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Watershed Watch works throughout BC on a variety of issues related to salmon conservation. Our organization is totally immersed in attempts to reform the open net-cage salmon farming industry, and we have focused intensively on the Broughton Archipelago since lice epizootics were first reported in 2001. Lately we have helped launch lice monitoring programs as a member of the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform, helped organize workshops on closed containment technology, and studied lice infestation on juvenile Fraser River sockeye. Likewise Watershed Watch remains active throughout BC on the issue of poorly planned run-of-river hydro projects, and our concerns are regularly expressed in the mainstream media. And the Wild Salmon Policy (WSP) is always at the top of our agenda, everywhere we work, a point we intend to make at the September Cohen Commission meetings on the WSP.
 Yet we also recognize the value of protecting things in our own backyard. That means the Coquitlam River, where we have worked for years to improve the health of a river that frequently finds itself on the Outdoor Recreation Council's endangered rivers list. Much of what we accomplish is in partnership with the Kwikwetlem First Nation. We worked alongside Kwikwetlem throughout the 3-year water use planning process to gain significant increases in water for fish. We work as advisors for Kwikwetlem on an ambitious program which has recently seen the return of adult sockeye-after an absence of 100 years. The return of sockeye, albeit, only a handful of fish so far, is a special accomplishment that has thrilled both Kwikwetlem and the local community.
Currently we are helping on numerous restoration and research projects linked to Gateway highway expansion projects. Watershed Watch has reviewed numerous environmental assessments, and helped Kwikwetlem launch research on Eulachon and sturgeon designed to improve our understanding of these beleaguered fish, and how we might better protect them. We have also helped parlay substantial provincial mitigation funding into significant restoration of fish habitat on numerous local creeks, and promoted and witnessed a very major culvert replacement effort.
 Just recently we attended a meeting in which Metro Vancouver endorsed one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken in the Lower Mainland. The project aims to restore tidal function, groundwater inflow, and rearing habitat for juvenile salmon in a section of the Coquitlam River flowing through Colony Farm Regional Park. As grim as the news is for salmon these days, it's always nice to win a few. And our work with Kwikwetlem has strongly reinforced the notion that we have to think globally and act locally. Though "nimbyism" is often cast in a less-than-glowing light, we are convinced that wild salmon deserve our best efforts, everywhere.
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