The river flows into several lakes in south-east Saskatchewan, including: Assorted tributary coulees drain into the Qu'Appelle Valley at various junctures along its course, notably Echo Creek immediately upriver from Fort Qu'Appelle, and Last Oak Creek, north of Grenfell and Broadview, in the past the locus of an extremely successful aboriginal-managed ski resort.

The aboriginal people told the North West Company trader Daniel Harmon in 1804 that they often heard the voice of a human calling, "kâ-têpwêt?

The Qu'Appelle Valley is in Treaty 4 territory and is home to the Cree, Saulteaux, Dakota, and Nakota peoples who have inhabited the last 11,000 years.

[17] The Indian reserves located within the Qu'Appelle Valley include Piapot, Pasqua, Muscowpetung, Standing Buffalo, Cowessess, Kahkewistahaw, Sakimay, and Ochapowace.

The bigmouth buffalo, a fish species restricted only to the Qu'Appelle River watershed, is under federal protection as it is at risk of becoming extinct due to habitat loss.

Because of the short warm season and long, cold winters, vegetation routinely dies and decomposers do not have adequate time to breakdown all the material.

[33] 14,000 years ago the last ice age retreated, forming the Qu'Appelle Valley and leaving many glacial deposits and evidence in the soil.

"[7] In the Lower Qu'Appelle River Basin, shoreline properties result in water degradation because many disturb riparian areas and their septic infrastructure is aging and leaking.

[38] This non-potable water supply system is intended to service the needs of multiple industrial customers and meet the ever-growing demands of the Belle Plaine area, particularly with respect to potash mining operations.

These include: big bluestem, few flowered aster, low milkvetch, lesser navarretia, Kelsey's cryptanthe, the burrowing owl, the piping plover, and the northern leopard frog.

The PFRA was tasked with restoring drought and soil drift zones in the three prairie provinces and assisting in the protection of surface water supplies for household use, livestock and irrigation.

At first, Indian Affairs believed that the dam project would cause damage to the environment and estimated that a total of $8,050 should be paid to the Muscowpetung and Pasqua Bands.

[42] Some living Indigenous elders from the Pasqua First Nation recall the days when they would pack up and head to what is now Regina's exhibition grounds to sell roots, berries, herbs and crafts.

Deer, the most common big game which was targeted in the years after Treaty 4 and depletion of wild bison herds, provided food and leather.

Ducks (canvasbacks, blue bills, mallards and teals), geese, prairie chickens, partridges and pheasants were among the bird species that were hunted for food.

[42] Trapping for furs was also a profitable economic activity to the Indigenous people of the Qu'Appelle Valley corridor in the early part of the 20th century.

Locals would trap rabbit, beaver, mink, muskrat, coyote, gopher, weasel and skunk and when possible and legal, sell the furs to settlers.

[42] Before the days of treaties and reserve life First Nations people, including those in the Qu'Appelle Valley, constructed weirs at the narrow sections of rivers and streams in order to catch fish.

[42] Those fishing in the valley catch northern pike, walleye, whitefish, tullibee, burbot, yellow perch, carp, bigmouth buffalo, white sucker, and channel catfish.

[46] The valley is also home to the Fort Qu'Appelle Fish Culture Station near Echo Lake that produces 20 million walleye a year to be distributed around the province.

The first is the TransCanada Mainline system that runs from the border of Alberta and Saskatchewan, straight through to Manitoba, Ontario and part of Quebec.

Owned by Enbridge Pipelines Inc., this system is used to transport petroleum products as well as natural gas liquids from Western Canada across to Manitoba and down into the United States.

Excavation occurred in areas of the valley that affected aquifers and the Qu'Appelle River, as well as the addition of a steel tunnel to allow for traffic to travel over the spur.

[57] While the construction of the spur did promise to create greater economic opportunities in terms of marketing potash, there were major environmental impacts on this section of the Qu'Appelle Valley.

[57] CP Railway chose the shortest and most direct route to the Legacy Mine in order to limit the potential impacts on local watersheds and archeological sites, as well as the smallest amount of communities, residents and sensitive environmental areas.

[58] In the project application, CP Rail points to the fact that half of the corridor is already being used as intensive cropland, which means that the native terrain and ecosystems of that area have already been disturbed.

[58] The natural state of the valley has been altered significantly, and with this came the need for infrastructure implementation in order to accommodate drainage and crossings during the construction phase and into the future.

[58] This included concrete box culverts that were installed on the bottom of the river valley in order to allow excess floodwaters to continue to flow uninhibited.

[58] In order to ensure that existing cultural sites which have not been already disturbed by agriculture and other industry were not affected, a Heritage Resources Impact Assessment (HRIA) was conducted.

Peter Leavitt from the University of Regina states that this accumulation of metal toxins has occurred in the eggs of small aquatic invertebrates for 100 years.