The Cowichan Lake Salmonid Enhancement Society (CLSES) has been chosen to receive a grant of $25,000 from Shell.
All told, Shell gave $1 million to environmental projects across the country as part of its FuellingChange Program.
"What a great day for our community to be awarded this grant, the community has really got behind the Beaver Creek Weir Project," said CLSES President Bob Crandall. "As I understand it we finished first in our category of more than 20 participants across Canada with almost 20,000 more votes than the second place finisher. I really want to thank everyone for their support."
The grant came as a result of an online voting competition at FuellingChange.com. Grants of $25,000, $50,000 and $100,000 were awarded.
"The great thing about FuellingChange is that it empowers environmental and not-for-profit organizations' efforts in realizing environmental initiatives, reaches out to Canadians and gets them involved in building a sustainable future," said Shell Canada's President Lorraine Mitchelmore. "FuellingChange is part of the process of being proactive and discovering what environmental projects our customers care about."
More than 13 million votes were cast by customers who voted to split the pot between 31 different projects.
The money headed to CLSES will help restore the Beaver Creek Dam. The dam is identified as being at a high risk of failure and needs to be brought to current standards.
Last year, the federal government has indicated that if the CLSES could raise the funds to make the necessary upgrades that they would leave the dam in place and retain the water licence.
To date the CLSES has raised more than $70,000 of which $20,000 has also come by way of a grant from the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans. The funds will be used to carry out the upgrades to the dam as well as maintenance to the Beaver Creek trail and Beaver Creek spawning areas.