North Vancouver/Fraser Valley : At the top of the Outdoor Recreation Council of BC’s 2026 Most Endangered Rivers List are two of Canada’s most renowned waterways. Tying for top spot are Vancouver Island’s Cowichan River and the Heart of the Fraser, a stretch of the Fraser River in the Lower Mainland between Mission and Hope. By publishing the list, the ORCBC is recognizing progress and seeking government action in 2026 to address lingering issues.
“These are both iconic waterways,” says Mark Angelo, ORCBC’s Rivers Advisor and founder of both BC and World Rivers Day. “The Fraser is one of the most productive rivers on the planet. The Cowichan is an important salmon stream, culturally significant to the Cowichan people, and a recreational asset for anglers and paddlers. All this is at risk. But on both rivers we are seeing glimmers of hope.”
For more than 30 years, the ORCBC has released BC Endangered Rivers Lists to raise awareness about clean water and free-flowing rivers. The ORCBC is a provincial organization that advocates for recreation access to land and water on behalf of more than 100 non-profit clubs and associations, representing more than 200,000 British Columbians. In addition to the Cowichan and Heart of the Fraser, this year’s list also identifies several “rivers of concern,” including the Elk River in the East Kootenays, the Kettle River in the Okanagan, the Stikine River in the North, and the Similkameen in the Okanagan. The crisis facing Thompson/Chilcotin river steelhead is also included.
“The list is not meant to be all-inclusive, but rather to highlight key issues and encourage action”, Angelo says. Since the list’s inception in 1993, it has helped focus efforts to protect the Tatshenshini River from development and address mine pollution in Howe Sound’s Britannia Creek, among many other examples. With the Cowichan and Heart of the Fraser at the top of this year’s list, Angelo hopes to encourage similar progress on key issues.
For the Heart of the Fraser, the concern is urbanization and development. These were the same issues that first elevated this section of the Fraser River to the top of the ORCBC Endangered Rivers List in 2022.
The Heart of the Fraser is one of the most important salmon and sturgeon spawning and rearing habitats in the province. But it also faces threats from urban encroachment, agricultural expansion and industrial development. All chip away at the remaining undeveloped land, which is essential for the river to function as a nursery to hundreds of millions of fish.
The good news is that there has been progress. In 2024, the Nature Conservancy of Canada purchased Carey Island, an important spawning area for white sturgeon and salmon near Chilliwack. In 2023, the BC Parks Foundation purchased a large riverfront farm near Agassiz with the intent of protecting and rewilding it. The Nature Trust of BC has preserved half of the Nicomen Slough, protecting habitat for fish and migrating waterfowl.
Angelo says the protection and restoration of these riparian habitats, which absorb water before releasing it in a more measured way, also complements the region’s broader flood-control efforts.
Groups like the Pacific Salmon Foundation and the Rivershed Society are working with Indigenous partners to identify important conservation priorities in the Heart of the Fraser. Consequently, the ORCBC is asking local and provincial governments to work in concert with these organizations to protect key habitats. This should include efforts to conserve the last un-dyked islands, protect undeveloped river shorelines, and rewild previously damaged land where possible.
“These conservation groups are working so hard,” says Angelo. “They are making a real difference. But we need the assistance of all levels of government to develop a real conservation plan that will preserve the Heart of the Fraser in a meaningful way”, he added.
Efforts to protect and better care for the Heart of the Fraser would also align with the provincial government’s commitments to biodiversity and reconciliation, he notes, by contributing to the United Nations Biodiversity Framework and Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCA).
