Planning for the Horsefly Salmon Festival this weekend dominated talks at the Horsefly River Roundtable meeting in Horsefly Aug. 23.
Brandi Ranger gave a report on the festival indicating the festival should have First Nations displays and demonstration of fish drying, smoking, and preserving. There will be bannock for sale and a booth explaining Inland Fisheries.
Directional signage for the festival was also discussed.
Posters are up everywhere and directional signage will start just after the Likely/Horsefly junction.
The festival will feature Gyotaku, fish dissections, interpretive walks, etc.
We are short on volunteers, and to that end Roy Argue from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans will be available from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, Aug. 31 at or around the Horsefly library to give information and training to anyone who would like to be a river interpreter at the festival.
Please feel free to come out and participate and promote this special time in history where the salmon repeat a cycle which began thousands of years ago, and despite overwhelming odds against them, continues to this day.
Other topics discussed at the August meeting included the Fraser Basin, Woodjam restoration project and other projects, the upcoming feature on the Round Table in the Cariboo Connector, and the salmon walk trail development strategy.
We have received conveyor belting from Gibraltar Mines at McLeese Lake, and have it stored pending permission to use it.
We are going to install signs indicating no motorized vehicles (ATVs or dirt bikes) on the salmon walk trail, and possibly some preventative barriers to discourage using the trail as an alternate route to town.
It was decided to combine all of the various restoration projects we have researched ($105,000), and have price estimates for, and seek funding from a variety of sources in conjunction with each other in order to enable all of the projects to proceed as quickly as time and weather permit.
One of the members present brought up an idea that Olleh Lazarchuk spoke about a few meetings ago regarding a one-subject flyer he would like to start, and has already got a circulation out once a month. His advertising has increased so he has expanded from two pages to eight pages or more.
His next subject will be the importance of volunteers, or something of the sort, and will feature the Horsefly River Roundtable; for more information go to www.caribooconnect.com
The Roundtable extends an invitation to spend some time at our salmon festival this coming Labour Day weekend. The festival begins Friday evening, Aug. 31 with a family square dance in the community hall with Pharis and Jason Romero, Marin Patenaude and friends. Pharis will also give a singing workshop in the hall from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 1 and Sunday Sept. 2 there will be fish education activities for the whole family down at the river from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
There will be crafts for kids, salmon and watershed information, fish dissection demonstrations, interpretive walks, Northern Shuswap traditional fish drying demonstrations, artisans and food vendors and the interesting Japanese method of fish counting using the Gyotaku art of fish printing.
The next meeting will be at the Horsefly Library at 7 p.m. on Sept. 20.