Canada's National Observer
Wuikinuxv Creek walkers navigate fallen logs and moss-covered rocks while making their way along the creek. Photo courtesy: Raven Walkus
Every summer, Wuikinuxv Nation crews walk the streams of Rivers Inlet on BC’s remote central coast, counting how many salmon have returned from the ocean to spawn.
This year, for the first time, the creek walkers — local members who monitor salmon and stream conditions — are using their observations to develop a plan to repair salmon habitat.
The Wannock River system, which flows from Owikeno Lake into Rivers Inlet, once supported one of BC’s largest sockeye runs and remains home to four salmon species. But historic logging and increasingly unpredictable water levels have damaged the streams the fish depend on, said Raven Walkus, the nation’s salmon restoration co-ordinator.
She said crews had already noticed “a big drop” in returning salmon compared with last year, while lower water levels in many creeks were making it harder for fish to reach their spawning grounds. They had also seen flooding that can wash out stream channels and salmon eggs.
“We can already tell it’s going to be a tough year,” she said.
Local salmon stocks are struggling, with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) expecting fewer sockeye to return to Owikeno Lake and Chinook numbers in the Wannock River system remaining uncertain.
Those warning signs have led Wuikinuxv to expand its seasonal monitoring into a broader restoration effort.
Earlier this summer, Tom Balfour, a biologist and field operations manager with the Redd Fish Restoration Society, joined the Wuikinuxv crews. They walked the streams together, reviewed sites the creek walkers had identified and used a drone to survey the river systems.
Balfour said two major river systems in the territory will require significant work. Logging removed the large trees that once slowed rainfall, stabilized riverbanks and supplied the logs that create pools and shelter for salmon. “Big trees are essential to the function of the river,” Balfour said.
Future restoration could include planting trees, stabilizing slopes and placing large logs in river channels. But the work will be difficult in Wuikinuxv’s remote watershed, where the roads, barges, trucks and heavy equipment once used by logging companies are no longer available. Moving machinery or large logs by helicopter could cost $20,000 to $30,000 a day, Walkus said.
For now, Wuikinuxv is piecing together government and other funding to keep creek walkers in the field and the Redfish Restoration assessment is expected to help the Nation find future funding.
Until that money is secured, creek walkers are taking on smaller fixes they can safely carry out themselves, such as opening drying pools, guiding salmon away from shrinking channels and clearing debris that blocks their passage.
Limited funding
The nation is making the most of its short field season at a time when funding for salmon monitoring is becoming increasingly uncertain across coastal BC. DFO provides support one year at a time and many neighbouring communities have lost funding or seen their seasonal creek-walking programs reduced.
“We are super fortunate that we are getting any funding at all from DFO,” Walkus said.
Wuikinuxv also has a much smaller stewardship department than some coastal nations, but Walkus said its crew has still managed to take on monitoring and early restoration work.
Ted Walkus, a hereditary chief of the Wuikinuxv Nation, said creek walking is also a responsibility passed through his family. His nephew is the fourth generation of their family to monitor the streams.
For decades, Wuikinuxv members were mainly hired as trail guides or field workers while outside officials directed the monitoring program and controlled the information gathered from the rivers. Now, in the third year of running the work themselves, nation members are deciding where to send crews, what changes to record and how those observations can guide restoration.
The program is also bringing younger people onto the land to learn how the territory is changing. They see where water levels are dropping, where salmon are spawning and where logging damage continues to affect the rivers.
Raven Walkus said that knowledge stays in the community instead of leaving with outside agencies or disappearing when a seasonal contract ends.
“It’s not just a job,” Ted Walkus said. “It’s a way of life and it’s a way of sustaining ourselves.”
Sonal Gupta / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada's National Observer.
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