The Spruce City Wildlife Association is planning to reopen its salmon hatchery on River Road as early as this spring.
Association board member Dustin Snyder says the wheels are already turning to get the hatchery program back on track.
“We’ve applied to host the eggs for the Stream to Sea program which, what it does is brings the eggs into the classrooms and the students in the classrooms raise the eggs all the way from an eyed egg to a fry and then they release them back into the Nechako or Fraser Rivers.”
But Snyder says their plans for the hatchery go beyond the classroom.
“This won’t be just us hosting the eggs and giving them to the schools and washing our hands of it. We want people in the hatchery. We want people experiencing and seeing the whole life cycle, whether they’re just popping in and checking the place out or whether they come in and spend the day.”
Snyder says the association isn’t sure what type of salmon they’ll be raising but they’ve applied for permission from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to collect a pair of Chinook from the Salmon River to provide the eggs for the hatchery. A single pair of salmon can produce up to 5000 eggs. Snyder says the association plans to send about ⅓ of those to local schools and raise the rest at the hatchery for eventual release back into the Salmon River.
Snyder says they’re planning on hosting open house events at the facility to engage community members and get them involved with the project.
“There’s all kinds of potential for this and it’s really unfortunate that the hatchery hasn’t been doing anything for so many years. But we’ve really gotten excited about it, the group is excited about it and the little bit of feedback from the community is that the community really wants this and, in my opinion, needs this.”
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