Wednesday, December 10, 2025
The Shuswap Watershed Council has opened applications for its 2025–26 Water Quality Grant Program, offering up to $15,000 to support projects aimed at reducing nutrient pollution in the region’s lakes and rivers.
The program, launched in 2020, funds farms and other land stewards in the Shuswap watershed to implement sustainable agricultural and nutrient-management practices. The goal is to limit the amount of phosphorus and other nutrients that wash into local waterways, helping prevent algal blooms in Shuswap and Mara lakes.
“The Shuswap watershed is sensitive to large nutrient inputs,” said Erin Vieira, program manager for the council. “When the input of nutrients, phosphorus especially, to the lakes is large enough it can trigger an algal bloom. Salmon Arm Bay experienced large algal blooms in 2020 and 2022. We want to help farms keep the nutrients in their soil, not flowing into Shuswap and Mara Lakes.”
Algal blooms can affect drinking water and recreation, leading to beach closures and, in severe cases, producing toxins harmful to people, pets and livestock.
Eligible applicants include farms, hobby farms, Indigenous organizations, wineries, nurseries, stewardship groups and landowners within the watershed. Applicants must contribute at least half of their project costs, either in cash or in-kind, and successful recipients will receive funding in early 2026.
Since its launch, the program has awarded 23 grants worth more than $265,000 for projects such as riparian planting and restoration, riverbank stabilization, wetland restoration, livestock fencing, off-stream watering systems, manure and effluent storage improvements, cover cropping, irrigation and fertigation upgrades, and no-till practices.
Applications are open until Jan. 31, 2026. More information is available on the council’s website.
