Agricultural Watercourse Maintenance Task Group

Objective

The Agriculture Watercourse Maintenance Task Group was established by the Partnership Committee on Agriculture and Environment to develop an agricultural watercourse maintenance policy for British Columbia that considers the needs of both the agriculture and fishery resources.

Members

Committee Chair

Guiding Principles

1. The regional and on-farm drainage infrastructure was constructed to allow farmers to remove excess water from their land and thereby enhance the viability of their farms. To continue to benefit from this infrastructure both regional and on-farm ditches must be maintained on a regular basis. Such maintenance may include; cleaning, vegetation removal, widening, pump and screen maintenance.
2. On-farm and regional constructed ditch systems discharge water into streams that have important fisheries values. Therefore, all ditch maintenance activities must be done in a manner that minimizes impact on fisheries resources.

Work Plan

1. Establish a process for maintaining agricultural ditches in British Columbia. The process and corresponding guidelines will form a basis for ditch maintenance conducted in the Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island from June 15th until September 30th. The guidelines and process will be reviewed and updated in the Fall of 2001.
2. The existing guidelines are for agricultural ditches only.
3. A similar process and guidelines are to be adapted to the rest of the province. The watercourse classification system used for the agriculture channel maintenance policy on agricultural lands is to be incorporated into the riparian directive under the Fish Protection Act.
4. Protocol agreements between municipalities and agencies for channel maintenance will be established.

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