It has been a busy year – for us all. We don’t always get a chance to keep up with all the goings on in our community or to know what happens behind the scenes. LynnValleyLife reached out to pretty much every local group we could track down and ask them to share their how the year went, what their hopes are for 2018 and how the Lynn Valley community can help them succeed. A few shared their thoughts. We have three posts coming up featuring the diversity of our community. We hope you enjoy this series of hopes and reflections.
Our local Seymour Salmonid Society marked its 30th year working to protect our salmon
2017 Highlights
- 14 weeks of drilling and rock breaking that was completed on the Seymour River Rockslide Mitigation Project. This was a big move toward re-establishing migration for species on the river currently blocked by slide debris.
- The monitoring program of outgoing coho smolts that showed a high survival rate for out-migrating juveniles salmon past the rock slide debris.
- We had a very successful spring education program (Gently Down the Seymour) that ran 50 full-day field trips between March and June.
- Due to the success of the spring we extended the program in a Fall pilot, providing 20 additional spaces for Grade 2 – 6 students.
- We hosted three community events: Family Fishing Day, Open House and Rivers Day Estuary Clean Up. All three were well attended.
- We spawned more Seymour pink salmon than ever before (100 pair)
- We spawned more Seymour chum salmon than ever before (32 pair)
2017 Challenges
The challenge we faced was fundraising for major projects and education programs. Although we were successful it took a lot of time from limited staff that have many other duties. Another challenge was that our fish fence was washed out in high flows in a storm this past fall. We are looking to repair it in the early part of next year.
2018 Goals
In the year our goals are to continue to make progress on the Seymour River rockslide, we have fundraised over $300,000 for the work in 2018.
We would like to offer 70 field trip days to elementary-aged children next spring and fall, educating youth on the importance of salmon and a healthy watershed.
Finally, our main goal is to continue to enhance coho, pink and chum salmon and steelhead trout on the Seymour River to ensure they’re long term survival.
Hopes for Lynn Valley
We would like to see Lynn Valley stay the pristine natural place that is wonderful to hike and spend time outdoors.
How can Lynn Valley help the Seymour Salmonid Society?
The community has been an incredible support in the past and we hope that they would continue to support the Society. A couple important way to help are by becoming a volunteer or by becoming a paid member (only $10 annually). Another great way the community can show its support is by coming and participating in our annual events like, Family Fishing Day on June 17th, Seymour Hatchery Open House on September 16th and Rivers Day on September 30th.
To keep up with the Society all year round follow their Instagram or Facebook.
