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E-newsletter April 2008
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As
Watershed Watch nears its 10th Anniversary, we continue to be very busy on a
number of salmon conservation fronts. Here are a few updates of our recent activities.
Your continued support makes this work
possible. Click here to
donate now and help protect wild salmon.
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Coquitlam
sockeye finally welcomed home
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Early in 2008, the Kwikwetlem Salmon
Restoration Program (KSRP) successfully concluded 4 years of
“feasibility” studies by inking an historic deal to restore Coquitlam River long-lost sockeye. After an
absence of 93 years, two sockeye, both females, returned to the river in
2007, the vanguard of experimental sockeye smolt releases. In March 2008,
members of the KSRP devised a First Nation-NGO-agency workplan to trap and
transport any returning sockeye past the dam and into Coquitlam Lake.
A 10-day smolt release through the dam is planned in May. Watershed Watch
has worked tirelessly with and on behalf of Kwikwetlem Nation to help
deliver some long-awaited good news. Kudos to the Bridge-Coastal
Restoration Program for funding the studies, and to the Vancouver
Foundation and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation for assisting Watershed
Watch.
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Water, water, everywhere?
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Watershed Watch has long promoted the
protection and conservation of water for salmon (see our Water
page), yet 2008 promises to be one of the “wettest” on record
for our organization with three major water-focused projects. The mix
of research and advocacy projects deal with climate change, groundwater,
and salmon. Watershed Watch is partnering on the
“deliverables” with academics, lawyers, NGOs, biologists, and
agencies, and has received gracious contributions from the Fraser Salmon
and Watersheds Program, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Walter and
Duncan Gordon Foundation, Province
of BC, Liber Ero
Foundation, Kingfisher Rod and Gun Club, Arc’Teryx, Islander and several
tribal organizations. We thank them all.
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Pitt River victory
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Last year, thanks to
support from the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation and the BC
Federation of Fly Fishers, Watershed Watch published technical and popular guides on how to understand
approvals, impacts, and sustainability of “run-of-river”
hydropower (see our Green Power
page). While Watershed Watch supports the development of truly
sustainable green power, it added its voice to the thousands protesting the
unwise diversion of 8 tributaries of the upper Pitt River.
While the project is not dead, the issue has never been more in the
consciousness of British Columbians who are saying, loud and clear, that
rivers possess values other than for private power interests. Watershed
Watch continues to work with numerous First Nations, academics and citizens
on this issue, thanks to support from the McLean Foundation, Luna Trust and
the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
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