A community group is working to bring a Watershed Stewardship Facility and Hatchery to the Upper Bulkley River near Houston.
They plan on making the 20 by 30 foot building a hub for watershed stewardship and education.
Project coordinator and Environmental Educator Cindy Verbeek says they’ll be able to raise up to 50 thousand coho.
“And really, quite frankly, a hatchery is your last ditch attempt. You should really be working yourself out of a job, because you don’t want a hatchery – you want the watershed working the way it should be working,” says Verbeek.
She says they’ll be focused on teaching the public restoration activities and species monitoring.
“This a way for people to be able to interact with fish,” on a river that has had a long time fishing ban, explains Verbeek. She says The Upper Bulkley has been suffering from the impacts of human development compared to the northern part of the Skeena water shed down-river.
So far they have 36 thousand dollars raised for the 80 thousand dollar cost to build the non profit facility.
Through fundraising, grants and a the hope of some Aviva Community funds, they plan on completing the building by next September with construction slated for April.
“We have funding from Fisheries and Oceans…just a little bit of funding from them that will go towards operations once the building is up and running and we’re running fish through there.”