| Summary: | The Ministry of Transportation and Highways is upgrading and widening the existing bridge at Bush Creek, adjacent to and on Oyster Bay Indian Reserve #12 north of Ladysmith, British Columbia, as part of the Vancouver Island Highway Project. That has resulted in the loss of a small area of the creek's riparian habitat. The reserve land is held by the Chemainus First Nation and Bush Creek is to them a highly regarded resource for spiritual and cultural purposes, as productive habitat for species of salmon and trout, and as an area with wildlife and biodiversity value. This report presents the environmental restoration program developed to mitigate the loss of creek habitat by creating a series of deep, off-channel fish rearing ponds and using native, traditional use and medicinal plants of significance to the Chemainus First Nation to revegetate the fringes of the newly constructed fishponds. The approach taken for environmental restoration at Bush Creek is new for the Ministry, working outside of its more established approach to environmental mitigation work in highway construction. It is also new for the Ministry to be doing environmental restoration work in partnership with a First Nation on reserve land. Partnering with the Chemainus First Nation to explore the potential benefits of environmental restoration on a smaller scale for this highway project raises the fundamental question or whether this approach is a viable precedent for the Ministry to apply to similar opportunities with First Nations in the future.
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