There are some good things that have happened in the last few months.

1) Planting at Tall Timbers this spring.

2) The Salmon in the Valley program was very successful again this year. The program once again (in conjunction with TWU’s Science in the Valley) received a significant amount of NSERC funding. Liz Robertson’s position has been funded from this funding. Liz has done a terrific job with administering the field trip program along with Chris Hall and David Clements.

3) The TWU student (Ben) we helped fund this summer has been able to do more research on the river. Ben was also able to help us put out temperature sensors in the stream and some of the tributaries this August. If we see the temperature creeping up we will know that this part of the stream is suffering low flows during the end of the dry season. Thanks once again to Matt Foy for technical assistance and for joining us for the morning to help select the sites.

4) FLCA has recognized the importance of the Environmental All Candidates Meeting and wants to join SRES to host the event this fall.

5) Mountainview Conservatory has approached us about educational work perhaps involving a small hatchery on their property on Rawlison Crescent.

6) The Federal government is working on a recovery plan for the Salish Sucker. The Salmon River is one of the few streams that hosts the endangered Salish Sucker. A recovery program should eventually give us many more tools to help protect the river.

7) Some of the pressure has been taken off the floodplain as TOL negotiated a monetary settlement of sorts with the landowners earlier this year. The news here is mixed so we can discuss the downside at the meeting.

AND THE BOTTOM :LINE

Although the fish fence has been closed suggestions are that the Coho run last fall was very good and early suggestions are that we will have another good run this fall. So despite the problems the stream remains healthy.

Doug McFee