RESILIENT COASTS FOR SALMON SPOTLIGHT COMMUNITIES
North Saanich
North Saanich is a municipality located on the northern end of the Saanich Peninsula, north of Victoria. The area features a mix of coastal landscapes, including sheltered bays, estuaries, and tidal flats, which support a diversity of fish and bird species. The municipality includes residential, agricultural, and parkland areas, and its coastline is used for recreation, conservation, and community activities.
For the purposes of the Resilient Coasts for Salmon initiative, the North Saanich study area covers 39 km of marine shoreline, with data derived from imagery collected up to 2025.
Central Saanich lies within the traditional territory of the W̱SÁNEĆ peoples, including the SȾÁUTW̱ (Tsawout), W̱JOȽEȽP (Tsartlip), BOḰEĆEN (Pauquachin), W̱SIKEM (Tseycum) and MÁLEXEȽ (Malahat) First Nations.
Key Findings
Shoreline Modifications
Man-made structures like seawalls and riprap, often built to protect shoreline infrastructure, can actually exacerbate erosion by redirecting wave energy to nearby areas. These modifications also remove key intertidal habitats and food sources essential for the growth and survival of juvenile salmon and forage fish. By stripping away the natural complexity of coastal ecosystems, shoreline modifications reduce their capacity to support biodiversity and adapt to rising sea levels.
Extent of Shoreline Modification
As of 2025, approximately 18.5 km of North Saanich’s shoreline has been modified, while 19.1km remains natural. This indicates that roughly 49.1% of the community’s shoreline is classified as modified – Figure 1.
Figure 1. Coastal modifications (shown in blue) with the extent of data collection outlined by red dashes.
Shoreline Modification Types
The most common modification types were seawalls/bulkheads (38.3%), riprap (25.3%), and marinas (15.7%) – see Figure 2.
Figure 2. The percentage of modified shoreline by modification type.
Materials used in Shoreline Modifications
The materials most commonly used for shoreline modification were concrete (27.5%), rock (27.3%), and unknown/undefined (21.6%) – see Table 1. The unknown/undefined category indicates that the recorder was not able to determine the material that was used, due to issues with image clarity or obstruction, or in cases when a mix of materials were used.
Table 1. The percentage of modifications, based on the type of material used in the modifications.
| Material | Percentage of Modifications |
| Concrete | 27.5 |
| Rock | 27.3 |
| Unknown/Undefined | 21.6 |
| Masonry | 17.5 |
| Wood/Cresote Wood | 5 |
| Metal | 1 |
Overwater Structures
Overwater structures, like docks and piers, cast heavy shade that degrades nearshore habitat. Juvenile salmon avoid these shaded areas, which alters their natural foraging and migration patterns by forcing them into deeper waters. There, they expend more energy and face greater predation risk. The reduced light also limits the growth of essential habitats like eelgrass and algae, along with the diverse communities they support.
Number of overwater structures total and by type
As of 2025, the total number of overwater structures in North Saanich is 84, consisting primarily of docks (67), marinas (7), and industrial overwater structures (5) – see Figure 3. There were 3 individual or groupings of creosote pilings in North Saanich.
Figure 3. The extent of overwater structures within North Saanich.
Log Accumulation
While logs are a natural part of coastal ecosystems, the escape of modified logs from log booms is leading to excessive accumulation. These logs can scour beaches, altering sediment composition and smothering nearshore vegetation. Unlike natural logs, modified logs are stripped of root balls and branches, making them unstable and prone to rolling across critical habitats that juvenile salmon and forage fish rely on for growth, food, and shelter.
For the results below, about 18.5% (7.3 km) of the shoreline was not digitized for log accumulation either due to lack of shoreline imagery or it being First Nation reserve land.
Extent of log accumulation
Of the total shoreline, 0.1% (21 m) was found to have an extreme (>89%) accumulation of logs, with another 4.1% (1,314 m) with high accumulations (50 to 89% coverage), and 18.4% (5’933 m) having moderate levels (20% to 49%) of the beach covered by logs – see Table 2. It should be noted that the moderate log accumulation category also represents a significant coverage of logs – whereby 20-49% log coverage on a given beach could negatively impact shoreline habitat.
Table 2. The length of shoreline (in percentage and metres) by category of log accumulation.
| Log Accumulation | Percentage of Shoreline | Metres |
| Extreme (>89%) | 0.1 | 21 |
| High (50 to 89%) | 3.5 | 1,314 |
| Moderate (20 to 49%) | 15.8 | 5,935 |
| Low/None (<20%) | 66.6 | 25,064 |
| Unknown | 14 | 5276 |
Log Mobility
In addition, 37% of the shoreline had only mobile logs present, 42.5% had both anchored and mobile logs present, and 0.1% had only anchored logs present. For the remaining 20% of the shoreline, the mobility of the logs was unknown or not defined.
To access and download the Resilient Coasts for Salmon layers for North Saanich, click here.