Cathy McLeod, Member of Parliament for Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo, this week announced $66,727 in funding from the Habitat Stewardship Program (HSP) for Species at Risk for new environmental projects with the Fraser Basin Council.
In the first project, the overall goal of this single-year Prevention Stream project is to update a Strategic Fisheries Overview, with current fisheries resource values for anadromous salmon, new information on threats to the habitat and suggestions for future restoration work.
In the second project, its aim is to conduct foreshore inventory and mapping, used to quantify the level of disturbance, from a natural condition, that has occurred along shorelines and use the data to calculate the aquatic habitat index.
This will identify important habitat in need of protection.
The location for both projects is the South Thompson and Thompson Rivers. The project targets are four anadromous Pacific salmon species including Chum Salmon, Pink Salmon, Chinook Salmon (threatened) and Sockeye Salmon (endangered).
“With the identification of key habitat to protect and restore, this will enable waterfront property owners and industry sectors, to take conservation and stewardship measures in the future to mitigate their impact, and keep anadromous salmon off of the species at risk list,” concluded McLeod.