Well, some good news regarding management of Chilliwack-Vedder River steelhead … I have been informed starting next season there is funding available for five years of snorkel counts and creel census/angler surveys. The lack of funding for projects like this on the C-V has long been a thorny issue for myself and others for years and I am happy to say the new FLNRORD biologist in charge has stepped up to secure this long overdue and necessary funding. The project will include 4 snorkel counts annually, in areas predetermined by past float counts done over app 30 years, water conditions/visibility dependent, along with a representative sampling of anglers conducted jointly by FLNRORD and COS staff. The snorklel counts, along with ongoing juvenile assessments and the annual Angler Harvest survey, will provide an index of relative abundance of both wild and hatchery steelhead, and “will provide management activities on the C-V to a level warranted by the significance of this system”.
Finally. I can't wait to see how these soon to be generated numbers correlate with what buck and I see on our surveys.