For the first time in the province’s history, B.C.’s environment minister ordered water licensees to stop drawing from the Nicola River.

Barry Penner said Sunday the order had to be made because one rancher had reduced his use, but hadn’t completely stopped.

“Water levels are low. The consequence of that is it poses a severe stress on fish that need to come up and spawn,” he said.

“Ultimately, we had to take this unusual step of taking this order, because of one rancher. He did voluntarily reduce, but is still drawing a significant amount of water.”

A low winter snowpack combined with a hot, dry summer have left the Nicola River flows at about 45 litres per second, Penner said. The order remains in effect until flows are up to 350 litres per second.

The one rancher in question has a licence to draw 70 litres per second and had cut down substantially, but was still taxing the river, Penner said.

Staff have told him the rancher is complying with the order.

“I signed the order Thursday, conservation officers delivered it Thursday afternoon. We’ve checked Friday and Saturday for compliance. I was told yesterday it looks like we have attained compliance,” he said.

“Already staff saw 200 kokanee moving into that stretch of the river. It looks like positive benefits were realized almost immediately. The fish had been congregating downstream, but they can’t wait very long or they perish before spawning. Time was of the essence.”

Other ranchers had stopped drawing river water voluntarily, even though there are some major cattle operations in the area, Penner said.

The one rancher in question did have a well, but the minister didn’t know if he was set up to use it for irrigation or other purposes.

Another river licensee and the Upper Nicola Indian Band did their part to aid the salmon effort by releasing some water from a reservoir they have upstream.

Penner said he was grateful for their contribution.

“Suffice to say, we had concerns and did not believe the population could withstand this kind of dire consequences if they don’t spawn,” he said.

“It was considered vitally important to get the kokanee to a place where they could spawn. The good news is, it looked like it worked.”

The province’s Fish Protection Act did not allow for ministerial orders to be issued in times of drought until last month. Penner said the hot, dry conditions could be seen as creating a problem for spawning salmon, so he went to cabinet to allow for water-use orders to be made.

Penner said his ministry and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans are watching closely to ensure compliance continues for the Nicola River.

“There’s been considerable concern about the kokanee on this river this summer,” he said.