New Facility Helps
B.C.’s Endangered Salmon Population The ‘Salmon Support Team’ during a brood capture safety talk.
director of stock rebuilding programs at the SCWA. “At the same time, because of the landside situation at Big Bar, the Department of Fisheries and the Upper Fraser Fisheries Conservation Alliance came together in the interest of preserving and increasing the upper Fraser salmon stocks.” Together, the Upper Fraser Fisheries Conservation Alliance (UFFCA) and the Department of Fisheries topped up the grant to allow the Association to fully achieve their renovation goals and, in turn, increase their capacity. This meant completely gutting the incubation area and jackhammering out the concrete floor to make way for
I
n a year when many aspects of daily life have had to stop or be redirected, the Spruce City Wildlife Association (SCWA)
structure has been constructed to hold Association is to rebuild the salmon population while creating awareness. The SCWA was established in 1970 to
managed to keep on flowing. After
preserve and manage the area’s fish,
receiving a $240,000 grant from the
wildlife, park, and outdoor recreational
B.C. Salmon Restoration Innovation
resources through conservation,
Fund, the SWCA was able to spend
education, and community outreach.
2020 upgrading their hatchery located
The hatchery has been operating since
on the Nechako River in Prince
1986 and also houses the Nechako-
George.
Fraser Natural Resource Stewardship
Salmon stocks in the mid- and upperFraser River have been identified as threatened and endangered, respectively. It has been over a decade
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new equipment, and a new separate
Centre. It is the only hatchery facility north of Kamloops on the Fraser watershed where the threatened stocks run.
industrial-grade chillers and pumps. With the use of chillers, the hatchery tries to simulate the natural temperature of the river. The hatchery raises spring and summer Chinook which spawn at different times in different streams. Because these eggs are collected at varying times and areas, the temperatures must be adjusted for each stock. Maintaining the eggs at the hatchery is a delicate process, and with the new improvements, the SCWA is now able to mimic the temperatures required for each stock. “The new controls which have
since the area has seen a return of
“We wanted to create a more bio-
been installed will allow us to be
over 50 fish to the Endako or Chilako
secure facility and take advantage of
more precise in measuring both the
Rivers, whereas returns used to see
newer technologies that have been
temperature of the water and the
over one thousand fish. The goal of the
developed,” says Dustin Snyder,
amount of water in the pipes,” says
Resource Connector North 2021
