Vancouver Island salmon projects get more than $400K from stamp program

Money collected from fishing licences will help a host of salmon-friendly projects around the Island this year.

The Pacific Salmon Foundation’s Community Salmon Program is funded through Salmon Conservation Stamps, which each angler must purchase with a fishing licence to retain saltwater-caught salmon.

One of the big projects being funded this year is work being done by the Mamalilikulla First Nation on the North Island, which is restoring salmon-supporting streams northeast of Port McNeill.

With the support of partners and Indigenous Guardians, this spring the nation will restore vegetation damaged by landslides, remove debris from waterways to allow fish to pass, and improve gravel beds in freshwater to improve salmon spawning conditions.

The program will provide nearly $800,000 to 65 projects this year. More than half, $415,890, will go to projects on Vancouver Island.

Vancouver Island Projects

• $4,800 — Little Qualicum River Estuary Interpretative Signage (BC Conservation Foundation)
• $7,545 — Mallard Creek Off-Channel Habitat Restoration (Comox Valley Project Watershed)
• $2,417 — Riparian Restoration Planting (Cowichan Lake Salmonid Enhancement Society)
• $2,500 — Water Quality Sampling (Cowichan Watershed Society)
• $16,708 — Community Stream Habitat Mapping (Fanny Bay Salmonid Enhancement Society)
• $25,798 — French Creek Community Park Riparian Habitat Conservation (Friends of French Creek Conservation Society)
• $5,500 — Salmonids in the Classroom (Goldstream Volunteer Salmonid Enhancement Association)
• $25,000 — Hatchery Backup Generator (Homalco First Nation)
• $2,500 — Hatchery Supplies (Homalco-Taggares Hatchery)
• $75,000 — Gwaxdlala/Nalaxdlala Indigenous Protected And Conserved Area Salmon Stream Restoration (Mamalilikulla First Nation)
• $57,420 — Piercy Tributary 1 South Bank Restoration Project (Millard Piercy Watershed Stewards)
• $1,118 — Stark Creek Riparian Restoration (Nanaimo and Area Land Trust)
• $30,000 — Spawning Gravel Augmentation (Nootka Sound Watershed Society)
• $8,000 — Reay Creek Habitat Assessment and Rehabilitation (Peninsula Streams Society)
• $1,614 — Stream of Dreams at Quw’utsun Smuneem Elementary (Quw’utsun Smuneem Elementary)
• $2,500 — Salish Sea Emerging Stewards (Raincoast Conservation Foundation)
• $39,580 — Barkley-Clayoquot Region Nearshore Marine Monitoring (Redd Fish Restoration Society)
• $88,000 — Hiłsyaqƛis (Tranquil) Floodplain Restoration (Redd Fish Restoration Society)
• $17,390 — Somenos Creek Migratory Passage Restoration (Somenos Marsh Wildlife Society)
• $2,500 — Stream Assessment and Monitoring Equipment (Sooke Salmon Enhancement Society)

Visit the Pacific Salmon Foundation’s website to see projects funded on the Lower Mainland and in the Interior.