Nile Creek Hatchery needs your Help!!

[lorneparker1]

http://www2.canada.com/oceansidestar/news/story.html?id=8a62d85f-8a09-451e-ba90-5957a7fa7f60

http://www.ramblingfisherman.com/2011/04/nile-creek-hatchery-in-danger-of-being-closed/


Baby pinks may drown in red tape
Pamela Suzanne Smyth, Special to Oceanside Star
Published: Thursday, April 14, 2011

Never mind hooks and climate change; red tape may kill some 1.5 million salmon fry in the Nile Creek hatchery.

The Qualicum Bay Horne Lake Waterworks District has told the Nile Creek Enhancement Society it needs to get a water license by April 30 or "the hatchery will be shut down," says NCES past-president Ken Kirkby.

The water district used to draw drinking water from Nile Creek but stopped after switching to wells.



Pipes leading from Nile Creek to the NCES hatchery. The water is used during the incubation stage and in fish tanks that hold the young fry. The water is then recycled back into the creek.


In 1995, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans received approval from the QBHL water board to build an egg incubator and tie into the retired potable water line. In 1998, to build side channels, the water board also agreed to allow access to an upstream intake pipe.

In partnership with DFO, NCES volunteers cleared sediment deposits, removed landslide materials, refurbished a forestry road, installed an access gate, built a hatchery, and salvaged and reconnected pipes. They then began incubating, raising and releasing wild salmon back into the environment, some 20 million pinks to date.

Pinks were brought back to levels not seen since the 1950's and large numbers of coho and cutthroats found refuge in the restored watershed area.

The water board, however, became concerned about licenses, boundaries and liability should the salmon fry die.

In 2009, it informed DFO that water being diverted into the hatchery from "the Nile Creek water supply system" is "out-of-compliance."

Representatives from NCES, DFO and the Ministry of Environment met with the water board. DFO provided assurances that the water board would not be held responsible for any salmon mortality and agreed to submit a water license application on behalf of NCES (licenses aren't usually issued to volunteer groups). DFO also asked the water board to develop a joint operations, maintenance and 'use of water supply' agreement.

The Ministry of Environment authorized the water board to supply water to the hatchery until a formal agreement was reached.

Last month, however, the water board sent a letter to DFO, reminding them that extension period is about to end April 30 and that an "agreement must be in place so we can continue to supply water to the hatchery."

"No water means no fish," Kirkby said. "We're caught in a bureaucratic deadlock because we don't qualify to hold a water license but the water board's chair, Gordon Lundine, insists we produce a license or the hatchery water will be cut-off."

If that happens, he said, the fry, still too small to be released, will die.

 

[lorneparker1]

Please write a letter and foward it too

Board of Directors
Qualicum Bay - Horne Lake Water District
234 Lion's Way
Qualicum Bay, B. C. V9K 2E2
qbhlwater@bcsupernet.com

With a copy to:

Ken Kirkby
PO Box 62
Bowser, B. C. V0R 1G0
ken.kirkby@shaw.ca

They don't read all emails at the board meeting. However, if the letter is directed to the Board of Directors and a request at the beginning of your email to please present at the next Board meeting, they are required to record it as a letter.

Meeting is in 6 days April 20th

 

[lorneparker1]

Here is Mine

My name is Lorne Parker. I am a local business owner and Rec fisherman and I strong supporter of our resources. I am writing you today because the issue of water to the Nile Creek Hatchery is very important one. What these volunteers have done over the last 2 decades for this fishery is remarkable considering there is very little funding now a days for these types of endeavors. The nile creek went from being known as the "Pink River" (there are stories from folks much older then me that i have heard of the river being so thick with pink and coho salmon that you could walk across it on salmon backs) to a wasteland due to logging and habitat destruction, over fishing and the construction of the new highway.

A group of dedicated individuals (mostly retired on their own time) have turned this once vibrant river system around! Qhile it’s not like the hay day, The Nile is a now a very vibrant fishery and system once again. Everywhere you look hatcheries across from BC's funding is being cut and/or shut down, Public resources are being privatized(halibut), and habitat is being destroyed. This program and these inspiring and dedicated individuals have overcome insurmountable odds in achieving the success they currently have. Now, because of some what I view as Bureaucratic BS regarding water, they are in jeopardy in loosing everything they have worked so hard for. This makes no sense, and I STRONGLY urge you to not only reconsider but pass a bill that this can never happen again. . The way I under stand it is the hatchery draws water from the creek to incubate eggs then returns it back to the creek and this is only done at certain times of the year when needed. This seems like a no brainer but I will be the first to admit I do not know all the ins and outs of the water system . However, I do know that when there is a will there is way and that in order for the hatchery to run IT NEEDS WATER. I am asking you for the sake of the resource which our community depends on to find a way.


Thank you for listening,

Lorne Parker