Lang Creek salmon
by Heidi Rohard, 5 October 2013.
A group of 15 club members met at the Lang Creek spawning channel on Saturday. The weather was overcast, but dry and not too cold. Michael Stewart started off by explaining the work that had been done by volunteers of the Powell River Garden Club, creating a beautiful setting of native plants around the parking lot of the spawning channel.
We then walked over to the creek, and while watching the Pink salmon trying to swim up-stream, David talked to us about the various times that the species of salmon make their appearance, and the life cycle and spawning behaviour of salmon. We saw a few trout in the channel as well. The whole stream was of course littered with carcasses, which provide nutrition not only for bears (we didn’t see any) and birds, but also for the young salmon.
There were no hatchery staff available to allow us entry into the counting and sorting facility, but David explained the procedures to us. We all appreciated his informative talk.
Nine of us drove to the bottom of Duck Lake Road and then car-pooled to the Lang Creek hatchery. After a short walk from the gate we arrived at an observation platform and saw a beautiful waterfall, not really that high but too high for the salmon. Some would try to reach the top but would not make it and spawn in the fall’s pool instead.
It was a great short field trip.
