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Local fish improvement projects start to take shape

Take a step back in time and imagine the Whistler area 80 years ago. There are no ski runs or chairlifts on the mountains and there is no village.

Take a step back in time and imagine the Whistler area 80 years ago. There are no ski runs or chairlifts on the mountains and there is no village.

Meltwater makes its way down from snow-capped peaks and drains into the valley’s system of lakes and rivers. Tourists step off a train at what is now Rainbow Park for a weeklong stay at a fishing lodge. Trout rise to the surface of Alta Lake to take a fisherman’s fly. Salmon crowd into the Cheakamus and Birkenhead rivers on their way to ancestral spawning grounds.

The Whistler area has a long been considered one of British Columbia’s top fishing spots. Now, sportfishing’s popularity – and its importance to the local economy and residents’ sense of place – is once again on the upswing as a number of programs aimed at boosting fish populations in the area start to take shape.

In Alta Lake, members of the Whistler Angling Club are reaping the rewards of a fish-stocking plan.

"We’re pretty excited about it," says WAC past president Tom Cole. "Alta Lake can produce nice, big fish."

About 4,000 cutthroat trout were released into the lake last year and, according to Cole, the program is aimed at restoring the number of once-thriving kokanee, a species of land-locked sockeye salmon, in Whistler’s historic and most popular fishing spot.

"It’s like trying to figure out a puzzle," he says. "We haven’t seen kokanee in Alta Lake for about seven or eight years."

Kokanee numbers have been dwindling because they compete with the lake’s large stickleback population for food. Since being released, the cutthroat have been preying on the sticklebacks and have substantially reduced their numbers.

"Cutthroats will eat anything that moves," he says.

Besides restoring kokanee numbers, there’s an added benefit to having the lake stocked with cutthroats, says Cole. "Right now, you’d be lucky to find a nine- or 10-inch fish. Next spring, the cutthroats will be around three pounds and 19- to 20-inches long."

Resident populations of rainbow trout and Dolly Varden can be found in the lake as well.

"Everyone’s excited about fishing Alta Lake again," says Cole.

On the Cheakamus River, B.C. Hydro’s Bridge-Coastal Restoration Program announced a trio of fish habitat improvement projects last week.

Spawning and rearing channels for coho salmon and steelhead trout will be created, pink salmon numbers will be jump-started with hatchery fish and rearing habitat for juvenile salmon in the river’s estuary will be improved.

"Some of the largest wild salmon to be found anywhere return to spawn in the watershed," says Ehor Boyanowksy, a director of the Vancouver-based Steelhead Society of B.C. But salmon populations are in steep decline, especially in the Cheakamus.

According to BCRP project manager Carol Lamont, the three projects are aimed at restoring fish populations and improving fish habitat affected by the Daisy Lake Dam south of Whistler.

Lamont adds that the current water-use planning process, which attempts to strike a balance between competing interests on the Cheakamus, "will not affect" fish populations or the habitat improvement work.

BCRP will present the projects, which are slated to start this summer, to the public June 3 during an open house at the North Vancouver Outdoor School near Squamish.

Meanwhile, the survival of an early-season run of chinook salmon in the Birkenhead River north of Whistler could be in doubt despite the efforts of a local group.

According to Hugh Naylor of the Pemberton Sportsmen’s Wildlife Association, the chinook are at precariously low levels and the PWSA has requested a voluntary ban on angling in the Birkenhead until the fish reach their spawning grounds later this summer.

"There are only about 250 chinook in the river," he says. "Biologists consider that a marginal number to maintain the stock’s survival."

According to a report from the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the low numbers are most likely due to low water levels and higher-than-normal water temperatures from a below-average snowpack and continued dry weather.

The PWSA will present their request on June 12 to the Sportsfishing Advisory Board, which consists of local fishing clubs (including the WAC), guides, government agencies and First Nations.

Naylor says the ban, which is similar to one requested last year, is not a formal restriction but one that is necessary to help restore the chinook population to sustainable levels. Last year’s voluntary ban asked anglers to use fly rods while fishing the river, and not to fish for salmon.

"It’s a long-term conservation measure and everyone seems to be supportive of it," he says.

The Birkenhead, like all lakes and rivers in the Whistler area, is catch-and-release and fish can only be caught with single, barbless hooks.

There is, however, some good news on the Birkenhead. According to the DFO, a strong summer run of sockeye salmon is forecast for the entire Fraser River system. The outlook calls for a total of somewhere between six- to 12-million salmon – a dominant run – to make their way up river this fall, turning the Birkenhead red with spawning sockeye.

"It’s a wonderful sight to see," says Naylor. "I never get tired of looking at that."