We are collaborating with First Nations and agricultural landholders to restore portions of private land adjacent to waterways within the Fraser Watershed.
As a decolonized approach to habitat restoration, Foodlands features collaboration with First Nations through the co-design of corridor sites, the integration of traditional knowledge and language, and the creation of local jobs.
Foodlands strives to be an ethical space of engagement by convening people who wouldn’t ordinarily meet. Bringing together agricultural landholders, First Nations rights and title holders, and other community stakeholders to develop a collective restoration vision, the Foodlands program addresses both environmental and cultural concerns, creating a space for cross-cultural learning, together, on the land and about the land.
The term Foodlands acknowledges a diversity of food harvesting systems, both from a western farming and traditional hunting and gathering perspective. Foodlands Corridors are created by restoring and connecting adjacent parcels of privately held land to form a natural corridor. A restored Foodlands Corridor supports a food system that is healthy, sustainable, just, and inclusive. The long-term goal of Foodlands is for fully restored corridors to be stewarded in perpetuity by local Nations, landholders, and other community members.
For hundreds of years, farming and other colonial land uses have caused degradation of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, subsequently impacting the communities that depend on the stɑl̓əw̓ for their food systems and livelihoods. Historically, Canada’s approach to conservation has been grounded in the colonial idea of preserving natural landscapes, often without the consent of those who have stewarded these lands for thousands of years and with little regard for their health and well-being.
Foodlands recenters local Indigenous knowledge, ecological values, and cultural practices, making them the heart of restoration and land stewardship work to connect, protect and restore the Fraser Watershed.
“stɑl̓əw̓” is the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ word for the Fraser River. hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ is the Downriver dialect of Halkomelem; one of many Indigenous languages spoken across the Fraser Watershed. Translations provided by Knowledge Keepers and language learners from Kwantlen and Katzie Nations.
We’ve translated learnings from the Foodlands Program’s restoration project along the sc̓e:ɬxʷəyəm (Salmon River)* Corridor into a free resource to support collaborative restoration efforts. Download the Foodlands Toolkit to use as an aid to guide your project. It includes:
Tips and suggestions.
Worksheets to help with project workflows, processes and planning.
UNDRIP articles.
Stories about our experiences restoring the sc̓e:ɬxʷəyəm Corridor.
Interested in learning more about Foodlands? Please fill in the following information and a member of the Foodlands team will be in touch!
Despite challenging conditions brought on by snow, ice, permits, and seasonal flooding, we recently completed effectiveness monitoring along the sc̓e:ɬxʷəy̓əm (Salmon River)* Foodlands Corridor! This monitoring happens twice a year—once at the end of winter and again in the summer—providing data to track how restored sites respond to seasonal shifts and ensuring we meet permit…
Mid-August to mid-October are busy months in the world of habitat restoration, and this year the Foodlands sc̓e:ɬxʷəy̓əm (Salmon River)* Corridor has been no exception. The Foodlands Corridor Restoration Program team took on two new ambitious projects to expand the corridor this fall: another bank stabilization project and a marsh connectivity project. “sc̓e:ɬxʷəy̓əm” is the…
In August 2021, Rivershed launched the Foodlands Corridor Restoration Program and began work on the first pilot restoration site along the sc̓e:ɬxʷəy̓əm (Salmon River)* in Langley, in the shared territory of the Kwantlen, Katzie, Semiahmoo and Matsqui Nations. Two years later, the transformative impact of Foodlands is evident. Seven parcels along the river have undergone…
This restoration work was supported by the Healthy Watersheds Initiative, a program funded by the Government of British Columbia and delivered by The Real Estate Foundation of BC in partnership with Watersheds BC.
This project was undertaken with the financial support of the Government of Canada through the federal Department of Environment and Climate Change. Ce projet a été réalisé avec l’appui financier du gouvernement du Canada agissant par l’entremise du ministère fédéral de l’Environnement et du Changement climatique.
Additional funding support provided by Dr. Bronner’s, Instafund and the Pacific Salmon Foundation Community Salmon Program.
Support Foodlands, donate today.
