LETTER TO THE MEMBERS
February 2005 |
|
The past year has been a challenging,
but I believe a very successful one for the Steelhead
Society.
This year, the Steelhead Society will try to direct
at least 80% of membership dues directly towards steelhead
projects. This commitment is made possible by our success
in reducing the society's administrative costs to the
bare minimum -- everything, including accounting services,
is now done by volunteers, and our only ongoing expenses
include mail box rental, an annual web hosting fee,
insurance, bank fees and stamps.
Some highlights from the past year include:
- we committed $6700 to cover the capital
costs of re-establishing the lower Coldwater River stream-flow
gauge at Merritt;
- we committed $6000 over five years
toward operating and maintaining that gauge;
- we provided $1000 towards funding
the Nicola basin water use management plan, and continue
to participate in that planning process;
- we organized a successful campaign
in response to commercial interception of Thompson steelhead
during the peak migration time. During this one week
campaign, fishery managers and politicians received
thousands of e-mails from concerned anglers around the
world;
- we provided $500 to the Seymour Salmonid
Society towards placing log habitat structures in the
Seymour River;
- redesign of our website;
- we participated in developing the
province’s Quality Waters Strategy and provided
input to the wild steelhead policy;
- we initiated a campaign to designate
steelhead as B.C.’s provincial fish;
- we, along with many other groups,
advocated for a Thompson River steelhead recovery plan;
and,
- we continued to work with our partners
in the South Coast Steelhead Coalition and the Steelhead
Summit Alliance.
Being a small group of volunteers with
limited free time, we were not able to become as fully
involved in every issue as we wished. The crisis on
the Thompson was, and remains, our main focus. However,
we would like to become much more involved, for example,
with the South Coast Steelhead Coalition to recover
Georgia Basin steelhead stocks, but really need someone
(perhaps a new director?) with the time and energy to
step up and run with it. Any volunteers? We also faced
some challenges in keeping our website up-to-date, and
in trying to publish a newsletter. We expect to remedy
both challenges in the coming year.
Please try to attend our upcoming AGM
on Saturday, February 26th. It is not an election year
for the Steelhead Society, but we have several vacancies
on our board of directors. If you wish to stand for
election to one of these vacancies, please contact us,
particularly you are unable to attend the AGM. We could
really use your help.
Please note our new Langley address
as indicated on our contact
page.
Yours truly,
On behalf of the board of directors,
Scott Baker-McGarva, President
|
