Roundtable-South Central Interior

Saturday, 26 February 2011 16:30 |

Written by Administrator |

Salmon Enhancement and Habitat Advisory Board

Roundtable Report Template


SEHAB Member Lee Hesketh Area Southern Community Advisor Fred Marshal Date Feb. 10 2011
Interior	Community Activity Areas	Issues or Successes	Actions Taken	Next Steps
Fish Hatcheries	Salmon Enhancement or Stock Assessment	2010 had large and historic salmon escapements for the Shuswap main tributaries. The Kingfisher Interpretive Center is struggling to maintain itself due to increased costs and reduced funding support	Escapement numbers are being digitized for uploading to Community Mapping Network Looking for new funding support possible from regional govt.
	Fisheries Management
Resource Restoration	Habitat Projects, Planned, In Progress, Completed, Needed	Fish Passage and Gravel Cleaning for Canoe Creek, Tappan Creek, and Salmon River being carried out by Salmon Arm Fish and Wildlife Club Habitat Restoration Projects also in development for the Spius Creek and Bessette Creek watersheds for spring 2011 through FRISP, DFO and EFP support with landowners.	Purchase of equipment to manage beaver activity and procuring of gravel cleaning services to remove excess sedimentation and restore preferred coho spawning habitat. Prescriptions, permitting, cost estimations and project implementation will be completed by spring 2011	Completion of work Completion of projects
	Habitat Conservation and Protection	DFO and partners trying to address issues on the confluence of Salmon River and Shuswap Lake	Funding applications made
Stewardship and Education	Government Activity Areas	Fred Lockwood has taking over Dennis Demontier’s position as CA. in Kamloops area. Fred’s roll as CA will be expanded to increase community engagement. Other duties will include managing: Stream to Sea Program: Community Economic Development contracts in the BCIS (Dunn Creek and the Deadman). Adams River Salute to the Sockeye Event - General Tourists 189,985, Tour Bus Visitors 25,000 and School Children 15,015 (of which approximately 8,000+ came through the interpretive program) Total Visitors 230,000 Lack of sufficient support for Stewardship Group Leadership succession planning. i.e Kingfisher Environmental Interpretive Society, Salmon River Roundtable FRISP has partnered with DFO to increase engagement with Agricultural Community through delivery of power-point presentations. This will be combined with the provision of technical support to watershed organizations.	Stream to Sea Program - 115 aquariums in about 100+ schools Active management of contracts. Active participation by DFO staff and volunteers led to another successful and memorable event. DFO upper management must recognize the need for continued grass roots financial support or face losing valuable community groups providing leadership. Working throughout interior with grass roots organizations spring 2011	Demand for maintenance and expansion of Stream to Sea program. Particularly in Okanagan & EBC and outlining Fraser WS Continued engagement with community by DFO in a positive manner. Increased budget for grass roots stewardship Putting thoughts into action through partnerships between resource agencies, volunteers and landowners.
	Your Group Activity	Silver Hills Ranch is hosting it’s fourth annual bio-diversity tour June 4 2011. FSWP will be hosting the 7^th annual stewardship conference in Lumby March 15, 16

Please provide details:

The Salmon Enhancement Program and community volunteers have done a commendable job in the past 10 years to strengthen and protect fisheries habitat throughout the interior of the province given the challenges of balancing diminishing budgets, and changing community priorities. That said, I see ground is being lost as Fisheries and Oceans Canada tries to manage more with less as they take on the management of the Aquiculture sector and see cuts to operating budgets of programs related to wild salmon protection and enhancement.

In one sense, it is ironic that the good news that major positive changes having occurred in the interior in regards to overall habitat protection especially around large private landholdings is impacting the stewardship movement in a negative manner. That and the fact that we did have such a large return of Sockeye to some of our tributaries this past year has given society and perhaps upper DFO management a false sense of security that everything is just fine now.

Today I believe the challenges of habitat loss are even more critical than before as we see a more formidable impacts created by population increases. The challenge of having a rancher change his management practices and restore a riverbank along a hayfield is pretty simple compared to addressing some sectors of society’s demands for housing development along our rivers and lakes foreshores. In other words restoring a riverbank is alot easier than stopping a housing development.

While I understand the need for strong fiscal management due to the economic challenges at this time, I will not accept that it is sound management by government or DFO to reduce or abandon the volunteer sector and the need for resource management because we have done such a good job in the past. In fact, now should be the time to re-invest and allow stewardship organizations to have a stronger voice if we are to see habitat values and resources protected.

I would use the example of a sound investment by DFO would be to restore funding or increase funding levels for the Kingfisher Interpretive Centre. While the funding from DFO in past has been critical in its development and day to day operations, the return on the investment from the local volunteer community and its influence on 100’s of children and their parents far exceeds the annual $10,000 invested by DFO. The reality is that volunteers get worn out when they move to having to spend most of their time and energy finding funding versus getting the work on the ground.

Sadly, the loss of a organization like the interpretive center would only negatively influence the local community not those in Ottawa. But DFO should remember, that there are no Salmon in Ottawa that need protection!