the

Cowichan River

From its rustic, rugged mountain beginnings at Cowichan Lake, the Cowichan River drops steadily through field and forest to the Strait of Georgia on the southeast coast of Vancouver Island. Favoured by the warmest temperatures in the land, rich stands of cedar and Douglas fir, and waters thick with trout and salmon, the Cowichan was the cradle of an ancient and prosperous First Nations civilization. Once a major logging conduit and a commercial fishing resource, the river is now an outdoor recreational haven and the backdrop of a flourishing agricultural community. Recognized as both a British Columbia Heritage River and a Canadian Heritage River, the Cowichan basks in its natural and cultural heritage as "Khowutzun", the land warmed by the sun.

History Bites Ecosystem Life in a 1930's Cowichan Logging Camp On the shores of Cowichan Lake, lumber camps such as Caycuse housed entire families. Owned and built by logging companies, many of the camps' buildings-the cook-house, bunkhouses, offices and company stores-were float houses moored along the shores of the lake. While younger pupils were taught at the camp, high school students travelled by taxi boat to Lake Cowichan. Despite the isolation of the camps, boat loads of logging families from other camps around the lake frequently arrived for dances, concerts and parties. Learn more in History A Taste of the Mediterranean in the Coastal Douglas Fir Zone From its headwaters in the Vancouver Island Mountains, the Cowichan River begins its run to the sea in a rain-drenched land of cedar, balsam and Western hemlock. But by the time the river nears the coast at its estuary, it has entered a more arid world of Douglas firs, broadleaf maples, and Pacific dogwood. Learn more in Ecosystem