Skeena Angier Dear Failks, ; ; Some day before I die, I'd like to see awild steelhead. The Great Lakes fishing doesn't quite thirst. In Dante's Inferno, there must be a missing passage, @ part of hell that he forgot about or passed over. Somewhere there is a river crowded with fishermen casting to stunted, fin- clipped fish, spending an eternity in anguished regret for not having tried to save the wild runs while there was still ‘time. satisfy the inner Therefore, here's my $100 for a lottery ticket on the six day steelheading trip on your Skeena tributaries, Best success with the Willd Steelhead Campaign. Christopher E. Johnson Newton, New Jersey Christopher Johnson is an cast coast steelheader, He fishes for the dilute offspring of the magnificent animals that once climbed the rivers running through Bigfoot Country, Skamania steelhead were selected to seed damaged rivers throughout that state, then later they were the fish of preference for the exotic hatchery plans for the Great Lakes. Steelhead from one stream look pretty much the same as those from another, but that's where the similarity ends. How she does it is an enigma wrapped: in, mystery, but Ma Nature sees to it that each strain of fish carries the genetic equipment giving it the best : chance to succeed in. its native ecosystem. Stealing the eggs from their naturally selected environs, rearing. lhe fry in alien and artificial surroundings ihen.sowing them in alien streams is the biological equivalent of playing with a loaded gun. a A long time had elapsed since .. Ls Datwit- bobbed Over thé-Alantic wayes ° ‘| in. the Beagle but apparently the peaple ‘fesponsible for planting steelies In the ‘tivers running to late Great Lakes had ‘either. forgotten Darwin's widely ‘ accepted Theory of Natural Selection , ‘or were so technofixated they were deaf ‘to its lessons. ‘. These men might arguet they created a sport fishery where none existed. But “a fishery where men drive to fish elbow to elbow for dark, carcinogen-saturated salmonids is no substitute for wild tivers, wild fish and wild surroundings. It is this. grotesque kind of-fishery that makes the work of the Wild Steethead Campaign so vital. The Wild Steelhead Campaign began at the Augie's Pub in the Terrace Hotel ‘where a handful of guides and anglers decided that when it came to the fisheries there weren't any “User Groups", just "Abuser Groups" and ."Loser-Groups", and they were tired of being the latter. __ The culmination of the first stage of the campaign was a watershed event held in Smithers under the aegis of the revitalized Bulkley Valley Branch of the Steelhead Society. There fishermen and fisherwomen of the commercial fishing and sportfishing persuasions gathered with native fishermen and -Dureaucrats to discuss the state of the fishery in Skeena against the backdrop of 1991 fishing season. There West: Coast Fisheries Branch Director for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, : ‘Mr. “Al ‘Lill, made the gutsy commitment: to reduce steelhead _interception by 50% over three years. - ’ Since then the Wild Steelhead. Campaign has managed to raise over $131,000 all of which has been used to bring international attention to the plight of Skecna Sportfish. To get the word out the campaign has opened an office in Smithers. From there all activities are coordinated, activities like a top quality video, Articles and photos written by some of the campaign directors have. been published in a number of national and international magazines. "> Staff and directors of the campaign have attended large sports shows in Washington, Oregon and California booth will be part of the giant sports show there. So, In. Utah, Washington, Oregon and California there are 214 races of salmon on the endangered or threatened lists. This is an ineffably sad roster. The Wild Steelhead Campaign fight is being fought with head and heart to see that ‘fo Skeena Salmon are accorded this. status. on where the Wild Steelhead Campaign | “It's a fight against infernos. . ve ne The Terrace Totem Ford Midget Rep hockey team have poor memories . fortunately. Going into the March 11-13 zone playoffs they forgot they were supposed to be the underdogs. They forget Kitimat had dominated . them all season. : a They forgot Vanderhoof bad been all . over them when the two had met during tournaments this winter, | : And that forgetfulness has brought them all something to remember, playing in this week's ‘AA’ Midget provincial championship in Sechelt. The playoffs opened Thursday night with Terrace facing their nemesis Kitimat on the road and with a short bench. However, determination coupled with a strong defensive effort allowed Totem Ford to overcome those” disadvantages and march toa 4-3.win, > ; When Vanderhoof conjured up a 5-4. overtime Win over Kilimat the following night, it set* up Saturday miorning’s decider al the Terrace arena, Bolstered by . four Bantam reps promoted to make “up ti! “manpower shorlage, the home town heroes came out flying and soon took control of every aspect of a fast, hard-hitting game. Led by Mike Vandermucllen’s four goal, two assist performance, Terrace tore the Vanderhoof defence apart to rack up 10 goals. Midgets take zone The domination continued in their own end where blucliners Sheldon McInnes, Fraser Downie, Brian Barwise and Kevin Clark formed a near-impenetrable wall. ‘And when Vanderhoof did manage to get through, they found a red-hot David Tanner wailing between the pipes. - That combination, of strong defence and superb goal tending limited Vander- ‘hoof to just two goals as Totem Ford cruised to a 10-2 victory. The weekend having been a demonstration of peaking at just the right time, Terrace will have to be every bil as good this week. And have another atlack of amnesia, because they will be going into the provincials as uriderdogs once more. - PERFECT TIMING. Terrace Totem Ford Midget reps put their season behind them at the zone playotts, producing two sparkling performances to book a berth at this week’s ‘AA’ provincial championships. Trio return from ‘AAA’s bronzed Masset proves swell trip Three for three, that was the Bluebacks tally af:this year’s provincial “AAA’ age group championships. Garth Coxford, Audrey Erb and Tristan Brown all brought home bronze medals and put in some impressive times on the way-to the:podium, - age group, tumed the 400 individual medley rankings. upside-down. on; the way to his medal. Coming into the event ranked at num- ber seven, he slashed nearly seven sec- onds off his heat time when it came to the final to take third. Although there were no medals in his other events, Coxford lifted his per- formance in several. Ranked tenth in the 50m free style, he clocked 29.59 seconds for fifth place. And there were four to five second im- provements in the 200m Free, 100m but- terfly and 100m back stroke. Audrey Erb, 10, grabbed her bronze in the 50m breast stroke, confirming ber event ranking as number three at the meet ; She also just missed a medal in, the . 100m breast where she sliced more than five seconds off her entry time to take fourth. . ' The final bronze went to. Tristan Brown, also 10-years-old, .. who demolished his entry time in’ the 100m: ‘fly by 13 seconds to prove he was far better than his number seven ranking. Blucback coach Mike Carlyle pointed out this was the first provincial age- , ; loneanggeecae 2 group championships for both Erb and ' aCoxford, in his last year’in the 11-12 - pros - ‘Brows. co LO In fact, it was Brown’s first éver trip south fora meet... kkkkk Meanwhile, in another part of the pro- vince, Randce Armstrong was leading a Blucback assault at the Masset Invita-_ tional meet. ‘From the moment she hit the water. in’ Friday cvening’s. 200 yds. freestyle, the other 10-year-olds at the competition were on nolice this was her weekend. The near four-second victory was only the beginning of an 11 win and two scc- onds rampage which saw her stroll away with the overall gold for 10-year-old girls, Terrace was also strong in the 10-year- old boys division where Charlic Gair and Jan Taylor showed. remarkable con- sistency, ’ Gair picked up four wins and was only 2/100ths of a second away. from making it five in the 40 yds. back stroke. That narrow defeat was one of seven seconds - . places he tallied for the weekend on the - way to an overall silver. ne Right bebind him was Taylor who put together 11 top-four finishes, including a win, to take the bronze. Stacey Pritchard added another overall medal,'a bronze, category as # result ishes and one third. Another bronze went to Kim Johnson ix’ rihneér-up fin- ~ jn the open girls category where: she scored a victory in the 120 yds. back stroke to go with a second and 10 thirds. Johnson also suffered the narrowest defeat of the weekend when she was a minuscule 1/100th of a second out of top spot in her 40 yds, back stroke race, While pleased with all the swimmers’ performances, Carlyle said Gair’s was particularly noteworthy because he'd only returned to the poo! last month after an extended layoff. Although the Masset meet was 4 lot of fun for participants -- they gota tour of the Canadian Forces base and wound up with a beach party Sunday afternoon -- it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Carlyle explained the ferry journey out had been an unforgettable one, high seas making it an unsettling experience for “just about everyone’’. _* However, be added, ‘‘the chaperones _ apparently did an excellent job of taking care of everyone,” BALANCING ACT. © “if provincial govern- ments were as good as balancing their. budgets as competi- tors were at keeping their’s on the beam. at last’ weekend's — Peaks Gymnastics ° Club meet, there'd be no. deficit. Youngsters from Kitimat, Smithers and Prince George... made the. journey-.....|. here to take partin the first big meet. the club has held” since building ‘its © new. facility. in Thornhill. See next week's Standard for meet results. in:the,14s12 years girls © Mal ~ Chad Wilson Wilson off to Cornell Chad Wilson’s already promis- ing hockey career has just got an- other boost. The 19-year-old Terracile has landed a four-year hockey scholar- ship at Cornell University. The Ithaca, New York institution has a well-established reputation for turning out fine players. ‘No fewer than eleven Comell products were selected in the "92 National Hockey League draft and the school also claims Canadian Olympic hockey star Kent Manderville among its alumni. But exciting as the news is, Chad -has a more immediate preaccupa- tion: helping his Powell River Paper Kings win the B.C. Junior ‘A’ Hockey League playoffs. it’s already been a big season for for the defenceman, Powell River finishing the regular season in top spot in the Coast division. And his part in that result was recognized with his selection to this year’s Coastal All Star team which clubbed its Interior counter- parts 9-3 in January. Recruited by the Paper Kings in 1991, Chad made his mark im- mediately, being named the rookie defenceman of the year. The Cornell scholarship is the latest step on a path which began when the then four-year-old took to the ice of the Terrace arena as a. Pre-Novice player. ; By 1988, he was playing with the B.C. Interior Minor PeeWee All Stars in the Vancouver Super Series. The following year he was a member of the Interior Major PeeWee Selects. A Bantam by 1990, Chad nailed down a defenceman’s spot with Team North and played in the under-17 BC's Best Ever series in Osoyoos. ; _ That was also the year he made. his first trip to a provincial championship. This time, how- ever, his role with the Terrace Bantam Reps was as a centre, Twelve months later, he was ‘back on the blucline and at a - championship as the local Midgets carried the northwest’s colours al the ‘AA’ provincials in Nelson. .- And that’s when Powell River “issued its invitation to become ‘a Paper King. Do Chad finished his secondary - schooling in Powell River, gradu- ating lastsummer, bepete He decided to -stay - with the - Paper Kings for one more season to concentrate’ on developing his skills, a decision which appears to have paid off handsomely. . Once the BCJHL playoffs are ended, Chad will be head for home for the summer. Then it will be off to Ithaca in mid-August to start his studies in Agriculture and. Life Sciences and continue his on-ice. career ‘as a Cornell Varsity team-blucliner.