An art & literature awareness & fundraising campaign to give everyone the opportunity to contribute to the preservation and restoration of the Courtenay River Estuary: an Online Silent Auction, Sponsorship Drive and Events culminating in an ART TOUR & AWARENESS FORUM.

Project Watershed thanks the Pacific Salmon Foundation and their supporters for contributing to our Eelgrass Restoration Pilot Project March 12 & 13 and our Day of the Estuary Forum on April 2nd.

February’s Featured Creative Writing Work

“Estuary”, by Ann Johnstone

Splendid hand, salt/sweet splayed
Countless fingers at low tide.
Life wiggles, flips, scuttles , soars,
Hiding, flaunting, sedge, silt, stone
Perfect proportion
All…..Sustained
How’s that for infrastructure?

We cut off your thumb to build a road.
It still pulsates on the other side
With shared stuff, memory, purpose.
We didn’t know better then.
That thumb – do we mutilate it more
Or consider future health?
Do we know better now?

Maybe if we conduct a hundred -year -study
We’ll see the whole body……
Source, river, estuary, us, source, river, estuary, us.

Submit your piece of Creative Writing to www.keepingitliving.ca.

Estuary Events:

Feb 22nd -PW Estuary Presentation at the Sierra Club AGM
Feb 28th – The last day for submissions of art and creative writing
March 4th – Estuary Art Opening Night at Zocalo’s
March 12th &13th – Eelgrass Restoration Pilot Project – Space limited
March 17th – Estuary Movie Night at North Island College

Eelgrass

Eelgrass is a flowering plant and not a seaweed or true grass. Its flowers are hidden behind a transparent leaf sheath and so are seldom seen. They release long filamentous pollen into the water which is spread by waves and currents. It reproduces both by germinating seeds and by spreading rhizomes. In the Northwest, most growth is by rhizomes. The long, dark green, narrow, ribbon shaped leaves are usually 8 – 20 inches long but can be up to 6 feet long. The depth of eelgrass growth is limited by incident light and water clarity. In the Northwest, the maximum depth is about 30 feet.

An eelgrass meadow is important. It is a nursery as it provides shelter and protection for many juvenile fish and shellfish of ecological, commercial and recreational importance. It softens the impact of waves and currents, stabilizes the shoreline and provides a calm space where organic matter and sediments are deposited. It provides a surface for small micro-algae to attach and it decomposes into detritus, an important part of the food web for the coastal marine ecosystem.

Interested in surveying and planting eelgrass? Join us March 12& 13th - info,,,keepingitliving.ca - (250)703-2871

Note: You can also view this article on the Keeping It Living website.