Pacific Salmon

One of my main goals this year is to volunteer as much as possible for our local Streamkeepers society, and that starts this weekend with work in a riparian area, removing invasives and planting natives. I am not well right now, but I think it'll do me a lot of good to join a group doing this sort of restorative work.

As I don't do any planning half-way, I have been studying up on the life cycle of Pacific salmon, as well as working on building up my field ID skills. And that led to studying freshwater ecology, as well as a focus on riparian ecosystems in my area.

I have been a busy bee.

I don't think I've seen a salmon in the wild since I was a teenager. We used to go every fall to Goldstream Provincial Park to watch the salmon spawning, and I was always very interested. We did a salmon dissection in Grade 6 that I recall very well, even though my long-term memories are usually hazy. My classmates were either uninterested or grossed out, but I was fascinated by the teacher's lesson and the way I was able to see and feel the structures she was talking about.

Our streams here aren't all monitored, and the ones that are have only been monitored for a few years. But we know that we get Pink, Chum, and Coho in our streams. We have also seen the occasional Sockeye! If all goes to plan, I will be helping with spawning counts on a few of our under-monitored streams, all close to my house.

To say that I am excited is an understatement.