Feds and Ditidaht First Nation restore sockeye salmon streams in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve
by CM Staff
The Ditidaht community joined Parks Canada and contractors to remove more than 3,000 cubic metres of debris from three salmon streams in the Cheewaht Lake
A salmon stream before and after a log jam was removed by Parks Canada and the Ditidaht First Nation in the Cheewaht watershed in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve.
Credit: Parks Canada (CNW Group/Parks Canada)
NITINAHT REGION, BC — The Government of Canada announced the successful restoration of three important sockeye salmon streams in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve.
“Wild Pacific salmon are vital to the culture and livelihoods of many on the West Coast, particularly Indigenous peoples,” said Jonathan Wilkinson, minister of Environment and Climate Change, in a prepared statement. “This important partnership between Parks Canada and Ditidaht First Nation supports on-the-ground conservation work that will help local sockeye salmon populations recover, and in turn, support the health of the Ditidaht community and surrounding ecosystem for generations to come.”
During the summer 2020, workers from the Ditidaht community joined Parks Canada and contractors to remove more than 3,000 cubic metres of debris from three salmon streams in the Cheewaht Lake watershed within Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. The project was funded by a $1.1 million federal investment through Parks Canada’s Conservation and Restoration Program.
Approximately 30 years ago, Ditidaht First Nation began noticing the decline of an important food source that had been harvested for generations from the Cheewaht River. While sockeye spawning and rearing habitat weaves through old growth forest, past upslope logging practices outside of the national park reserve were causing stream banks to erode and habitat to fill in with sediment.
