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by Dave Wiwchar
Ha-Shilth-Sa Reporter
March 9, 2006

Ahaswinis - From the beginning of time, salmon have sustained the people and ecology of the west coast. Every autumn, the slap of tails could be heard in every river, creek , and stream as millions of sockeye, chinook, coho, chum, pink, and steelhead salmon rushed towards their natal streams to complete their life cycle and launch the next generation.

While millions of salmon continue their spawning run up the Somass and Stamp rivers, industrialization in the mid-1950s severed salmon runs in the heart of Hupacasath territory.

When BC Hydro constructed the Elsie Lake Hydro Dam, Hupacasath Elders contend that millions of coho and sockeye salmon were blocked from hundreds of kilometers of spawning streams.

In the 1990s, the BC Government decided BC Hydro could be held liable for any environmental issues caused by the construction of dams, lines, and other projects, which caused the crown corporation to set up a mechanism to fund rehabilitation and restoration projects.

BC Hydro formalized the Bridge Coastal Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program (BCRP) in 2001 with the creation of a Board comprised of three First Nations, three public and three agency (BC Hydro, Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans, and Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection) representatives. BC Hydro contributes approximately $1.7 million annually to the BCRP of which ninety percent is committed to eligible projects and the remaining ten percent to administration.

Now, fifty years after the construction of the Elsie Lake Dam, BC Hydro and the Hupacasath Nation are working together to hopefully restore the Elsie Lake watershed to its historic grandeur.

Working with the Alberni Valley Enhancement society and the West Coast Vancouver Island Aquatic Management Board, BC Conservation Trust Fund, BC Ministry of the Environment, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Hupacasath spearheaded a series of projects designed to determine if salmon stocks could be restored to the Elsie Lake watershed, and how it might be done.

"Hupacasath Elders have repeatedly told provincial biologists about coho and sockeye populations in the area, but they didn't seem to believe it until coho fry and kokanee salmon were recently documented in the area," said Hupacasath First Nation administrator Trevor Jones. "There's a lot of 'Class A' salmon habitat above the Elsie Lake Dam, and we really want to see salmon restored in that watershed.

Through BCRP, Hupacasath received $215,300 to fund four projects:

Ash River Nutrient Enrichment for Fish Habitat Restoration allows the placing of blocks of compressed Pollack downstream of the Elsie Dam to study existing steelhead, coho and trout populations.

Elsie Lake Productive Capacity & Feasibility of Nutrient Enrichment wfill study whether fertilizing in the lake will improve salmon capacity.

Estimation of Productive Capacity of Elsie Lake Tributaries will determine whether there is room in the watershed to produce more fish, and what factors currently limit production.

Ash River Fish Passage Feasibility will examine natural and man-made barriers, and determine best options to increase fish production in the watershed.

"We don't have a good sense of how much fish production capacity is there," said fisheries biologist Adam Lewis. "We'll study these issues over the next year, then bring all those studies together. We need this information to make good decisions," he said.

BCRP will fund 39 fish and wildlife programs throughout the province, 16 of which are on Vancouver Island.

Through Hupacasath's formation of the Alberni Valley Aquatic Resources Group, BCRP-funded projects in the Elsie Lake watershed area have risen from one project a year to five projects conditionally approved for this coming year.

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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)


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