February Report of the Horsefly River Roundtable:
The Roundtable met Jan. 19, 2018 at the Horsefly Library to set some immediate goals for projects to complete this year. First and foremost were applications for grants for our Salmon Festival, plus some other large and small restorations of a few local streams.
It is acknowledged that we have until after spring runoff to prepare, but because there is so much to do before the festival to prepare the salmon walk as well as create access to the outhouse, we want to have all funding up and ready to proceed as soon as the site is ready to be worked.
I learned that the fault for the salmon walk not being restored to its original form was a lack of planning by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) engineers in Vancouver who made no allowance for leaving the walkway as it was before work on the spawning channel commenced, and not the contractor as I may have inferred previously. The Roundtable is currently, through every means at our disposal, putting pressure on the DFO to fund the repairs. At the same time we must express gratitude to the federal government for the money provided to enhance the spawning channel in the first place. Talk about confusing.
All the material we need for the resurfacing of the salmon walk are to be found locally, as well as the equipment and operators for the finishing of the surface.
The festival will take place the weekend of Sept. 15-16 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with all the usual events such as Gyotaku, dissections, invertebrate education, hopefully a First Nations table as well as guided walks along the spawning channel which will be teeming with salmon with any luck at all.
Next meeting is sometime in mid-March.