By S. Belford

During discussion at the recent Public Hearing the subject of tree bylaws came up, and the idea
was expressed that Sooke’s big landowners have owned the land for decades and have been
great stewards and look after their lands well like they always have and the District should butt
out. Someone’s property is theirs to do with as they like, right?

I believe that property rights should be respected and I don’t agree that they supersede the
rights of all other citizens to a healthy and safe environment, and that’s why I support guidelines
and policies like foreshore and riparian setbacks and yes– protection of the forest canopy.
If I don’t clean up a spilled toxic substance on my property, its effects don’t stop at the property
line. The same goes for the effects of everything we do; a drained wetland or redirected stream
results in changes to local wildlife populations; a new or expanded dock can change ocean
currents many kilometres away. Many things we do on our own lands impact the lands and
wellbeing of our neighbours.

For example, last year a neighbour of the Ella Creek development woke up to a car-sized
boulder falling onto her property from above, due to blasting. Talk about impact. Thankfully no
one was hurt.

Our individual actions can have other, less dramatic and more gradual impacts that can
seriously affect neighbours’ wellbeing. For example, in the fall of 2023 several trees were
removed or topped in the hillside manufactured home park I live in– I never learned why. I
shrugged– it was already done, Sooke has no tree protection bylaw and it’s the landlord’s
private property to do with as he wants, anyway, right?

Well, last November, a year after the trees were cut, we had that Bomb Cyclone. The thinned
tree canopy couldn’t withstand the wind and many more trees in the park came down on top of
houses. Fortunately no one was hurt, but one neighbour was out of their house for almost 7
months before it was livable. Following the storm clean up, the local tree canopy was thinner
than ever.

Cut to this December and the impact of the driving rains of the current Atmospheric Rivers on
“our” hillside with its reduced number of trees. As you know, tree roots stabilize slopes by
holding the soil and they help stop flooding by drinking up the rain. With fewer trees on this
hillside, more rain is just running down the hill un-absorbed. Some of the water pools just beside
my house, then follows a channel that guides the water away. I have never seen that channel
used in the 6.5 years I’ve been here; it was almost overflowing during the storm last week.
I’ve illustrated one set of real impacts stemming from a single action by one landowner acting in
good faith backed by his long-held family knowledge of his land. The flaw is that the long held
family knowledge stems from a time when Sooke really was a rain forest; when the soil was
moist even in summer and seedlings were plentiful.

Today’s Sooke has been in a drought since 2022, and its soil is dry and porous; continued
cutting of trees helps to dry it further. Without roots holding the soil in place, Sooke’s steep hills
are at risk for landslide.

The danger is that this situation is being replicated all over Sooke and the forest is very slowly
vanishing. Everything is fine today. Will it continue to be tomorrow? Or will it take us having to
say “unfortunately someone was hurt” before we recognize the far ranging consequences our
individual actions have for others. It’s time to acknowledge that we, all of us, have as much
responsibility to protect our shared environment as we have rights to enjoy our personal small
slice of it.

By C. Moss

Canada is facing drought driven by climate change.  All across the nation we are starting to hear the warning cries of communities, urban and rural, telling us that lack of water is a growing concern.  When we look at the Capital Regional District and its grip on piped water, we can see that the CRD is really only concerned with its own distribution system through pipes and other infrastructure.  It does not consider anyone’s water security if they are not connected to the system.  However there are 1400 (?) wells drawing water throughout the CRD.  Those residents have no one who can speak to their concerns at the CRD level.

The BC Water Sustainability Act of 2016 set up the possibility of creating water commissions to inform local water districts.  The CRD has 10 water commissions (including one called the Juan de Fuca Water Commission) All of them deal with concerns and changes to existing piped water systems.  What we believe is needed is a CRD Rural Water Commission to reflect the growing concern of residents who are not connected to piped water.  This Commission would be made up of professionals in areas of watershed management, fisheries, forestry, agriculture, biology and botany, geography and CRD staff and would be mandated to unravel the issues coming forward from watershed management which impact the health of regional water security.

The commission might begin to survey the watersheds of the Juan de Fuca electoral area which comprises 61% of the CRD land base.  Degradation over the last century of watersheds due to forestry practices are being amplified by the warming of climate change.  This in turn will change the amount of moisture available on the watershed, changing the type of vegetation and animals that live on those watersheds, and changing the amount of water that infiltrates the soil and maintains the underground aquifers which all domestic well owners use for their potable water.

At present there is no “go-to” source within the CRD for rural water information and guidance.  Building permits and variances are frequently approved “subject to” – proof of water, approval of ALR, and approval of VIHA – which leaves a developer having to cross fingers and build a house while not knowing if the new well they have drilled will interfere with other wells in the areas and to potentially be told they may not draw water from their well.

There is an increase in the number of wildfires and changes in fire behaviour  on the Island  which are becoming a cause for alarm, as they spread faster, burn hotter and even explode, making them more dangerous and difficult to fight. It will only take one such fire experience to destroy our wild areas and cause damage to our homes and infrastructure. A CRD Rural Water Commission could partner with municipalities and Forestry to conduct controlled burns of forests to reduce the risk of fire hazard.

Chris Moss

I don’t usually stray into the political arena but something has been bothering me.
The Capital Regional District (CRD) has ten regional water commissions; all focused on the quality and quantity of water distributed by piped systems. In fact, when we asked about non-piped water (wells and stream licences), they didn’t seem to think that we are part of the CRD and we were referred to the “Front Desk” in Nanaimo for questions about BC wells.

It is not a stretch to say that people who depend on a domestic well or a stream licence are always
concerned about the viability of their water supply. Yet we have very little opportunity to make our
thoughts heard in the urban-centered thinking of the CRD. So far, requests to change attitudes about well water monitoring, or requirements for rainwater harvesting and grey water, are falling on mostly deaf ears.

So we wondered if there should be a CRD Rural Water Commission, made up of local residents, the JdF Director, and supported by professional staff from the CRD concerned with biology, eco-diversity, forestry, and fire readiness. The Rural Water Commission would research and report on the health of our watersheds and rivers; on wells and aquifers; on conservation of water and wetlands; on rural development and questions related to the water “readiness” of rural lands to planned development requests.

More and more the Juan de Fuca Electoral Area is feeling the effects of its own success at staying rural. Hundreds of visitors flock to our many scenic locations to escape the urban environment. Long weekends in the summer see a constant line of traffic speeding down highway 14. This land is rural but is also mostly privately owned and visitors sometimes ignore all signs and warnings in their effort to enjoy the wilderness experience. This includes B&B visitors from the city who do not understand that water is a limited resource.

A CRD Rural Water Commission could step in here and work with businesses to ensure proper use and conservation of water resources. It all comes down to water.

C. Moss

A Scientist Friend of mine told me a joke about two scientists, one pro fossil fuels and one anti fossil fuels, having an argument. After it was clear that neither side was going to change their mind the frustrated  pro fossil fuel scientist gave his last word statement “If God had wanted us to have unlimited power and not to use fossil fuel He would have put a giant fusion reactor in the sky!”   Hmmm….

Let’s talk about the Sun for a bit. It’s been beaming away for billions of years and should go on beaming away for about six billion more years.  It is doubtful that fossil fuels will last even another hundred years. The Sun is the reason we are not a frozen piece of rock floating in space. With such a constant factor in the development of the Earth it is not unusual that all life on Earth has grown and adapted to the cycles of the Sun. 

In the relative calm and stable environment of the last ten thousand years all plants and animals have aligned their life cycles to the current conditions on Earth – all but humans of course. While nature can change and adapt slowly to changes in climate over the course of hundreds or thousands of years, the human-caused climate changes over the past two hundred years have started a cascade of “tipping points” that may end life on Earth as we know it. 

The “Water Cycle” we all learned about in school is changing.  Warmer air means more moisture absorbed and more rainfall falling. More warmth means more evaporation taken up into the atmosphere and more drying and drought on land.  More drying means more forest fires. More warm air means we have passed the tipping point for melting of the icecaps.  That, by itself, may take two hundred years, but the consequences of all of that fresh meltwater entering the oceans will change the salt content of the oceans and not all organisms will be able to survive in the diluted waters of the future oceans.

Sea level rise could be up to fourteen meters, wiping out most of the major coastal areas around the world. The Sooke River bridge is seven meters above the current sea level. Even in the short term, say seventy-five years, sea level could rise up to one meter in height. Here in Sooke that means a king tide would submerge Whiffen Spit and flood highway 14 in Otter Point in low lying areas such as Gordon’s Beach and the manufactured home parks at the end of Kemp Lake Road.

We may have to abandon Whiffen Spit to its fate; however we should start thinking now about a work around highway to connect Sooke to Shirley that does not depend on Highway 14. 

It all comes down to water.

     C. Moss                                                                                                                           

Like all plants, Scotch Broom needs water to survive. However it can grow on very little water and it produces a vast amount of seeds as part of its survival strategy.  This past year (2024 and 2025) many have noticed in the Sooke area that broom is flourishing everywhere. It pushes out most native plants with its aggressive growth and the shade cover it produces leads to a dead zone underneath its canopy.  It is tough and resilient and full of compounds that burn easily making it a great forest fire hazard.  

Local groups have organized “broom pulls” for some time now in an effort to control the spread of this invasive plant.  These groups usually try to pull out the roots with the plant as a means of control; however this in itself can stimulate the dormant seeds in the ground to grow.  The dirt clinging to the roots also make it difficult to find commercial chipper/shredder companies to process the plants as the soil, sand and rocks on the roots damage the chipper machine blades.

There is a simple way to avoid this problem. Cut only the above ground plant in the Spring before it flowers and produces seeds. Then there is not a problem with shredding and composting broom.  It spreads from seeds, not underground roots, so “no seeds” means no growth.  Leaving the roots in the ground does mean that the broom will grow again from that root stock and it could become a renewable resource for composted soil. Turning broom into useable compost takes a lot of work piling and turning the compost and mixing in nutrients like horse manure with a tractor.  

A less work intensive method is simply burning the broom at high heat to reduce it to an inert level which can then be mixed with any soil and will not result in further broom growth.  The CRD has a mobile burning unit that can be towed and left in a community for this purpose and then moved to another community to incinerate broom cuttings.  Public pressure is needed on the CRD to make this unit available to more communities. Communities then need to rally residents to cut down broom in the spring and pile it for burning.

Back to the need for water and sun for broom growth.  If you drive along almost any road (Otter Point road is a great example) you will notice that broom is not growing everywhere.  It is growing in areas with exposure to sunlight.  You will see broom on the sunlit side of the road and not in the shaded side of the road.  In our determined rush to clear the land for development we have created the perfect conditions for broom growth – full sunshine.  If we allow the native trees to grow, the shade created by their canopy cover will inhibit or stop the growth of broom.  No broom pull or cutting needed to restore the native growth to the forest.  Where I live there is an old gravel pit choked with ten foot  tall broom, yet thirty meters away, under the shade of native vegetation (trees, salal, ferns, wild berries etc. we do not have broom growing and never have had during the ten years we have lived on this site.

The Rain Gauge #24                                                                                                                        Chris Moss

We recently went on the CRD tour of the Sooke Lake Reservoir. It was the first of the season and the weather was perfect.  The story of the water supply is quite remarkable.  We were told that when the first European settlers came to look for a town site, they chose what is now the Victoria area as it seemed to have a variety of flora and fauna, good farm land, and a good harbour. What they didn’t realize at the time was the swings in local climate that gave them a wet winter and a very dry summer.

As the town grew the lack of water grew as well and the new town had to find a source of water or else move the town.  Elk Lake and Beaver Lake were the closest water supply, but they were not able to keep up with the growing city of 50,000 people and by 1914 another “final” supply had to be found.

In 1915 the Sooke Lake Water System was constructed, and a supply of fresh water was piped down beside the Sooke River and then into Victoria.  In 1970 the first reservoir expansion was built, decommissioning the original water main to Victoria and installing the Kapoor tunnel.  Remaining pipes were retained to service the town of Sooke.  

In 1975 the distribution system was expanded to the Saanich Peninsula which until that time depended mainly on groundwater wells.  Since 1975 the underground aquifer has been allowed to restore itself and is at a higher level now that well use has declined. The last reservoir expansion occurred in 2003 with a new dam and spillway which nearly doubled the size of the water reserve.

While all this information is interesting and while the Greater Victoria Drinking Water Supply System is the envy of the nation, it still has one fatal flaw.  It, like every other water system, is based on atmospheric precipitation for replenishment. Around here that means almost exclusively rainfall as climate change has all but eliminated the traditional snow pack. 

The Sooke Lake reservoir took a month longer than usual to fill up in 2025 following a drought through the winter.  Rain stats from the CRD Water Watch website show amounts and percentages of rainfall as – Jan 13% of normal; Feb 66% of normal; March 161% of normal; April 42% of normal.   This is happening to the ground water aquifers as well – each year starting a little bit lower that the previous year.  

Without the “atmospheric river” that came through in March the reservoir may not have filled up enough to meet this summer’s increase in usage, and we might have faced severe summer water restrictions for the CRD system.   

Water education and subsequent conservation has largely cut down on the water we use, but we still use far more per person per day than most countries in the world.  Our population has now caught up to the amount of available water. Conservation alone will not reduce the amount we continue to use. 

The CRD is prepared to drain the Leech River to provide water for its system.  Not only will this affect the downstream aquifers and rivers (Sooke River), but the new watershed will deliver more suspended solids to the water, so CRD is preparing a massive filtration plant project.

However, if the rains don’t come down it doesn’t really matter if the Leech River is used. Lower water levels and increased evaporation will certainly mean water restrictions to cut consumption. If we do not cut our consumption, then we may find ourselves in the same water shortage predicament as Victoria did in the early 1900’s with no water available to meet our needs.  

As you’ll remember from last issue,  porosity is the total volume of space that can store water in a substance like soil or rock. Permeability is the rate at which water moves through the soil or rock.

Have you noticed how long is spent dumping and grading vast amounts of gravel in road or building construction? Now you know why. Gravel has low porosity and high permeability, so it drains water away from building walls faster than other materials. Outside, underground drains and weeping drains are required to be set into a bed of gravel to ensure proper drainage.

We know that when the water table rises even gravel can become saturated with water if it has no way to drain out. So you will frequently see drainage ports on the sides of roads to do just that.  If a stream crosses the road, it is redirected into a culvert under the road to separate the water from the road bed. 

If the water cannot escape and the ground becomes saturated, there is significant risk of underground collapse.  The gravel roadbed can suddenly wash away from under the paved surface and leave it hanging in mid-air. 

Our changing rainfall patterns, due in part to global climate change, challenge current  roadway construction methods.  Culverts that met codes years ago may no longer be sufficient to drain through the sudden large downpours of rain that we are seeing more frequently.  When the drain becomes overwhelmed with runoff and cannot separate the water from the roadbed the water will back up and saturate the ground on either side of the culvert.  Sometimes you will see a culvert where the surrounding gravel has been washed away; once this happens the culvert piping is in danger of collapse.

Once the water has filled all the space in the gravel road bed, you have perfect case for a slide of rock and gravel from underneath the paved road, washing out on the downstream side. Radio reports after a heavy rain support this when they talk about the number of slides and washouts on a highway route.  Road builders are trying to decrease this event.

Larger culverts are expensive and not the only way to handle this type of event.

We know from our other discussions that an open stream bed can expand the volume of water it carries much more than an enclosed pipe. We know that gravel or similar substrate with a high permeability will effectively drain away water. Therefore an open stream bed can drain away water much faster than a culvert when a ”gulley washer” incident occurs.  Next time you drive on Highway 14 take look at the sidings of the newest roadways.   On the side of the road look for open “stream beds” of large rocks and gravel being utilised to keep water from pooling up and saturating the road bed.  The high permeability of these gravel stream beds will keep the water away from the road.

By Lynn Moss

We woke up silly early on June 5 due to being on slug patrol and were delighted to find the deck rails and grass were very damp and that there was a heavy fog in the air which stayed in the Strait all day. People complain about fog in summer or tease people living in the “fog zone” but it helps keep things cool.

It is only thanks to the moisture in the sea air and greater rainfall here than in northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan that we are not being driven by wildfires from our homes, our  communities, our occupations and our ancestral lands.  All across the northern hemisphere is a natural ring known as the boreal forest. During the massive wildfire that took out Fort McMurray it was predicted that it would only be stopped by Hudson Bay. People were wrong in 2016, but fire is back, now destroying the same wilderness.

During the heat dome of 2021 Tofino suffered extreme shortages of rain, and then again in 2023 nearly ran out of water.  Mayor Dan Law opened a town meeting by acknowledging and thanking the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation and protesters who defied court injunctions in the 1980s and stopped old-growth logging on foggy Meares Island, where four creeks fill reservoirs and feed a sea-floor pipeline that supplies Tofino with water.

Water is a major basic need for a safe and good life everywhere and for all beings. Let’s not take it for granted. Short showers and not leaving the tap running are good habits for most people nowadays, but we also need to use water in ways we haven’t before.  Anyone old enough to be retired may remember all the bugs smashed onto the windshields on family drives when we were kids. Not anymore.

Many pollinator insects are much diminished, and they need our support. In summer, we need to put out shallow pale crockery saucers of water – not metal, as it gets too hot and only very shallow water because, unlike wasps, bees cannot swim and will exhaust themselves before they drown.  Yes, such dishes are also helpful on decks and balconies, not just in gardens. But pollinators don’t just need water—they need nectar too.

Garden plants may not appear to need watering but if we do not give them some water their flowers will be too dry for nectar production. The bees will bump each little flower without pausing, going to all the little flowers in hope. This is a perfect use for the water saved from warming up the shower water or for the rinse water from dishes. 

How can we not feel responsible for all the varieties of life with which we share this wonderful place to live?

The way water moves through the ground is the topic of this article, including an investigation the meaning of “porosity” and “permeability”.

To try to explain these terms I turn to the old and trusted “Landscape Processes, An Introduction to Geomorphology” by Darrel and Valerie Weyman (1977).

Remember the water cycle? – water evaporates and goes up, condenses, and comes down. What it lands on when it comes down is vital to a watershed. If rain lands on vegetation, it will be intercepted and some of it will then evaporate back to the atmosphere. Some rain, however, will drip down into the vegetation and some will trickle down further to the surface of the soil.

Soils vary greatly; leaves, roots, humus, gravel, sand, clay, rock. Within these soils are empty spaces which the rainwater will occupy. This process is called “infiltration” and the rate of infiltration is determined by the size and shape of the spaces and the amount of water already in those spaces.

So here is your first definition – The total volume of air spaces in a soil is called “porosity”. Soil porosity increases as the average size of particles in the soil decrease. This occurs because smaller particles pack themselves together to create a larger number of spaces for water to occupy.

One way to understand this idea is to fill a funnel with small gravel and pour 10 ml (tablespoon) of water through it and into a cup. Virtually all of the water will stream through the gravel. Then replace the gravel with sand and again pour the same amount of water through the funnel.

The water you poured onto the sand might not even make it through to the cup. It has been stopped by the much higher porosity of the sand. It filled up the empty air spaces created by the much smaller particles and different packing patterns between the grains, and there it is retained.

The rate at which water moves through the air spaces in the soil is called the “permeability” of the soil and depends less on the total amount of porosity than on the size of the individual air spaces.

Permeability increases as the porosity decreases. Because water moves quickly through large air spaces, the gravel in our experiment shows high permeability, but low porosity (little water is retained in the gravel). Conversely, the sand (many small spaces) did not let water drain through as quickly, so it has a lower level of permeability and it’s retention of the water shows it has high porosity.

Our water is pulled by gravity through the soil and deeper and deeper into the ground. As the weight of the overlying ground compacts the soils under it, they become less permeable to the water. Water may be deflected horizontally and start an “interflow” along the top of this non-permeable layer of ground. Water may also stop at this non-permeable layer and completely fill up all the spaces above it. As more water is pulled down the level of the filled spaces will push upward. Now the ground has become “saturated” with water filling all available space. The part of the rock which has become saturated is now called the “ground-water zone” and the upper surface of the ground-water zone is called the water table. Above the water table the rock is unsaturated and water can still percolate through until it reaches the saturated rock.

Drilling a well means that you must drill until you have entered the saturated rock below the water table. It is important to know what type of aquifer you are drilling into for your well. A gravel aquifer on top of a less permeable layer will fill up with rainwater quickly and provide a lot of water, however, as you now know gravel is highly permeable and that captured water can rapidly drain away from your well. It will all depend at what depth your water table is situated and on the stability of that level over time.

Chris Moss

We have always marvelled at the return of the Pacific Salmon to the rivers on Vancouver Island.  Both Indigenous and Settler communities have made use of this great natural resource.  It is one of the biggest annual migrations on the planet and it occurs all up and down the west coast of North America.

Often we hear of the Salmon in the Sooke basin waiting for the right amount of fresh water and temperature to begin the journey up the Sooke River to spawn. Is it my imagination that the fish have had to wait longer and longer for the right conditions to occur?  Is there something else happening due to Climate Change that is changing their behavior?

 I listened to a webinar recently from the UVIC research group POLIS (A Greek word meaning Community) One of the researchers gave a detailed review of his ongoing Doctoral work on the health of BC salmon stocks based on the availability of water resources in the province.

Salmon like cold water, for example. In one study he found that in a lake with two water sources, watershed runoff on one side and glacial run off on the other, fish would choose the cooler side of the lake.  Which is fine except we are losing all of our glaciers due to a warming climate and the reduction in cool clean water will affect the health of the fish stock.  In general, he found that salmon migrations and river returns are moving northward up the BC coast. 

The last set of data that the scientist from UVIC presented was on stream flows on Southern Vancouver Island to the year 2100.  He extrapolated his data to four endpoints based on the estimated increase in global temperature from 1.5 degrees Celsius to about 4.5 degrees Celsius.  He noted that the most recent data collected was showing that we were already moving toward the most extreme end of the model.  By the year 2100 he said it was most likely that all the streams on Southern Vancouver Island will be dry for the summer period.  This would make it impossible for the fry salmon and riparian life dependent on the stream to survive.  It would require waiting until late early November for the rivers to receive the Winter rainfall enough to enable spawning to take place.  Salmon will have to adapt to the new cycle, and if they cannot, salmon stocks will likely collapse. Already the CRD provides the Sooke River with additional water to aid the salmon to return. We don’t know if that will be enough in the future to maintain the spawn and bring the salmon up river.

The boom and bust rainfall cycle we have seen in the past few years are now expected to continue and intensify as climate change runs out of control.  Rain, perhaps more than average amounts, in the Winter followed by longer dry periods in the Summer.  Eventually we may have only two seasons, Wet and Dry.

The shock of this information is greater when we realize that a 1.5 degrees Celsius rise by 2100 will result in dry creeks and streams and what rivers are left will have drastically reduced water flow.  At the most extreme level of temperature rise he estimated that these conditions will occur by 2075 or earlier.  The child born this year will only be 50 years old when this future becomes a reality.