The Return of the Salmon

IT’S 1200 KILOMETRES FROM THE MOUTH OF THE COLUMBIA River, just north of Portland, to Osoyoos Lake in southern BC. Travelling by canoe or kayak would be an inspiring, though arduous, journey—heading east through Port-

land, then twisting south and north through glacial valleys, farms laid out in squares along the river, and small towns with names like Sunnyslope and Longview, Pateros and Tonasket. Equally inspiring is that the Okanagan sockeye salmon make this trip every year, swimming the entire distance in as little as thirty days.

Most of us probably think of grapevines and fruit trees when we think of the Okanagan, but the salmon have played an important role in the history of the valley, stretching back millennia. For the First Nations that inhabited the area since the last ice age, salmon was an important food source, and as one of the Four Food Chiefs, had rich cultural and social significance pre-contact. The Four Food Chiefs—the salmon, the bear, the saska- toon berry, and the bitterroot—are used to teach respect and responsibility for the land, water, plants, and animals. Richard Bussanich, Senior Fisheries Biologist at Okanagan Nation Alliance (ONA), explains that through the stories, “we honour each of the ele- ments in the environment—not only in terms of environmental stewardship but in terms of the connections and principles of where man and nature are one.”

The trade of salmon was an important aspect of traditional fisheries. Trade networks were extensive through the valley, well down into the southern US and the Gulf of Mexico. Salmon was traded for bison, hides, and blankets. After contact, it was also traded for pots, bullets, and tools. “But more importantly,” Bussanich says, “there was a social aspect to the fishery. When people came to the primary fishing areas, it was a place not only to train and learn, for transferring skills and knowledge, it was also a time of ceremony. Marriages were created at these fishing camps. It was a place for trade and for games. It was almost like going to the PNE every year.”

However, Okanagan salmon have been under threat since the 1970s. Pre-contact, there were an estimated two to four million salmon in the chain of lakes (Osoyoos, Skaha, and Okanagan), but by 1990 only an estimated 5,000 salmon were returning. Today, the Okanagan River sockeye population is one of only two remaining viable populations in the Columbia River Basin.

The decline of salmon stocks can be attributed to a wide array of factors, but key among them are four human-caused pressures. Bussanich explains, “We call them the four Hs. There’s harvest pressure from out in the ocean and through into the river. Hydro dams impact the survival of the little guys going out and big guys coming in. Habitat changes—straightening of the river, adjacent land use including agriculture, housing, and roadbeds. Most recently, we’ve been monitoring the hatcheries’ contri- butions, which can compete with the natural stocks. All these factors contribute to the fate of these fish.”

Osoyoos Lake has the ability to support many times more juvenile fish than any other lake, and produces 90 per cent of the salmon for the entire Okanagan Basin. However, the factors that make Osoyoos Lake so productive also make its future precarious. One of the warmest lakes in Canada, it’s at the upper end of temperatures suitable for salmon. Bussanich cautions that “if climate change or global warming unfolds the way we think it might, and the water temperatures rise, we could see a dramatic drop in the survivability of the fish. This is one of the reasons we want to get the fish restored into Skaha and Okanagan Lake. It would give the entire system more resilience.”

While stock re-introduction has been a standard approach to miti- gating population pressures, the ONA project takes a much larger view. To restore the salmon population, it’s necessary to restore the health of the river system. “We have a very holistic approach,” says Bussanich. “We use both science and traditional knowledge to determine best practices for approaching the fisheries. We are trying to align what’s been practiced over ten thousand years with what science is telling us—build the bridges between the two—so that we can implement sustainable practices.”

The ONA’s fisheries department monitors water quality and quantity, invasive species, diseases, and fish health. “It’s very intensive sampling” says Bussanich, “so that we have a sense of water chemistry, plankton, and fish species.” They also work closely with the water stewardship division and provincial and federal agencies on river restoration, and have completed projects to upgrade and rehabilitate spawning habitat in the lower river near Oliver and in the Penticton Channel. They’ve completed engineering projects to improve fish movement at the McIntyre and Skaha Dams, and are planning similar projects for the vertical-drop flood and water-level control structures along the river.

Environmental services are the keystone of the project, but in order to develop a more regional economy and stronger cultural connec- tions, there needed to be economic benefit from the fishery itself. Bussanich reflects that “we looked at the traditions and then making those traditional aspects more current. We wanted to develop services in terms of finding pleasure in the fishing.”

The ONA is developing an artisanal fishing fleet that involves commu- nity members. The fleets’ annual catch ranges from 20,000–60,000 per year. They sell through Codfathers (Kelowna), Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre (Osoyoos), ONA (direct to Okanagan market), and

River Select (a consortium of inland fisheries). The direct marketing model allows them to get premium prices for the fish, where five to ten cents a pound goes back to habitat restoration, and they currently have upwards of $150,000 of direct sales per year.

“However, the value of selling the fish for food pales in comparison to what you would call an ecosystem value,” Bussanich notes. “The fish that return every year contribute between one million and 3.4 million dollars a year to the local economy. That’s the economic value of spawners coming back to the basin every year.”

Natural food systems are extremely complex, and as we have seen throughout history, easily disrupted. The ONA project dem- onstrates that it is not only possible to restore a traditional food system but also that ecological health is good for human health, community health, and regional economic health.

It’s been a long journey for both the salmon and the people. Bussanich muses, “I’m just amazed at how resilient these fish are. If you look at all the odds, the over-harvesting, the habitat loss, and seeing how, after being so seriously decimated, the population is responding.” In addi- tion to all the economic and environmental benefits the project pro- vides, it also provides something intangible and immeasurable: hope.

Michael Marrapese lives and works at Fraser Common Farm Cooperative in the Fraser Valley. He has extensive experience in television, theatre, and print media, and is an avid photographer and writer. He is also Communications and IT Coordinator for FarmFolk CityFolk.

Read more about the Four Food Chiefs at tinyurl.com/FourFoodChiefs

Editor’s note: an earlier version of this story appeared in the FarmFolk CityFolk magazine, Summer 2014 issue. farmfolkcityfolk.ca