itsumkalum helping to - maintain vital resource THE UNASSUMING log “structure sits tucked in close to 8 hillside overlooking a small valley on the west side of the Kalum River. But though the Kitsumkalum _ band operated building itself may * pot be” immediately “impressive, ~ ‘the work that goes on within is in ‘terms of the Skeena River fishery. _ Each year the Kitsumkalum ~ hatchery handles “nearly half a ‘million: chum salmon and — approximately 50,000 coho eggs. “The chum come from Andacite | Creek, a tributary of the Skeena fovated between the Exstew and Bychansiks Rivers. The coho’s home stream is the --Zymoctz, or Copper River ~ upstream of Terrace, Their guardians as they progress from eggs to fry lo -smolis are supervisor Russell "Bol ion and Don Roberts Sr. This day Roberts is going trout the painstaking process of sorting out dead or damaged ctium oges. + Before ‘him is a tray containing “nodess than 4,000 eggs. Until ‘this moment, the eggs were ‘kept: in smaller trays and protected from the light, waiting for them to eye up. Bolton explains the sorting hes to ‘wait unlit. the eyes form because until then the eggs are extremely sensitive, too sensitive tobetouched — Eyeing-up takes about 60 days, he adds. Roberts’ _ practised eye having detected a defective egg, he defily Temoves it with a small pair of tweezers. | The Zymoetz coho are still’ in. the dark: they haven't eyed up yet. The manouevre is repeated again and again and again until the sort is completed. The remaining eggs are poured off into a measuring cylinder and, pea es volume-based, formula, ts estimated, number. of ‘tggs entived i fi the hatchery’s log. And then the, process starts all over again with another tray full. Once all the eggs have been sorted -- 464,000 this year --and the count tallied, Bolton will know how much food to order for the voracious salmon-to-be. The Zymoetz coho are still in the dark: they haven't cyed up yet. There’s 32,000 in those those smaller: trays but another 20,000 will be coming in soon from the females being held at the Eby St. hatchery in Terrace. Next door to the room in which Roberts ‘is doing the-sorling, the Capilano troughs hold dark clouds of young coho, the product of last year’s egg take and now three to fourinches in length. They are due ‘to be transferred in. a couple of weeks to the adjacent concrete raceways where they will spend the winter. Come spring they'll be taken out to the Zymoetz and released. At that age, they’ll waste little time beginning their journey to Water for the hatchery comes from a spring just above. The water has a constant temperature of 6.2 degress Centigrade. the ocean. : -That’s a-plus for the offspring of the river's wild stock because the Kitsumkalum hatchery fish “won't stick around and compete for the available food. ‘Its cold-inside the hatchery where -air temperature reflects that of the water. - «Phe watericomes. from a spring: just above the facllity and has a . year-round ‘constant temperature “df 6.2degrevsC, That creates’ an. interesting contradiction, Bolton points out. “Whereas 7 in: summer the “what's happening outside, the _ ‘situalion is reversed in the depths of winter. > “The ground ‘wale. supply alsa offen lwo advantages. Because - the spring.[s located above the _ hatchery, the supply system to the _ facility” is gravity fed so there’s -no cost'atfached as there would ‘be if It'had tb be pumped, And, becuasé it {s ground water, ts: fice’ of disease or fungus that “could © prove ‘disastrous: to the hatchery’s production. PAINSTAKING. Kitsumkalum hatchery volunteer: Don Roberts uses tweezers (above) to carefully remove any dead chum eggs fram a tay containing approximately 4,000 future salmon. He’ go through. nearly half a ‘million eggs by the time the complete sort is done. At left, hatchery supervisor Russ Bolton and DFO community _ fisheries officer Barry Peters (right) stop for a chat on the way back from inspecting — the groundwater intake, It may not he fancy, but the Kitsumkalum facility. (below), makes. an impressive contribution to maintaining salmon stock mumbers in the Kalum and Zymoetz (Copper) River systems. Equally impressive ara the views of the Kalum Valley and mountains beyond from the hatchery. ee The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, December 8, 1993- AS CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD The Mail Bag All one family Dear Sir: My father was French from Quebec. He came to Maniloba. We were taught as a family to speak English first, because we.are from Canada, My many relatives are the same. One family lives on a distant farm and hadn’t a chance to learn English until the children went to schoal. Then they greeted their English speaking fiends in English always and my aunt learned English well. We did also, , My family married into English families, and they got along very well and had very nice children, intermingling without prejudice, I had two girlfriends, one English and-one French. We were to- gether one day and the French speaking girlfriend starled speaking French In front of my English girlfriend. I was shocked. She could speak English. I thought that was very ignorant. Many nationalities speak in public their language where many don’t understand them, even though they have learned English. I guess the complaint comes from the people who know thal the separatist want to leave Canada, There are French in my family relatives. In fact all, and there are a great deal of them, love their country and want lo stay within it. In fact my daughter was in tears, telling her mother, ‘'T love our country, Canada. It’s beautiful, and I love the people, all of them, mixed or not. It is one of the best countries in the world.’’ We have 180 countries in the world who fly their fags proudly. Our families can’ also speak French and write and other languages. But some countries are in trouble because of hate and power and poverty and religious wars, etc. Musi we go to extremes? M.T. Celin, Terrace, B.C. Aboriginal title exists An open letter ta: Mike Scott, M.P. Dear Sir: During the all candidates meeting. in. Terrace. I asked’ about the Reform party’s denial of aboriginal title, © © You corrected me: the Reform party does not: deny aboriginal litle, they simply don’t recognize aboriginal title. - At the time this statement frightened me because It meant that your party was choosing which sections of the Canadian constitu- tion they were going to follow and which sections were not neces- sary to recognize. Since the meeting I have come toa realization that maybe you have never read or been informed about the constitution, or the Ca- nadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. For this reason I have included relevant passages: Sec. 25. The guarantce of certain rights and freedoms shall not be construsd so as to abrogate or derogate from any aboriginal, treaty or other rights or freedoms that pertain to aboriginal peoples of Canada including (a) any rights or freedoms that have been recog- nized by the Royal Proclamation of October 7, 1763. Sec. 35 (21), The existing aboriginal and treaty nights of the aboriginal peoples of Canada are hereby recognized and affirmed. A lack of awareness of these passages could be very dangerous for a lange number of First Nations people. How can the Reform party refuse to recognize aboriginal title when itis entrenched in the Canadian constitution? ; I hope this information will be. of help to you while’ you are itl Ot- fawa, scr tp be pores a oopnbr nt Bee Yours truly, eae “-. + : Nicole E. Bingham, : Kitsumkalum Native Public Administration Program, Terrace, B,C. More letters, Page A9 THE START IS FOR PEOPLE LEARNING TO READ The Start Roadblocks up oo THE RCMP are out in force for Christmas. They'll be putting up roadblocks so expect lo sce a lot of police cars. The hope is to stop drinking and driving. - . And if people do drink and drive, the police want to catch them. The roadblocks will be up all through Christmas and into early January 1994, The roadblocks will be moved around a ‘Jol. That means drivers will not have any warning, Some roadblocks will even take place during daylight. - In 1991, 180 people were killed in accidents involving liquor. Nearly 5,300 people were injured, too. Forest cops THE GOVERNMENT wants to hire more conservation officers up here, Moc Sihota is the environment! minister. He was ‘here last week talking about a new code. It is meant to be tough on: ‘Toggers that break the rules. Slhota says he knows the job of a conservation officer is already busy. And it will got busicr because they will also look into bad log- ging. The minister says he will ask for more. éonservation ‘officers early next year, That’s. when the government Plans) how much it will spend it 1994.