Section of Cowichan River takes new course after season of heavy rainfall on Vancouver Island

A section of the Cowichan River on Vancouver Island is on a new course after heavy rainfall earlier in the season altered its path.

Rain pummeled the island throughout much of January and February, leading to a state of emergency and evacuations in the Cowichan Valley Regional Districts due to severe flooding. 

At its peak, the river was flowing at a rate of  275 cubic metres per second — more than 60 times the rate during last summer's drought. 

"This year was the absolute exact situation that has been predicted," said Parker Jefferson, vice president of the Cowichan Lake and River Stewardship Society. 

"It's not going to rain here very much in the summertime but we're going to get most of our rain in these Pineapple Express events in the late fall and early winter."

The stretch of river near River Bottom Road West used to turn at an almost 90-degree angle, Jefferson said. When the river swelled with the extra water, it broke through to a new, more direct path in February.  

"The river was in maximum flood and it just went straight down that new course and basically dried up the old part," he told Gregor Craigie, host of CBC's On The Island.

The change in course shouldn't impact the salmon that live in the river, Jefferson said, because they will simply swim down the new path.  

"Yes, we did lose some good spawning grounds but those fish will just find somewhere else to spawn," he said. 

"We've got lots and lots of really good spawning habitat in the Cowichan River, so I don't expect it will have any kind of significant effect on the fish stocks."

A change in course of this magnitude on the river only happens every 30 to 50 years, Jefferson said.

"Part of what we do here is we have been studying climate change projections from the University of Victoria," he said. 

"This is what we can expect and this is going to be our new normal."