Upgrading continues at Powell River Salmon Society

Powell River Salmon Society has been extremely busy, with major upgrades at the Lang Creek salmon facility, and an incredibly ambitious coho adipose fin clipping exercise.

Salmon society hatchery manager Shane Dobler said there has been strong community support for the society of late.

“We have a Powell River Community Forest project out at Lang Bay, with an addition to our building and a complete re-roofing,” said Dobler. “We have enlarged the parking lot and relocated plants to Brooks Secondary School. We’re also ecstatic about the clipping project at the mill hatchery, with 150 volunteers, and one in particular – Terry Peters – who organized the whole thing.”

Dobler said the parking lot revamp became necessary because of the increased traffic at the Lang Creek site. He said the project will allow for school buses to get into the parking lot. Prior to the project, buses that bring students to events such as the annual salmon expo were unloading by the highway.

As a result of the revamp, some plants that had been placed by passionate volunteers had to be relocated. Dobler said an enthusiastic group was found at Brooks Secondary School and the contractor donated his services to help relocate the plants in a safe and effective manner.

“It makes a significant amount of more room for us to facilitate volunteers who arrive on site before schools even show up,” said Dobler.

Dobler said he wanted to mention contractor Shaun Gloslee. A generous donation of $10,000 was made to the salmon society foundation to support the careful excavation and relocation of plants from the Lang Bay site, according to Dobler.

“This effort involved transporting the plants to Brooks with the assistance of volunteers,” said Dobler. “This donation also helped cover costs associated with trucking soil to Brooks, materials for constructing a parking lot and retaining wall, and necessary machine time for the reconfiguration of the property.

“Additionally, Pacific Salmon Foundation contributed $8,000 toward the plant relocation project and property reconfiguration project, further supporting the environmental and infrastructural goals of this initiative.”

Dobler said the salmon foundation contributes to the salmon society every year and the donations are important.

“We’re working with the same funds from the federal government as we received in 1982, so the work of the foundation is the engine to our car for the future,” said Dobler.

As for the building revamp at Alex Dobler Salmon Centre, the roof is being replaced, with a water membrane being placed before the new roof is put on. There is also a building extension so activities such as board meetings and fundraising activities can be facilitated. Money for the project came from Powell River Community Foundation.

As for the coho clipping project, Dobler said Peters put together a program with the goal of clipping up to 300,000 fish. Peters organized 150 people to participate in the three-week project.

“Terry has put in a tremendous number of hours to organize the project, and he is the only person to stand down there at the hatchery every single day, where other people are signing up for shifts,” said Dobler. “All day, he’s helping, training people who are showing up. He’s taken clipping to a whole new level, and in addition to the fish being clipped, the benefit to the salmon society is there are a bunch of new people participating in our activities.

“It’s helping grow our membership, will increase traffic to our Lang Bay facility, and only make our group stronger.”

The clipping of the adipose fins from the coho means anglers will be able to retain the hatchery fish. Coho caught with their adipose fins intact have to be returned to the ocean.

Peters said he has been a volunteer with the salmon society for years. He is newly retired and had questions about the coho clipping, offering to give a hand to the process. He said he had found out that only coho with the adipose fin clipped could be retained by anglers.

Last year, about 60,000 Lang Bay coho were clipped. Peters thought that number could be increased, so he approached Powell River Rod and Gun Club, which responded enthusiastically. The project just expanded from there. Peters said Fisheries and Oceans Canada was approached for support, and approaches were made to local media to encourage people to volunteer for the project.

“People believe in this society, like I very much do,” said Peters. “Friends started telling friends and it just snowballed from there. We’ve even got people from outside of the community volunteering.”

People can also support Powell River Salmon Society through the salmon preservation foundation. Dobler said donations go directly toward helping pay for operations.

“The fish we’ve clipped couldn’t have been clipped if we couldn’t feed them,” said Dobler. “Annually, we fundraise more than we are provided through our Fisheries and Oceans Canada agreement.”

Donors can get more information by going to salmonpreservation.org.

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