2026 ORCBC Endangered Rivers List highlights positive developments and lingering concerns
Cowichan River weir partners by Graham Twomey
At the top of the Outdoor Recreation Council of BC’s 2026 Most Endangered Rivers List are two of Canada’s most renowned waterways. Tying for top spot are Vancouver Island’s Cowichan River and the Heart of the Fraser, a stretch of the Fraser River in the Lower Mainland between Mission and Hope. By publishing the list, the ORCBC is recognizing progress and seeking government action in 2026 to address lingering issues.
“These are both iconic waterways,” says Mark Angelo, ORCBC’s Rivers Chair and founder of both 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.”
For more than 30 years, the ORCBC has released BC Endangered Rivers Lists to raise awareness about clean water and free-flowing rivers. The ORCBC is a provincial organization that advocates for recreation access to land and water on behalf of more than 100 non-profit clubs and associations representing more than 200,000 British Columbians. In addition to the Cowichan and Heart of the Fraser, this year’s list also identifies several “rivers of concern,” including the Elk River in the East Kootenays, the Kettle River in the Okanagan, the Stikine River in the North, and the Similkameen in the Okanagan. The crisis facing Thompson/Chilcotin river steelhead is also included.
“The list is not meant to be all-inclusive, but rather to highlight key issues and encourage action”, Angelo says. Since the list’s inception in 1993, it has helped focus efforts to protect the Tatshenshini River from development and address mine pollution in Howe Sound’s Britannia Creek, among many other examples. With the Cowichan and Heart of the Fraser at the top of this year’s list, Angelo hopes to encourage similar progress on key issues.
Climate change is the biggest threat to the Cowichan River, which flows from Lake Cowichan through the Cowichan Valley before emptying into the Salish Sea near Duncan. As the climate warms, low summer flows are becoming more common on the Cowichan River. The resulting high water temperatures and algae blooms kill fish, particularly juvenile salmon and steelhead. An estimated 85,000 juvenile steelhead died in just one low-flow event in 2023. There are additional concerns about construction waste and garbage dumping that threatens to leach toxic chemicals into the river.
On a positive note, Cowichan Tribes, the Cowichan Valley Regional District and the Cowichan Watershed Board have developed a plan to raise the weir at the mouth of the lake by 70 centimetres. This would enable the storage of extra water in the spring, which would then be released into the river over the summer to maintain higher and healthier flows for fish. This would keep the lake level well below winter peaks, while also preventing the extreme lows that have grounded docks and boats in the past. The provincial and federal governments have agreed to provide $28-million in funding towards the new weir. However, the project budget is now estimated at $40-million.
ORCBC is urging governments at all levels to provide additional support and to expedite the permitting process so the project doesn’t stall.
“There’s broad recognition the river is threatened,” says Angelo. “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?”
For the Heart of the Fraser, the concern is urbanization and development. These were the same issues that first elevated this section of the Fraser River to the top of the ORCBC Endangered Rivers List in 2022.
The Heart of the Fraser is one of the most important salmon and sturgeon spawning and rearing habitats in the province. But it also faces threats from urban encroachment, agricultural expansion and industrial development. All chip away at the remaining undeveloped land, which is essential for the river to function as a nursery to hundreds of millions of fish.
Mark Angelo at Heart of the Fraser.
The good news is that there has been progress. In 2024, the Nature Conservancy of Canada purchased Carey Island, an important spawning area for white sturgeon and salmon near Chilliwack. In 2023, the BC Parks Foundation purchased a large riverfront farm near Agassiz with the intent of protecting and rewilding it. And the Nature Trust of BC has preserved half of the Nicomen Slough, protecting habitat for fish and migrating waterfowl.
Angelo says the protection and restoration of these riparian habitats, which absorb water before releasing it in a more measured way, also complements the region’s broader flood control efforts.
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. Consequently, the ORCBC is asking local and provincial governments to work in concert with these organizations to protect key habitats. This should include efforts to conserve the last un-dyked islands, protect undeveloped river shorelines, and rewild previously damaged land where possible.
“These conservation groups are working so hard,” says Angelo. “They are making a real difference. But we need the assistance of all levels of government to develop a real conservation plan that will preserve the Heart of the Fraser in a meaningful way”, he added.
Efforts to protect and better care for the Heart of the Fraser would also align with the provincial government’s commitments to biodiversity and reconciliation, he notes, by contributing to the United Nations Biodiversity Framework and Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCA).
Preserving river health is also good for the provincial economy, says Louise Pedersen, executive director of the ORCBC. A recent government survey found outdoor recreation contributes more than $4.8-billion to provincial GDP every year. She would like to see more acknowledgement of that value by including the interests of outdoor recreation in river and water planning.
For example, the Cowichan River water planning process overlooked ways the weir project could benefit recreation, even though the river is important to the whitewater paddling community on Vancouver Island.
“In this massive project, there was a chance to add more recreational value and it fell through,” she says. “That’s all too common. Recreation is a major part of B.C.’s economy. Recreation needs to be nurtured just like any other industry.”
Pedersen is also concerned about the potential for unchecked industrial development to negatively impact rivers and recreation. In particular, federal and provincial legislation will expedite the environmental assessment process for some major projects, including mines that could impact water quality downstream, and pipelines and electricity transmission lines, which will cross many streams and rivers.
Pedersen and Angelo acknowledge the need to diversify B.C.’s economy, but are concerned governments don’t always recognize the downstream contributions of river conservation. Healthy rivers protect water supplies for communities and industry, generate the majority of the province’s energy, and support important recreation and food fisheries. They also reduce the impacts of flooding and droughts.
In considering this year’s Endangered Rivers List, Angelo says, he was left with mixed feelings. Like he’s wading across a fast-moving river: two steps forward, one step back.
“We are seeing glimmers of hope,” Angelo says. “Investments in river conservation have big payoffs. Nature can heal itself if we only give it a chance.”
B.C.’s Endangered Rivers List
(tied) Cowichan River, Vancouver Island
Frequent low flows during the summer due to climate change are impacting fish survival and water quality.
The hope: There is a plan, along with a significant portion of funding, to raise the weir on Lake Cowichan to increase summer flows.
The concern: Final approval and construction could drag on.
(tied) Heart of the Fraser, Lower Mainland
Urban and industrial development continues to erode the ecological health of one of the most important salmon habitats on earth.
The hope: Conservation groups continue to purchase land for preservation.
The concern: There is no coordinated plan for conservation efforts, and development throughout much of the Heart of the Fraser continues.
Other rivers and issues of concern:
Elk River, Kootenay
Large-scale coal mining in the Elk River watershed leaches contaminants, particularly selenium, into an important river for tourism and recreation.
The hope: The mining companies are expanding water treatment to remove contaminants and oversight has been improved.
The concern: An expansion plan for one of the mines remains on the books.
Kettle River, Okanagan
Land use, water consumption and climate change impacts have caused low flows and water quality issues that impact human use and ecology in the watershed.
The hope: The Kettle River Watershed Management Plan has endorsed a comprehensive and collaborative water-use and stewardship plan.
The concern: The issues are complex and interconnected. A quick fix will be challenging to attain.
Stikine River, Northwest
Plans to fast-track the expansion of the Red Chris Mine could threaten the health of the Stikine, a world-renowned paddling river and one of the most important salmon-bearing streams in the northern half of the province.
The hope: Increasing calls by First Nations, paddling groups and conservation organizations, in both Canada and the U.S., should lead to stricter environmental protections and binding agreements between both countries.
The concern: The mine expansion plan includes the addition of a tailings pond, which brings higher risks of contaminants entering the watershed.
Similkameen River, Southern Interior
Indigenous communities and others are concerned the provincial government is rushing to approve an expansion plan at the Copper Mountain Mine south of Princeton.
The hope; The Upper and Lower Similkameen Indian Bands are asking the province for more time so that they can fully assess and gauge the risks of the project.
The concern: The proposed expansion would reopen an open pit mine that would extend close to the river and below the riverbed level, while the tailings dam would increase in size.
Thompson/Chilcotin rivers steelhead, Interior
More of a fisheries management failure than a river health issue, the perilous state of steelhead populations in the Thompson and Chilcotin rivers still requires urgent action. At one time thousands of these sea-run rainbow trout returned to these rivers to spawn. This year, only 19 steelhead are expected back to the Thompson River, and as few as 9 to the Chilcotin.
The hope: Sadly, there is little hope to be found on this issue. The federal and provincial governments have been unable to work together to find a resolution.
The concern: To date, there has also been an unwillingness to curtail indiscriminate, non-selective commercial fishing rather than focusing on more selective methods that allow non-target fish to be released alive and healthy. The result is the imminent extinction of the Interior population of steelhead stocks.