed from their water sources. The changes destroyed fish habitat, altered seasonal flows, and disrupted spawning cycles of the burbot, trout, and Kokanee salmon that are a foundation of the food web.  

The ecosystem that nourished an entire food chain was largely shut down.  

But since 2018, the Yaqan Nukiy First Nation (Lower Kootenay Band) and their project partners have been hard at work re-naturalizing 517 hectares of wetland on reserve lands, reconnecting waterways, reintroducing natural flow patterns, and creating the conditions for ecosystems to function on their own.  

The Yaqan Nukiy Wetland Project is not intended to actively manage the wetland as a food source so much as restore its productive equilibrium.  

“The way First Nations people lived before contact was deeply connected to natural systems,” said Norm Allard, Community Planner for the Yaqan Nukiy First Nation and lead for the renaturalization initiative. “We didn’t live in control of the land—we lived with it.”  

More than two kilometres of dikes were removed and 260,000 dump trucks worth of earth have been reshaped so far. With more than 2.2 million square metres already restored, the project is Canada’s biggest indigenous-led wetland restoration.  

“We’re looking at how things functioned before,” Allard explained. “Nature already knows what it’s doing—we’re just putting things back so it can take over again. It’s a rebirth of nature.”  

Already, the benefits are visible.  

Restored wetlands provide rearing and feeding habitat for fish. For Kokanee and burbot, the wetlands are a rearing habitat just after hatching in the spring. The freshet washes them into the floodplain where the water is a bit warmer and there is plenty of zooplankton, a microscopic food source, to boost their early development. 

Over the past four years, the Band has released millions of burbot larvae with assistance from the hatchery program run by the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, using Canadian brood stock. Recent tracking studies have shown that some released fish have been detected as far away as Idaho, illustrating how far-reaching and ecologically connected these wetlands truly are.  

Notably, releasing early-life stage white sturgeon—a federally listed species at risk—is now considered a possibility. Additional releases are expected in the coming years.  

This work offers an exceptional return on investment, not only because of its cost-efficiency, but because wetlands are among the most valuable habitats to restore. They provide essential habitat for a wide range of species, including mammals, birds, amphibians, fish, invertebrates, and plants. In restoring a wetland, you’re restoring an entire interconnected web of life because nearly everything uses them.  

“These are landscape-scale projects, and we are landscape-scale people,” said Allard. “We moved about the land and know how to manage and take care of all these important resources.”    

Just as importantly, long-term maintenance costs are expected to remain low. By restoring natural functions, the project allows ecosystems to sustain themselves, reducing the need for future human intervention and allowing nature to take over.  

In 2024, the team completed 11 intensive weeks of restoration work, supported by additional heavy machinery. A six-week construction period is planned for September 2025, strategically timed to avoid peak wildfire season.

At least two more years of construction are expected through 2028, alongside long-term monitoring, targeted excavation, and maintenance.  

Join Norm Allard on YouTube for a live virtual tour of the Yaqan Nukiy Wetland Project. 

Date: June 20
Time: 12 – 1 p.m. PST
Where to watch: www.youtube.com/@ReconnectExperience 

Lead image: The Yaqan Nukiy Wetland Project is designed to let nature heal itself and nourish an entire ecosystem. Photos by Norm Allard

BC Wildlife Federation

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