THE North Shore's fragile salmon stocks got a boost this month thanks to new funding from the Pacific Salmon Foundation.
The non-profit conservation group announced Sept. 20 that it would be awarding a total of almost $43,000 to three separate projects aimed at expanding and protecting populations in local creeks and rivers.
The District of North Vancouver will receive approximately $1,400 to help pay for the purchase and installation of native shrubs along the banks of Mackay Creek. The new greenery is intended to provide vulnerable salmonids with shade and protection from predators that will allow them to reach maturity and head out to sea.
Almost $14,000 will go to the Seymour Salmonid Society to help its volunteers replace some of the Seymour River's aging wooden hatchery dams with sturdier concrete structures and to repair a coho rearing pond.
The West Vancouver Streamkeeper Society, meanwhile, will receive almost $28,000 toward the rearing pond it plans to build in Memorial Park for coho and cutthroat trout.
The Pacific Salmon Foundation was created in the mid-1980s to help rebuild salmon populations in British Columbia and the Yukon.
To date, it has funnelled some $330,000 to conservation projects on the North Shore, according to organizers.
