Government minister tours Maple Ridge salmon hatchery

Nathan Cullen, Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, toured a Maple Ridge salmon hatchery on Monday, July 17.

The Alouette River Management Society (ARMS), with partners BC Corrections, hosted a tour of the Rivers Heritage Centre and ALLCO Fish Hatchery. Cullen was joined by parliamentary secretaries Kelly Greene and Fin Donnelly, Maple Ridge-Mission MLA Bob D’Eith and Fraser Regional Correctional Centre deputy warden Nor Ljunggren.

ARMS communications and engagement manager Sophie Sparrow, ministry fish conservation biologist Jennifer Sarchuk, and BC Corrections Hatchery Manager Lance DiSalvo presented the project work regarding salmonid species in the Alouette Watershed.

The visit included a tour of the ALLCO Fish Hatchery, where BC Corrections inmates contribute to an outside work program which covers all aspects of hatchery operations year-round.

“This invaluable community service has been running for over 40 years, and to date, over 60 million salmon have been raised,” said Sparrow. “The hatchery receives Fisheries and Oceans Canada guidance and funding.”

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The minister and other guests were also shown the operations of the fish fence in the South Alouette River and the mitigating role it plays, as there is currently no fish passage over the Alouette Dam.

“Sockeye salmon are met with the fish fence during their upstream travel, and guided into a fish trap where they are sampled and netted into a truck and trailer for transport around Alouette Dam and put into the reservoir to complete their life cycle,” Sparrow said.

The tour ended back at the Rivers Heritage Centre where the Alouette Reservoir Nutrient Restoration Program was showcased through a short video. That program has led to a healthier ecosystem in the reservoir through nutrient applications that stimulate the growth of food resources for fish.

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