It was a wonderful weekend along the Horsefly River Sept. 7, 8 for the Horsefly River Salmon Festival.
The annual free event celebrates the return of the salmon to the Horsefly with a riverside festival for families with lots of fun attractions for all ages.
"This festival is important to get information out about conservation and salmon," said organizer Dina Stephenson. She said with both the Speaking Our Truth Pow Wow and the Harvest Fair happening at the same time, she's hoping to push the salmon event back next year. Stephenson said this would hopefully enable more Indigenous participation and mean less events in the area on the same weekend.
There were no salmon easily viewable in the river Sept. 7, 8, with a low return year forecast and not many fish making it back to spawn so far. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada reported having counted zero live or dead returning summer salmon in the Little Horsefly River, the Mitchell River, McKinley Creek, the Quesnel Lake East Arm, Quesnel Lake North Arm, Summit Creek, Wasko Creek, Watt Creek or Blue Lead Creek so far in their August and September counts. They reported having counted 87 live and 2 dead salmon in the Horsefly River in August and 957 live and 22 dead in September counts to date.
The festival organizers still had lots of activities and information for people, even without many salmon to speak of.
This year, the Canadian Wildlife Federation and Pacific Salmon Foundation did not have the budget to participate, but some of the other favourites were there, including the Gyotaku Japanese fish printing table, where people could paint a salmon and make a beautiful decorative hanging. There was information on invasive species by the Invasive Species Council of BC, live music, information on the Quesnel River Research Centre, fish dissection by the river and a table by Tolko with information on some of the ongoing logging and more of what they have planned for the Horsefly River watershed. Stephenson said she appreciates their participation in the event to help inform the community.
There was colouring for kids, making dinosaur landscapes, and an art vendor and freshly made food for sale.
As usual, passports were issued for visitors to have stamped as they went around to each table and there were prizes and lots of things to take home, from stickers to dog food samples. The storywalk was in place, for families to walk the river trail and read along as well.
The event is organized and hosted by the Horsefly River Roundtable, a community-based non profit organization aimed at being a "catalyst to achieve and maintain health Horsefly community watersheds, through coordinated management of all resources, respect for all concerns and cooperative, positive action."
For more on the Horsefly River Roundtable or to get involved, go to their website at: https://horseflyriver.ca/
