The Department of Fisheries fish trap on the Fort Langley floodplain will be the place to be on April 22, at 10:00 a.m., to see adult steelhead.  The Salmon River Enhancement Society and DFO will be netting and transporting adult steelhead that have spawned and are unable to return to the Fraser.   This Steelhead Recovery and Rescue Program was started in 1998 when 29 adult steelhead (ranging from 3 to 10 pounds) were transported to the Fraser over a period of five weeks.  This year the steelhead will have DNA testing to determine if they are specific to the Salmon River or whether some of them migrate to the Salmon from other nearby rivers.  The fish trap is located across from the Belmont Golf Course at the junction of Glover Road and Rawlinson Crescent.

The program will also be in operation Saturday, May 8, at 10:00 a.m., and during the Salmon River Open House after the Fort Langley May Day parade on May 24.  If the run continues long enough, Saturday, June 5, at 10:00 a.m., will be the year's last opportunity to see the adult fish.Steelhead, unlike many other salmon species, are able to return to the ocean after spawning and may return to spawn again.  The adults enter the Salmon River in January and February and may stay in the system for a few weeks before spawning and attempting to return downstream.

Children learn first hand from Doug McFee about the importance of caring for the Salmon River

      Their return, unfortunately, tends to coincide with the high water in the Fraser which is the time  when the floodgates at the mouth of the Salmon River are closed to prevent rising water levels in the Fort Langley floodplain.  

      The new screw pump installed one year ago to pump the Salmon River flow up into the Fraser would theoretically allow an adult steelhead to escape unharmed but it is unlikely that the adults would enter the water intake due to the noise of the pump.   The DFO trap also prevents the steelhead from going downstream, offering an opportunity to net them at the trap and transport them to the Fraser. Prior to installation of the screw pump by Langley Township last spring, only a few of the adult steelhead would go downstream early enough to make it out of the river before the floodgates close.  Many of the juvenile steelhead (known as rainbow trout) would also have been killed as they leave the river in the spring.   The old impeller pumps were estimated to kill as many as 50% of the juvenile coho, cutthroat and rainbow.  With the installation of the screw pump, adult coho, cutthroat and rainbow returns this fall and winter should be improved, adding to the Salmon River's existing position as the most productive river in the Lower Mainland for coho and cutthroat