CVRD grants “chummy” future to Oyster River salmon

Ritter said that the benefits to the community go beyond an increase in fish population, to enhancement of the park experience for everyone. Photo provided by Oyster River Enhancement Society.

A local salmon enhancement project is making waves. On Monday, December 16th, the Comox Valley Regional District’s Electoral Area Services Committee met to discuss final actions for the year. 

One item on the agenda was a late application for a rural community grant-in-aid, from the Oyster River Enhancement Society, for their Chum Channel Project. As the last application of 2024, the full request of $10,000 was granted, with $7,500 coming from Electoral Area C, and a contribution of $2,500 from Electoral Area B. 

Speaking to the contribution, Area B Director Richard Hardy and Area C Director Edwin Grieve had some fun:

“Yeah, area B will kick in 2,500 bucks,” said Hardy.

“Thank you very much. You're a chum,” said Grieve.

ORES Volunteers work on the Chum Channel during an earlier phase of the project. Photo provided by Oyster River Enhancement Society.

The Oyster River Enhancement Society is a group of volunteers with a paid manager  who operate a hatchery on the Oyster River, located in the Bear Creek Nature Park, just up Macaulay Road in Black Creek. 

Maureen Ritter is president of the Oyster River Enhancement Society, ORES for short. She gave us a run down on what they do.

“We raise salmon for the Oyster River,” she said. “We raise pink salmon, chinook salmon, coho, chum, and we do habitat restoration as well as look after the park area.”

This is not the first funding ORES has received for this particular project, as it is in its final stages and reaching completion. Ritter said the Chum Channel Project has been on the ORES wishlist for some time; a natural floodplain channel within their park boundaries to allow chum salmon to rear. Previously the chum were reared further up the system in hatchery channels that required manual labour to relocate young salmon for release.

Ritter said “this new rearing channel is located just a hop, skip, and a jump off the main Oyster River stem and enables us to have rearing space where we can put the fry in there when we start feeding them and hold them for a couple months before release. We don't have to transport them and add stress to them for release; we just basically pull up screens and let them go.”

Funding from the Pacific Salmon Foundation, Comox Valley Regional District, and the Salmon Enhancement Program allowed them to bring this wishlist project to fruition. All that is left now is to protect the new rearing grounds from predation.

“That project's just in the process of completion, we still have some fencing to put up around it, for predator fencing and safety fencing for people walking around in the park, and then we will be able to put our fry out there and start feeding them early in the spring, probably about March.” Ritter said. “We also currently have 350,000 chum eggs in our incubation facility on site, so this will be great, we'll be able to utilize the channel.”

Funding up to this point has allowed ORES to use heavy equipment to dig the channel, connect a berm to the main Connelly channel, and install bridges across each end. The funding also allowed for the purchase of screens for both ends of the channel to keep fish in place, as well as landscaping and repairing in the surrounding areas. Predator fencing is the final step in a long list of checked-off to-do’s.

“The successes in the project so far is that we've been able to get it completed in a timely fashion, and it looks fantastic,” she said. “I think it looks better than any of us could have imagined. It will enable the fry to not have as much handling in the process of rearing and release, which also makes it easier on our volunteers.”

While the successes are clear, Ritter also shared some of the challenges faced during the project, starting with supply chain issues, changing quotes and growing costs. Most challenging is working around the life cycle of the salmon.

“The main challenge was getting the approvals and the permits all through in time to be able to do it in our ‘fish free zone’ time, which is in the summer just before the pink [salmon] actually start coming up the river,” she said. “And everybody worked together really well and pulled it all together in a timely fashion and we got it completed before the pinks were coming into the river. Once the salmon are entering the river, we can't be working in the waterways because it'll disturb sediment in the river and affect the fish.”

Ritter said that the benefits to the community go beyond an increase in fish population, to enhancement of the park experience for everyone. 

“ We have a lot of tours come through, school children and bird watching groups and just people in general that want to tour the facility, so it adds another component to it to be able to see the chum being reared in this area.”

Ritter also said restoring fish-rearing habitat to this natural flood zone is an educational opportunity for not only the classroom but also the community.  

“We work closely with the schools on the Stream to Sea program with coho eggs in the classroom, and it's pretty exciting, those kids can come down and release their coho fry that they've raised in their classroom and experience nature firsthand. Education outreach is a major component of what we do, and it's just a beautiful place to have in the community for locals to experience it.”

Egg harvesting. Photo provided by Oyster River Enhancement Society.

The Oyster River Enhancement Society has volunteer days every Tuesday, as well as seasonal work parties throughout the week, especially in spawning season, or when implementing big projects like the Chum Channel. ORES recognizes that this work is made possible by funding like this latest grant from the CVRD, as well as donations in the form of hundreds of hours of volunteer time.

“It's a great place to hang out, have fun, be out in nature and work with the fish!” Ritter said.

“As for our volunteer Tuesdays and work parties during the week, it doesn't matter if you're old or young or what your interests may be, we have projects that basically, if you're, if you're a carpenter, that's great. You can build things. If you just want to walk through the trails and help clear branches, you're more than welcome to, so there's something for everybody to come down and hang out and do. It's just a great place for people to connect out in nature.

People who are interested in learning more, or joining in, can find more information online. 

“ We have a website, oysterriverenhancement.org, and we're on Facebook as well, and we always welcome new volunteers and tours to come down, and experience the beauty of the Bear Creek Nature Park and the Oyster River Enhancement Society.”

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada. Reporting done in the Comox Valley is done in partnership with CVOX.