About the Model

The Bowker Creek Watershed model was commissioned by the CRD – Bowker Creek Initiative (BCI) to demonstrate where rainwater in the urban watershed might go, from roofs of buildings, from hard surfaces and roads into storm drains – picking up, oil, grit and pollution, pesticide and herbicide runoff into Bowker Creek and to the Salish Sea at Oak Bay. We learn about what we put into the storm drain and try to keep pollution out of the creek.

We learn how to hold back rainwater with rain gardens, rain barrels, cisterns, stormwater management facilities to capture rainwater and slowly release it where it may be used to water gardens, parks, or simply allow it to percolate down into the soil through permeable surfaces. Holding back and slowing the rainwater will help to prevent flash flooding and erosion of the creek banks and creekside (riparian) habitat.

We learn about the Bowker Creek watershed and how we can live in cooperation with and be stewards of natural ecosystems in the city. We all benefit from a clean, healthy watershed.