Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to be a witness.
The B.C. Wildlife Federation is British Columbia's leading conservation organization. We're also the largest and oldest conservation organization, with over 41,000 members and 100 clubs across the province.
As it relates to fish, watersheds and wetlands, our clubs and members put hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours and dollars into conducting wetland fish habitat restoration across the province and advocating legislative, regulatory and policy changes for a future that includes healthy watersheds and vibrant fish populations.
Over the past two years, in the world of fish, water and wetlands, the B.C. Wildlife Federation has delivered over 100 projects totalling over $5.5 million while partnering with over 49 first nations communities. Since 2021, we've delivered over 230 projects and over $10 million worth of on-the-ground restoration. Our partners include first nations, ENGOs, local communities, private landholders, the Government of Canada and the Province of B.C.
In British Columbia, spring freshet comes earlier and it's happening faster, which means floods, erosion, sedimentation and sometimes even landslides. In the summers we have watersheds with chronic low flows, rivers that are too hot to support native species and, of course, catastrophic wildfires. Wildfires only exacerbate future issues with sustainable watersheds in subsequent years and decades. To make the point, this summer the Province of British Columbia declared a state of emergency, as did a number of its communities across the province, for drought and wildfire. Nearly 80% of B.C.'s water basins were in level four or five drought. It's now November, and we still have communities affected by this summer's drought and at least two communities still in a state of local emergency as of yesterday. Two years ago at this exact same time, we were dealing with the atmospheric river, which was the most costly weather event in B.C.'s history.
As it relates to taking care of our watershed, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Today I'm going to touch on two topics: funding and regulation.
On funding, the environment, including water, is the first thing to get cut during an economic downturn and the last thing to receive a bump when the economy is strong. Our fish and watersheds operate on time scales of years, decades and centuries, not four-year cycles when—