Kus-kus-sum wins REFBC’s Freshwater Land Award
Kus-kus-sum team accepting award ~ Leanne Sexsmith
We are very excited to share that Kus-kus-sum, our partnership project with K’ómoks First Nation and the City of Courtenay, has been awarded the Real Estate Foundation of BC’s Land Award for the freshwater project category. There were twenty-one project finalists among five project categories, all projects that are leading the way in sustainable, equitable, and socially just land use and real estate.
Zeb Savoie of KFN, Caitlin Pierzchalski and Brodie Guy of Project Watershed, and Bob Wells of the City of Courtenay all attended REFBC’s Gala on June 13th to accept the award. Caitlin Pierzchalski thanked “all the contributors, elected officials and staff, both past and present from KFN, City of Courtenay and Project Watershed for believing this work and committing to making it possible.” She also offered a huge thank you to our volunteers and community members who have contributed to the project. This includes a team of over 250 volunteers, 586 students, and 3,100 individual donors who have supported Kus-kus-sum up to this point.
Zeb recognized the importance of the project to KFN, noting “Kus-kus-sum is much more than a modern ecological restoration project for the Nation – it’s also an important historic KFN settlement. The traditional village of Kus-kus-sum was across the river from the current restoration site, and dates back to at least 400 BC.”
Courtenay Mayor Bob Wells said the City was proud to support the project and work alongside K’ómoks First Nation and Project Watershed. “Ever since Kus-kus-sum was announced in 2017, there has been a groundswell of community support to restore these culturally significant and environmentally important lands. This award is a testament to the hard work and collaboration of our project partners, volunteers and donors. We send a huge thank you to everyone that has contributed so far.”
As of part of the award, Jesse Housty and K.C. Hall created individual art contributions, a poem and painting, to celebrate each of the winners. The awards were emceed by award-winning journalist Angela Sterrit Lu Algaxit Ts’im Xsblist.
We hope that the award will help garner financial and community support for the project which still has some remaining earthworks, soil removal and revegetation to complete before completion and removal of the wall. This is currently scheduled to take place in the winter of 2025/2026.