May Newsletter 2015

It’s mid-May and spring is now (at last) in full swing. So are the many community groups, First Nations and others getting ready for a busy season of conservation work on local rivers.

For 2015, we are funding 62 excellent conservation grants totalling over $1.1 million in grant funding. We are extremely fortunate to be able to fund a record number of quality projects this year through the advice of our six expert advisory committees. This year’s grants bring the total ASCF grants to 260 projects with over $3.5 million in funding.

We are also charting new directions in sharing of our information. Building on our extremely successful webinar series, we will be launching our “Salmon Hub” in the near future. The Salmon Hub will bring into one source, virtually all publicly available information that could support conservation groups and researchers pursuing salmon conservation activity. More on this later.

In April we were pleased to provide our recommendations to the Moncton, NB meeting of the Minister’s Committee on Atlantic Salmon Issues, launched by Honourable Gail Shea earlier this year. We provided what we believe are constructive solutions to the many of the various issues associated with salmon survival. David Reddin, DFO Scientist Emeritus and member of our Central Advisory Committee also presented recommendations based on his extensive experience in salmon science to the St. John’s, NL meeting of the committee. We look forward to good things coming of this important initiative.

Dale Cameron is the expert volunteer advisor we are featuring this month. Dale is Executive Director of Trout Unlimited, Prince County in Prince Edward Island, and a founding member of our PEI Advisory Committee. He is active in conservation matters across the Island and a constant source of good advice to the Foundation.

This month we are also profiling the workof the Petit Saguenay River Association (PSRA). PSRA isworking to improve survival of Atlantic salmon in the Petit-Saguenay River via public education with its unique Atlantic Salmon Survival Scale. Enjoy!

Yours in conservation!

Stephen