1) Streamkeepers Annual General Meeting: The Annual General Meeting will take place on May 9 at St. Stephen’s Church starting at 7:30 p.m. Our guest speaker will be Phil Nuytten, the renowned inventor of the Newtsuit and principal of Nuytco Research Ltd. Phil Nuytten is a Canadian entrepreneur, deep-ocean explorer, scientist and inventor. He has pioneered designs related to diving equipment, and has worked with NASA for more than 25 years on applications related to undersea and space technologies.
2) Adopt-A-Fish: This year the event will be held on Saturday, April 20 with youngsters collecting an adoption certificate from the Memorial Library and then, from the Fisheries truck, receiving a coho smolt in a bucket which will then be released into McDonald Creek. This event is hosted by The Coho Society of the North Shore, West Vancouver Memorial Library and West Vancouver Streamkeepers. Last year approximately 300 children and their families participated in this wonderful experience. Coordinated by Liz Leduc, it runs from 10:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m.
3) Streamkeepers Seaside Social: This annual event will again be held at Hollyburn Sailing Club on Thursday, April 25 starting at 7:00 p.m. We look forward to seeing everyone at this festive event.
4) The Urban Salmon Project: The last meeting held on January 24 featured guest speaker Fernando Lessa, a career photographer. He has been building a collection of aquatic photographs of salmon in creeks and rivers around the Lower Mainland which have now been compiled in a book called Urban Salmon. For anyone interested, the book can be purchased online at ( https://www.urbansalmon.com/book ) at a cost of $33.50 plus delivery.
5) New Community Advisor: With the retirement of Rob Bell-Irving, a new Community Advisor was appointed for our area in early January. We welcome Michelle Bouchard who has had an extensive background working for Fisheries and Oceans Canada on both coasts.
6) Nelson Creek Hatchery: On December 10, we received 105,500 chum salmon eggs from the Alouette River Hatchery near Maple Ridge. The eggs were carefully tended by volunteers and were hatched by the end of December. Once the eggs sacs had been absorbed, the alevin are considered “buttoned-up” and were ponded in the third week of March. After a few weeks of feeding, these chum fry will be ready for release into four local creeks. On February 10, we received 30,000 eyed coho eggs from the Capilano River Hatchery which will follow the same process as the chum. Thanks to co-manager Leslie Shuparski and her husband Mark for the recent Hatchery upgrade requiring the replacement of the cover on trough #2 using polycarbonate sheeting. A similar change will be made to trough #1 in the near future. Co- manager Jan Moger and Leslie have received great support from two DFO Community Advisors and, of course, our team of seasoned volunteers.
7) Delegation to Council: In addition to the salmon surveys by Creek Monitors, students from the five secondary schools also conducted surveys on seven streams, each team led by a Streamkeeper Sponsor. At the Wrap-Up Celebration in December, Mayor Booth invited West Vancouver Secondary students Alice Kang and Chaereen Kim, and Secondary School Programs Coordinator John Barker, to present the results of the surveys to the community. On January 28, this group appeared before Council as a delegation and gave the presentation. Seventy-one students participated in this program last fall. 8) Invasive Plant Mapping: We will be assisting the District with invasive plant mapping in and around creeks. More information will follow as this program gets underway. Annie Faw will be the Streamkeepers’ Coordinator for this project. 9) Citizen Science: Led by Leslie Shuparski, our dedicated crew of volunteers were out in the rain and cold in January to collect data from the streams across West Vancouver. All the Water Quality Testing was reported as being acceptable for salmon. We will be doing some Aquatic Insect Surveys this summer and our regular water quality testing in August. We test for pH, dissolved oxygen levels, turbidity and temperature. Physically visiting the streams does provides the opportunity to observe changes in water levels, landscaping, pollution and other variables that we can comment on in regards to stream health. 10) Salmon Enhancement Projects: At the request of the District’s Environmental Manager, we are preparing a list of salmon enhancements projects undertaken over many years in West Vancouver. Approximately thirty-six completed projects have been identified. In addition to the names of the creeks and description of the work completed, the location of the projects will include the GPS coordinates. When completed, this list of enhancement projects will be posted on the Streamkeepers’ website. Keith Pelletier is coordinating this information gathering. 11) Creek Signs for Bridge Crossings: Small “StreamWatch” signs are being produced by the District and installed by Streamkeepers at bridge crossings over local creeks in public spaces. Each sign includes the District’s emergency telephone number which is intended to assist the public if issues of concern, in and around the creeks, are observed. Jan and Keith Moger are coordinating this program. 12) Streamkeeper Course: We are able to offer the introductory Streamkeeper course again this year, which will take place on July 13 and 14. Anyone interested in attending this two-day, hands-on, “beside the stream” course, should contact John Barker to reserve a place. 13) Whole Foods Market: The bag donation program came to an end on March 31. Thank-you to all members who assisted in this funding program by using personal bags instead of store- provided bags, then directing the donation by the store of 10 cents per bag to our Society. A notice will be forthcoming when we are advised of the sum of these donations. 14) Membership: The total membership to date for 2019 is 221. Recent renewal notices have been sent, encouraging past members to complete their 2019 application, either online or manually. Access to the application form is on the website under “Join Us”.
John Barker, President jrbarker@shaw.ca 604-922-5780
Comentarios