home                   about                     resources                   what's new                 contact

by Denise August
Ha-Shilth-Sa Reporter
Jan. 27, 2005

Kennedy Lake - Clayoquot Sound's industry-scarred Kennedy Lake is on the road to recovery thanks to salmon habitat restoration projects, but the important work could have been curtailed due to lack of funding until the Pacific Salmon Commission bestowed a $122,000 grant to the Central Westcoast Forest Society.

Creeks once teeming with salmon and shaded by giant evergreen forests, were left in ruin. The forest clear-cut and the creeks choked with logging debris, spawning salmon either had no spawning ground to go to or died in the warm, unshaded water.

The Central Westcoast Forest Society, along with its partners including First Nations of the Cnbtral Region, has been working since 1994 to rehabilitate Kennedy Flats. Their efforts have paid off as the area slowly rebounds from the effects of over-fishing and poor logging practices; but the salmon habitat restoration project that helped heal the area was struggling to keep up the work as dollars became scarcer than salmon.

Warren Warttig of Interfor says watershed restoration planning began back in 1994 as various interest groups partnered and secured the necessary funding to begin the work. At that time the salmon returns for Kennedy flats were less than 10,000 adult salmon.

Each year the society and its partners write proposals in a desperate plight to secure enough funding to secure another year of the restoration work. Each year a few more kilometres of streams are cleared, slopes stabilized and roads deactivated. The benefits from all that labour are starting to show as the Tofino Stream Enhancement Society said they've never seen as good a year for salmon returns at the flats as the last when 40 - 50,000 adult salmon returned to spawn.

The last couple of years have been particularly difficult for the CWFS as funding sources dry up. Warttig says it was a $30,000 grant from Home Depot that helped the society survive last year but even that wasn't enough to save the Annual Return of the Salmon Festival, which was cancelled due to lack of funds.

In their press release dated September 19, 2003 and posted on the Central Westcoast Forest Society website, CWFS explains funding shortages:

"There have been significant government cutbacks in a variety of areas and salmon habitat restoration is no exception. The federal and provincial governments have dramatically cut back on programs directed at bringing our threatened wild salmon runs and their ecosystems back to the vibrant health of former days. The not-for-profit Central Westcoast Forest Society (CWFS) like many other organizations that work with communities to bring endangered wild salmon and rivers back to health depend on support from various sources; the government being key among them.

This past summer's watershed efforts saw a drop in funding of over 70%. This has forced the CWFS to restructure the organization and its priorities. The focus, more than ever, is on fundraising efforts for watershed restoration work."

This year Warttig is pleased to announce that the Pacific Salmon Commission awarded a grant to CWFS to continue the restoration work on Kennedy Flats for the upcoming season. Further, the Pacific Salmon Commission also awarded the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council $35,000 for restoration work in Kyuquot.

The Pacific Salmon Commission, says Warttig, is a joint Canadian/American fisheries resource management body. One of their goals is to seek out better monitoring and management methods for fisheries and they bestow grants to meet that end.

The Central Westcoast Forest Society has posted on their website a detailed report outlining the restoration efforts already completed and the work that remains to be done. The key to this effort is to acquire the necessary funding.

The Kennedy Flats watershed is 129.4 square kilometres. The restoration plan for the Kennedy Flats is a comprehensive, holistic, and coordinated plan to restore both the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. The Society describes its activities as "giving Mother Nature a boost; accelerating the nataural healing process."

Len Dziama, General Manager of Central Westcoast Forest Society says he is thankful and grateful to everyone involved with securing the grant. He hopes, he says, that it will provide an opportunity to maintain and expand the partnerships that were formed in the region in the quest to restore habitat. He especially hopes to renew ties with local First Nations in planning and carrying out restoration activities.

Of the grant itself he says, "It's a lot of money we haven't seen for a long while," and it will go a long way to expand on the 70km of creeks that have been cleared to date. "DFO likes to talk about their wild salmon policy," he said, "now is the time for them to walk their talk and match funding for this important work."


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Copyright Ha-Shilth-Sa Newspaper, published by the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council. Reproduction of this article or photographs, in whole or in part, is illegal without the written consent of Ha-Shilth-Sa Newspaper (hashilth@nuuchahnulth.org)

home > kyuquot/habitat > article
home > clayoquot/habitat > article

TOP