Esquimalt Gorge Park Green Shores Demonstration Project - Autumn 2023
The Esquimalt Gorge Park Green Shores Demonstration Project has generated a lot of activity since it began in 2021, including community outreach and engagement events, technical committee meetings, capacity-building, and design workshops. The project has also secured additional funding from the Province of BC.
As of October 2023, the project design is finalized, and archeological permits are pending. Educational signage will be posted in the spring of 2024, and the project’s construction phase will launch in the summer of 2024 after a short hiatus required to protect fish populations, including their eggs, juveniles, and spawning adults, during the sensitive winter window.
About the project
The Esquimalt Gorge Park Green Shores Demonstration Project is a collaborative effort to restore and protect the Gorge Waterway, a crucial ecosystem in the heart of Victoria. The project will demonstrate how the Green Shores® framework of nature-based solutions for shorelines can help address the impacts of climate change, such as erosion and flooding while improving the health of local ecosystems.
The project involves removing anthropogenic (human-made) materials, regrading the wall-hardened shoreline of the estuary with sand, gravel of various sizes, and organic materials to create a more natural profile, and introducing native plantings to anchor the riparian and backshore zones. This will protect against some of the damaging effects of rising sea levels and increasingly powerful storms. Additionally, it will enhance salt marsh habitat, which provides food and breeding grounds important to fish, shorebirds, and other wildlife.
Further updates will be provided as the project progresses by the Stewardship Centre for BC, the Township of Esquimalt, the Capital Regional District, and the Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF).
