(Tzouhalem Road infill site, November 2025)
Federal government orders restoration of fish habitat impacted by unauthorized infill on Cowichan Tribes reserve
The Tzouhalem Creek site is next to Chase Woods Nature Preserve
Fisheries and Oceans Canada has ordered the restoration of fish habitat impacted by the “unauthorized partial infilling of Tzouhalem Creek” on the Cowichan Tribes reserve near Cowichan Bay.
In a statement to sixmountains.ca, DFO said it issued a “legally binding Corrective Measures Order” for the site after inspections by fishery officers and habitat protection biologists.
Restoration works required to be in compliance with the order are nearing completion, but “require dry conditions to safely remove the fill and stabilize the area without causing further harm.”
The seasonal work window for 2025 has closed. Work will resume in late spring next year as conditions allow.
DFO won't release a copy of the order or say who received it.
"This is an open file and therefore it would not be appropriate for the Department to provide further details at this time," DFO said Friday. "Fishery officers will continue to monitor until the Order is complied with."
sixmountains.ca has also asked Cowichan Tribes for comment.
sixmountains.ca first reported in August 2023 that DFO was investigating complaints related to the dumping of fill material at the Tzouhalem Road site.
Some of that material came from the Quw'utsun Valley Hospital site. Khowutzun Development Corporation, an arm of Cowichan Tribes, had been contracted to remove the fill.
(Drone video of infill site, March 2024)
At the time, Cowichan Tribes lands and self-government official Jenn George released a brief statement that read: “Lulumexun, Cowichan Tribes Lands Department, has issued a Certificate of Transport for the transport and placement of clean fill to Lots 309-3 and 311 (next to 1731 Tzouhalem Road). The Certificate is valid until July 25, 2025. Signage will be in place in the coming weeks.”
Provincial conservation officers also investigated early on and determined that “Cowichan Nation is managing this activity on Cowichan Nation Reserve Land. Conservation Officers have no further involvement in this activity.”
In June 2023, North Cowichan resident Roger Wiles brought the dumping of fill material to the attention of the Cowichan Watershed Board, saying he’d been trying for months without success to get answers on the project. In a letter, he referenced "a continuous train of dump trucks hauling fill and dumping...."
He added: "Over subsequent weeks my concern has grown because the dumping of this fill from an unknown source is encroaching into the complex wetlands associated with Tzouhalem Creek — a waterway which feeds into fish-bearing Cowichan estuary waters."
Lydia Hwitsum served as Cowichan Tribes chief and co-chair of the Cowichan Watershed Board at that time. She was replaced as chief and co-chair by Cindy Daniels in the March 2024 election.
The September 2023 minutes of the watershed board state: "Chief Hwitsum responded that she spoke with the Governance and Land Manager, Larry George. Cowichan Tribes Governance Dept went through a permitting process for moving that gravel.
"The proper process is being followed on the side of Cowichan Tribes."
(Material being removed from hospital construction site)
In March 2024, sixmountains.ca published a follow-up article saying DFO had launched a “formal investigation” into the dumping of fill material on the Cowichan Tribes reserve.
sixmountains.ca spoke with Daniels at a meeting of the watershed board in April 2024.
She said Cowichan Tribes had issued a cease-and-desist order to stop the dumping after the permitted amount of material had been exceeded.
The property in question is within reserve boundaries, but involves a “certificate of possession,” which Cowichan Tribes has described as “documentary evidence of a First Nation member's lawful possession of Reserve lands pursuant to the Indian Act.”
Owner of the certificate of possession is “entitled to the use of the land, and rights are transferrable by sale or bequeath,” according to the Tribes website.
Daniels said that the coming and going of dump trucks to the site had generated complaints from neighbours. “A lot of mud and rocks from the trucks going in and out. Plus the traffic.”
The Nature Conservancy of Canada owns the 40-hectare Chase Woods Nature Preserve next to the infill site.
Tzouhalem Creek is a separate issue from a long-standing unauthorized landfill on the Cowichan Tribes reserve on Indian Road. That site is near the Cowichan River just upstream of the Allenby Road Bridge.
In that case, the province has issued Cowichan Tribes member James Anthony Peter, a resident of 5544 Indian Road, a pollution prevention order to stop dumping waste.
The Ministry of Environment order signed October 3 also requires him to file a remediation plan by November 17.
The ministry Friday wouldn't say whether that deadline had been met.
“The file is with the Ministry's Integrated Environmental Enforcement Unit for investigation, and no further updates can be provided at this time,” spokesman David Karn said.
(Unauthorized Indian Road landfill)
Read more on the landfill: https://www.sixmountains.ca/article/6686bfe4-852c-47e6-94b0-e12dfcb38fe2
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— Larry Pynn, Nov. 21, 2025.