THE GOLDSTREAM WATERSHED

For untold thousands of years, SELE₭TEȽ, the Goldstream River watershed, has been part of the ancestral homeland of the W̱SÁNEĆ. The land that is now called Goldstream Provincial Park is known by the W̱SÁNEĆ as SELE₭TEȽ, meaning the people downstream, and was a site of longhouses where the people gathered. This land was never surrendered and continues to be a culturally and spiritually significant place for the W̱SÁNEĆ to this day. The Goldstream watershed, an area of 5,759 hectares, is the secondary source of drinking water for the City of Victoria. Water drains from the hills east of the inlet into the river for 18.5 km. and empties into the Pacific Ocean at Finlayson Arm. The Goldstream watershed contains one of Southern Vancouver Island’s last stands of old growth forest.

A short drive from the city of Victoria, the river is renowned internationally for its spectacular fall salmon run. From October through December Chum, Coho, and Chinook salmon, as well as a small run of Steelhead trout, return to the exact spot where they hatched, to spawn, and die. It is the only large salmon river easily accessible to those in the city. Home to a rich, diverse and protected ecosystem, breathtaking hiking, and the lush beauty of dense forest, SELE₭TEȽ Goldstream is beloved by residents and visitors alike.

SELE₭TEȽ is also the location of a shared First Nations Reserve, the last remaining piece of land that belongs jointly to all five bands of W̱SÁNEĆ.  The site of one of W̱SÁNEĆ’s oldest fishing villages, to this day the  W̱SÁNEĆ continue to exercise their inherent rights at SELE₭TEȽ, including fishing, food gathering, holding ceremonial gatherings, and exercising stewardship responsibilities over the short and long term.
 

The SELE₭TEȽ Goldstream Protectors are proud to contribute to caring for this radiant place. 

The dipper is really unique because it is North America’s only aquatic songbird. It has the ability to ‘fly’ underwater when it is chasing it’s prey, which consist of macro invertebrates (essentially aquatic bugs), small fish, and salmon eggs.  The American Dipper and the salmon have a remarkable relationship, because studies have shown that if a Dipper has a diet of salmon, they are so nourished by the rich diet (supported by the gift of the salmon) that their own babies are bigger and healthier than their counterparts who don’t have that diet.  The Dipper can also then have multiple broods of chicks in a single year.  In return, the Dipper re-deposits the salmon nutrients through the forest, passing on the nitrogen rich elements from the salmon to the other parts of the forest.   This little  melodic bird was once known as the water thrush, and Ouzel - of which the noted naturalist and early conservationist John Muir wrote about so lovingly.