Join us at the Watershed Forum held November 13-14, 2024. Connecting community, restoration practice, and research.
Redd Fish Restoration Society announces the future site of the Redd Fish Restoration Stewardship Centre in Ucluelet.
Redd Fish Restoration Society (Redd Fish) is a registered charity focused on ecosystem restoration, research, and education. For over 27 years, Redd Fish has worked with permission and in partnership with the nuučaanuł Nations in their hahuułi (territory). Together our mission is to use the best available science, technology, and Indigenous knowledge to restore damaged ecosystems, rebuild wild salmon stocks, and inspire an ethic of stewardship.
Modern day Vancouver Island owes much of its early development to the logging industry, island timber has been commercially harvested since the 1820’s. The seemingly endless supply of giant spruce, fir and cedar and the incredible value they could command in the open market, combined with the proximity to the ocean for transport, earned Vancouver Island the reputation of a “Loggers Eden”.
In the 1950’s mechanized logging replaced traditional methods and the forestry companies were now able to level vast stretches of forest at an unprecedented rate. This unbridled development was not without consequence. Until the mid 1990’s no protection was afforded to stream ecosystems, as a result significant amounts of vital salmonid habitat and was degraded or destroyed.
The only thing more integral to the fabric of coastal B.C. than the ancient forests is the Pacific salmon. Vancouver Island is home to once legendary runs of chinook, coho, chum, sockeye, pink and steelhead. During the last 50 years, over-fishing, habitat destruction and poor management has resulted in significant declines in wild salmon populations.
Redd Fish was founded in 1995 by loggers, First Nations, biologists and forestry professionals who recognized the need to address the loss of habitat in order to preserve our wild fish stocks.
by the numbers
Since Redd Fish began in 1995, we have made a quantifiable difference in local watersheds.
423,758 kg
garbage removed
730.2 ha
in riparian restoration
115,676 km
road deactivated
287,222
trees planted
76,558 km
of streams restored
20
wildlife studies
4,143
shrubs/herbs planted
840.4 cubic m
clean spawning gravel added
$34,612,237
raised for Projects (as of AUG. ‘22)
*Stats updated March 2024