This article was originally published in BC Outdoors magazine in Fall 2025 and reflects work completed by the early 2025 field season. Restoration and monitoring efforts are ongoing, with additional work planned in the years ahead.

“It’s time we start listening to what nature is trying to tell us.” 
—Neil Fletcher, Director of Conservation Stewardship, BCWF 

When it comes to restoring nature, there’s no quick fix; nature just doesn’t work that way. Process-based restoration lets nature take the lead, allowing water, vegetation, and wildlife to recover in their own way, at their own pace. 

This nature-led approach works with the rhythms of ecosystems, giving degraded habitats the nudge they need to begin healing, allowing natural complexity to return, and balance to gradually reestablish itself.  

“Far too often, we’ve tried to fix nature with engineered solutions that constrain and confine,” shared Fletcher. “But forests, streams, and wetlands are dynamic systems. Floods and fires can be natural phenomena. Streams need space to move across their floodplains, yet we’ve channelized them into single corridors and disconnected them from their historic flow paths.” 

The Yaqan Nukiy Wetland Renaturalization Project led by the Ktunaxa Nation (Lower Kootenay Band) is a perfect example. Spanning 517 hectares, this long-term initiative is focused on reconnecting historic floodplains and restoring natural water flow. The whole idea is to give the land the time and space it needs to recover. 

“Nature knows how to sustain itself better than humans can,” said Norm Allard, Community Planner and project lead for the Yaqan Nukiy wetland project. “This project aims to restore conditions where nature can take over. We’re helping, but nature already knows what it’s doing.” 

As of late 2024, the Lower Kootenay Band and its partners had excavated 243 new wetlands across 87 hectares and reconnected another 105 hectares of historic wetland basins.

While large-scale efforts like Yaqan Nukiy sometimes require excavation, not all restoration projects do. In rural or relatively intact wetlands, a lighter touch can be effective. These low-tech, cost-effective methods are gaining traction in restoration efforts across B.C., often employing hand-built structures. 

Using simple tools like shovels, post-pounders, and natural materials such as logs, branches, and mud, the B.C. Wildlife Federation’s 10,000 Wetlands project is bringing streams and wetlands back to life. 

Two of the most common low-tech approaches are inspired by nature itself. Beaver Dam Analogues (BDAs) mimic beaver activity to rehydrate landscapes and trap sediment. Post-Assisted Log Structures (PALS) function like natural log jams, slowing streamflow, forming pools, and improving fish habitat. Both techniques help slow water, spread it across the land, raise the water table, and create conditions for wetlands to return naturally. 

In 2024, the BCWF’s Watershed Team and its partners constructed 71 BDAs across seven sites, returning water to landscapes long deprived of natural flow. 

“So many of our streams and wetlands are unhealthy and unable to support fish, wildlife, and the many ecological services we rely on,” said Fletcher. “With limited resources, British Columbians need cost-effective, practical solutions. Hand-built structures offer a low-cost alternative and ensure a light footprint on the landscape.” 

In 2025, dam and log structures are being installed at up to 10 new sites. Where conditions allow, reintroducing beavers is part of the long-term vision. Elsewhere, the structures alone are already setting recovery in motion. 

“The work our team is doing aims to give streams a chance to reconnect with their floodplains, creating complexity, side channels, pools, fish cover, fire resilience, groundwater recharge—the list goes on,” said Fletcher. 

In pace with nature, process-based restoration doesn’t provide instant results. It requires patience, monitoring, and a willingness to trust natural processes. The wait is worthwhile.  

This has proven to be a promising approach to repairing the relationship between land and water using the systems that have historically sustained them. 

This story, by Jamie Long (Conservation Stewardship Communications Coordinator), first appeared in the SEP/OCT 2025 issue of BC Outdoors Magazine in our member exclusive insert. Become a BCWF member today to get our news delivered directly to your mail box at bcwf.bc.ca/membership.