Plans for the largest estuary restoration project on Vancouver Island has been struck a blow by the Agricultural Land Commission.
The ALC has decided to reject a proposal from Ducks Unlimited Canada and the Nature Trust of BC to flood approximately 130 acres of farmland in Cowichan Bay as part of their project.
In order to accomplish that, the advocates proposed to remove an approximately 450-metre portion of the Dinsdale Dike, which is in the Agricultural Land Reserve.
But in its 40-page decision, the ALC's executive committee, which studied the proposal, concluded the properties in the 130-acre parcel, in their current state, are capable of agricultural use as evidenced by their ratings in the BC Land Inventory System, the previous agricultural production by local dairy farmers, and the current use of a portion of the properties by the applicants and their partners for an Indigenous plant nursery.
"The executive committee finds that inundation and salinization of the soil on the properties [if it was flooded would] narrow the range of crops that can be grown on the properties, and impacts the integrity of the ALR," the committee concluded.
The Nature Trust of BC and Ducks Unlimited Canada, who own the land, announced in 2023 that up to $3 million in funding from both senior levels of government and conservation organizations has been committed to restoring more than 70 hectares of marshlands along the Cowichan River estuary in Cowichan Bay.
At the time, the project's proponents said the project would see the removal of more than two kilometres of dikes at Dinsdale Farm and Koksilah Marsh, the creation of intertidal channels and salt-marsh habitat, the restoration of marine riparian and flood-fringe forests and the reconnection of areas that have been historically cut off from tidal influence.
Tom Reid, the west coast conservation land manager for the Nature Trust of BC, said at the time that the aim of the project was to enhance the estuary's resilience against rising sea levels.
"If we don't do something now, we'll likely lose 50 per cent of the marsh area by 2050 and 100 per cent by 2100," he said in 2023.
"It's a massive task but the money is now in place to do it."
However, farmers from the Cowichan Bay area took exception to the plan, stating the properties had been used as farmland for more than 100 years, and some of it is still currently being used by local dairy farmers to grow feed crops for livestock.
Reid couldn't be reached for comment.