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Take Action for Wild Salmon
Nola Poirier : May 3.2010
On April 29, I joined the Get Out Migration. The migration is travelling from Sointula, just north of Vancouver Island, all the way down Vancouver Island to Victoria to show grassroots support for wild salmon protection. I attended the march and rally in Courtenay, along with about 200 other individuals and groups who share a common concern for wild salmon populations along the west coast, and the effects of industry on their habitat and health.
For this leg of the migration, people marched into Courtenay and then gathered at Simm’s park to show support for the protection of wild salmon, to share salmon stories from up and down the coast, and to listen to the musical entertainers who lifted the energy and united the participants.
The mood was powerful, filled with a deep concern for salmon, a strong activist spirit, and a notable buoyancy, likely spawned by the strength and empowerment of many people coming together for a common cause. Video blogger Mark Worthing has been following the tour and took some great video footage from the day. Check it out here.
Taking part in this physical expression of shared purpose clearly had a galvanizing effect on people working in different ways all along the coast to protect wild salmon. I know it energized and inspired me, as well as reinforcing to me how rare and how essential watersheds like the Taku truly are. 
To think that in a time with so many impediments for healthy and abundant wild salmon, that a place like the Taku, which provides such rich salmon habitat could be threatened by industrial development, seems like a bad joke, or a story from some earlier time when dire examples of the implications of such a decision weren’t already apparent. It is hard to believe that the same government that is pledging to help restore populations of salmon in the Fraser River is negotiating to compromise salmon habitat in the Taku.
Please make some time to take action. If you can, join the Get Out Migration at one of the remaining rallies, or to walk one of the legs of the route. And send a letter to the Taku land use planning process, or sign ours, to show your support for the protection of the salmon strongholds, and healthy populations we still have. 