The significance of SELE₭TEȽ (Goldstream River)

SELE₭TEȽ (Goldstream River) is a critical salmon-bearing stream that lies on the territory of the W̱SÁNEĆ First Nations, specifically Tseycum, W̱JOȽEȽP, SȾÁUTW̱, Pauquachin and Malahat First Nations. W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples have stewarded these places since time immemorial and their relationships with SELE₭TEȽ continue to this day through fishing, hunting and cultural practice.

Under the Douglas Treaties, the W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples are promised the protection of certain rights, including the right to hunt and fish as formerly. Settlers are obliged by the Douglas Treaties to uphold those rights, which means ensuring their actions do not infringe on the ability of the ecosystem to support salmon and other important cultural resources. These treaties have been breached by settlers in many cases across W̱SÁNEĆ territories, including at SELE₭TEȽ.

In the 1950s, the Greater Victoria Water Board forcibly “transferred” 700 acres of SELE₭TEȽ land to the provincial government to create Goldstream Provincial Park. SELE₭TEȽ has also experienced numerous environmental disasters, such as a diesel and gasoline spill in 2011 that resulted in 43,000 litres of gasoline and 700 litres of diesel entering the watershed and killing off thousands of salmon. In 2021, washouts during an atmospheric river also resulted in major damage to salmon spawning habitat.

Rising water temperatures due to climate change, toxins entering the environment from the highway like 6PPD-quinone, marine commercial overfishing and a lack of effective provincial and federal stewardship policies have led to intensifying pressures on wild salmon populations — infringing on the Douglas Treaty rights. Salmon play a key role in bringing nutrients from the ocean into the forest. Salmon, particularly Chinook, comprise an estimated 70 per cent of the annual nutritional needs for endangered southern resident killer whales, a species facing imminent risk of extinction due to starvation, toxic pollution and habitat destruction. Today, only 73 southern resident orcas remain. 

You can learn more about southern resident orcas here. 

The proposed highway expansion

In 2012, the provincial government decided the Malahat Highway needed safety upgrades. Several of the projects have already happened; however, not for the section of highway that runs right next to the Goldstream River and through Goldstream Provincial Park.  Despite the cultural and ecological significance of SELE₭TEȽ, the province’s proposed highway upgrade would have cleared over 700 trees (many of which are over 250 years old) from the west bank of the Goldstream River. The province’s $162 million plan was to widen the existing single lanes, add a concrete barrier instead of the current traffic pylons and create a hanging walkway over the river and right next to the highway. 

In February 2026, after years of weekly rallies led by W̱SÁNEĆ Elder ZȺWIZUT Carl Olsen, the project was removed from the provincial budget. The Ministry of Transportation and Transit said that this was to ensure more time to understand the environmental impacts of fixing the highway. While this is a short-term win, we want to ensure the province permanently prevents any Malahat projects that jeopardize the significant habitat in SELE₭TEȽ. There are so many more effective and innovative ways to make a highway safer than making its lanes wider and we will continue to put pressure on the provincial government to explore alternatives. 

You can join

W̱SÁNEĆ Elder ZȺWIZUT Carl Olsen gathers the SELE₭TEȽ (Goldstream) Protectors every Tuesday morning from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the day-use area as he has been doing since 2022. This is an opportunity to connect with community, share some donuts and build towards effective stewardship of the river. We ask that if you attend, you defer to ZȺWIZUT and the Goldstream Protectors and act with respect for people, the land and the ecosystem.