Qualla: Koksilah Ridge https://qualla.com/koksilah-ridge en-us © 2026 Bendyline Thu, 24 Sep 2026 03:34:29 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/c/0/x/v/koksilah-ridge-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Koksilah Ridge https://qualla.com/koksilah-ridge Koksilah Ridge: Introduction https://qualla.com/koksilah-ridge/ Photo credit Tony (talk), Public domain. In Quw'utsun tradition, the first man fell from the sky onto this ridge. Syalutsa came down on Hwsalu'utsum - the multi-summit rise that settlers later labelled Koksilah Ridge - and the creeks that spill off its flanks have carried that story downhill ever since. From the Saanich Peninsula, forty kilometres of water and farmland away, the ridge reads as a long plough blade laid against the western sky, gentle-sloped and unspectacular, easy to overlook. It is the kind of landform you stop seeing after a week of living beneath it. Which makes it strange to learn how much depends on it: three creeks, a salmon river, a century of logging, and an argument about water that British Columbia is still trying to settle.

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Image: Tony (talk) | Public domain

]]> Thu, 17 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/0/x/v/koksilah-ridge-wp/c0xv-koksilah-ridge-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Koksilah Ridge: Plough-Shaped on the Horizon https://qualla.com/koksilah-ridge/ Photo credit Tony (talk), Public domain. The summit stands about 892 metres above the sea it overlooks, which on Vancouver Island counts as middling. Height is not what makes the ridge visible. Position is. Koksilah Ridge sits just south of the Cowichan Valley with nothing substantial in front of it, so it fills the wes...

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Image: Tony (talk) | Public domain

]]> Thu, 17 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/0/x/v/koksilah-ridge-wp/c0xv-koksilah-ridge-plough-shaped-on-the-horizon.mp3 0:06 2 full Koksilah Ridge: Three Ages of Rock https://qualla.com/koksilah-ridge/ Photo credit Tony (talk), Public domain. Walk the ridge from north to south and you cross a great deal of time. The northern ground is Cretaceous sedimentary rock - shale, sandstone, conglomerate, the compressed leavings of ancient seafloors. Above that sits a pluton of Jurassic granodiorite, a body of coarse igneous ro...

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Image: Tony (talk) | Public domain

]]> Thu, 17 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/0/x/v/koksilah-ridge-wp/c0xv-koksilah-ridge-three-ages-of-rock.mp3 0:06 3 full Koksilah Ridge: The Grin https://qualla.com/koksilah-ridge/ Photo credit Tony (talk), Public domain. The forest is Coastal Western Hemlock, Douglas-fir and hemlock crowding the lower slopes, amabilis fir joining them above 700 metres where the climate turns moister. Very little of it is old. The timber industry has worked Koksilah Ridge for generations, and the native forest is ...

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Image: Tony (talk) | Public domain

]]> Thu, 17 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/0/x/v/koksilah-ridge-wp/c0xv-koksilah-ridge-the-grin.mp3 0:06 4 full Koksilah Ridge: Where the Water Starts https://qualla.com/koksilah-ridge/ Photo credit Tony (talk), Public domain. Wild Deer Creek, Kelvin Creek and Glenora Creek all begin on these slopes and feed the Koksilah River - Xwulqw'selu in Hul'q'umi'num - which runs down through the valley to the sea. In recent summers that river has nearly stopped. Flows drop to critical lows exactly when farms an...

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]]> Thu, 17 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/0/x/v/koksilah-ridge-wp/c0xv-koksilah-ridge-where-the-water-starts.mp3 0:06 5 full