Clean water volunteer programs
You can help protect and clean Kelowna’s waterbodies through the Adopt-a-Stream and Yellow Fish Road programs.
The Adopt-a-Stream program gives organizations, families, individuals, clubs and community groups an opportunity to help keep Kelowna’s streams healthy. Groups can pledge to help our streams by:
- Picking up litter and debris
- Removing noxious weeds
Healthy streams, even very small ones, are an asset to our community. Streams and stream corridors provide 85 per cent of our wildlife species with habitat, plus valuable spawning and rearing areas for fish. They affect our drinking water and have a large influence on our recreational water quality.
For information on the program or to volunteer to adopt a stream, please contact the Parks office at 250-469-8503. If there are no streams available, you can ask to be placed on a wait list.
Participants will be required to sign a consent form:
- Organization adopt a portion of a stream for at least two years. The minimum requirements include picking up litter along the stream a minimum of once a year, but preferably twice.
- We supply kits that contain garbage bags, gloves and garbage pickers. Kits can be picked up from Park Services, 1359 KLO Rd.
- Once the first clean-up has been completed, we will install and maintain an Adopt-a-Stream sign, displaying the name of the active group volunteering in the area
Thank you to our 2024 participants!
- Anne McClymont Elementary
- Simpson Realtors
- Bridge Services - Ethel Rd
- Infusion Health KVH General Partnership
- Urban Systems
- Crobsy Organics
- Kelowna Sunrise Rotary
- Stantec
- BC Geocaching Association
- UBCO Earth & Environmental Science Course Union
- Kelowna Sunrise 4H Multiclub
- Tetra Tech
- Wild Church
- RONA Contract Sales
- WSP
- ECOSCAPE Environmental Consultants Ltd.
- Ecora
- ARC Programs
- Sustainability Course Union& Environmental Chemistry Course Union (UBCO)
- Aberdeen Middle School
- Green Step Solutions Inc. & Clients
- Simon and Buffy
- Manteo Resort Waterfront Hotel & Villas
- Bridge Services - Franklyn Rd
- COK Wastewater
- Pathways Abilities Society
- Schwarz Family
- Grime Busters
- CIMA+
- Grime Busters
- Okanagan Christian School
- Hexagon Purus Systems
- Kelowna Métis Association
- Friends of Woodhaven Nature Conservancy Society
- Mission Lions Club
- CONC
We have partnered with Trout Unlimited Canada to promote the Yellow Fish Road™ (YFR) program.
The Yellow Fish Road™ program is a hands-on environmental project for people to help decrease water pollution in their communities. Yellow Fish Road™ volunteers paint yellow fish symbols next to storm drains and distribute fish-shaped brochures to nearby households and businesses, reminding people that anything that enters the storm drain systems goes directly into the local waterbody.
In most cities, storm drains connect directly to the local waterbody, untreated. This untreated water is caused by non-point source pollutants entering the local water body from different sources such as waste, salt, soap, oil, fertilizer and pesticides that run off lawns, sidewalks and driveways.
These pollutants can have a negative impact on the aquatic ecosystem by harming fish and wildlife, while also reducing water quality for humans.
For more information on the program or to book a kit, please contact the Parks office at 250-469-8503.
Participants will be required to sign a consent form:
