Urban Waters
Everywhere you go across Turtle Island there is a creek or a stream, even in cities. Streamkeepers in Metro Vancouver work hard to maintain and restore these vital waterways.
The Story
For thousands of years Indigenous people have used creeks and rivers to navigate across turtle island. They navigated these ancient waterways for food and would gather at certain points to partake in trade and ceremony together. But over time they were pushed out and many of these gathering places became the major cities.

As our society expanded, we filled in these waterways to make way for urban development. This practice has damaged many of mother earth's natural filtering systems leaving the few we have left have to deal with all the pollutants from everyday urban life. Often our urban waterways are taken for granted but they are not just part of the scenery. What may only be a small creek close to your house will eventually lead to a river, which leads to an estuary, which leads to the ocean.

The creeks and streams located in the lower mainland of British Columbia, Canada are important spawning grounds for Pacific Salmon. We will learn the role they played for the coastal First Nations and how the volunteer streamkeepers of Metro Vancouver are trying to bring awareness of these issues to the public while working to restore these ancient waterways so that Salmon and the other aquatic species can survive.

If we all clean up the streams found in our backyard, we can make a big difference and help restore the balance with nature that we lost.
The Location
