The story of the Oyster River Enhancement Society

The history begins in 1962 when philanthropist Barrett Montfort donated 1,746 acres (of which 160 would become the park) to The University of British Columbia for agriculture and research. In 2005, UBC sold these holdings to a local farming company. One of the conditions of the sale was that the company would let ORES continue to operate its hatchery. In 2012, the farming company sold what is now the Bear Creek Nature Park to Ducks Unlimited and the Comox Valley Regional District. Five parties provided the funds to buy the land. In alphabetical order, they were: the Comox Valley Regional District, Ducks Unlimited, The Government of Canada, the Pacific Salmon Foundation, and a local philanthropist.

The Comox Valley Regional District lets ORES operate its hatchery in the wetlands of the park, which occupy about 60 acres of the park’s total area. ORES owes its presence in the park to the generosity of individuals, the help of different levels of government and charities, and the tireless efforts of its volunteers.

EARLY WORK

Major improvements at the hatchery began in August 1985, two years after ORES was established. A crew of volunteers, with local, provincial and federal support, began construction on a 110 sqm hatchery building, an egg incubation building, and the off-river Channel One. Both buildings were built of cottonwood milled on the site. Channel One is 300m long and comprises a 30m siltation pond, 2x 30m rearing areas divided by three screened weirs and 200m of spawning gravel.  The channel now flows through 1km of beaver ponds before rejoining the Oyster River.

Coho were captured from the river in fall 1985, beginning a successful program of incubating and rearing native coho stock.  Chinook and pink salmon eggs and fry were provided by Big Qualicum and Quinsam River Hatcheries and chum eggs by the Puntledge Hatchery.

Joe Bye was the first hatchery manager, his wife Sally Giles the primary fund raiser. Volunteers visited the site twice a day on weekends to check incubators, screens and intakes and record data.  A propane heater protected the incubators from freezing in cold weather; school tours of the hatchery soon began.

By March 1988, ORES had the capacity to produce annually 100,000 chinook smolts, 150,000 coho smolts, 1,000,000 or more pink fry and 100,000 chum fry.  With survival rates of chinook and coho released as smolts significantly higher than the same fish released as fry, large numbers of returning fish became available for harvest by commercial and recreational fishermen.

Coho are by and large, small tributary spawners.  To provide wild coho with better access to habitat, in July '88 work began on a fish ladder for Woodhus Slough, beaver dams were cleared on Bear Creek and the Little Oyster, and UBC Research Farm gave permission for the construction of Channel Two at the hatchery site.

In 1996, Frank and Jitka Petruzelka became the second talented husband and wife team to dedicate themselves to ORES.  As hatchery manager, Frank oversaw the creation of the Arthur Mayse, Raven and Connolly side channels, and the Rippingale Channel complex; these channels provide vital quality habitat for the natural spawning, rearing and overwintering of salmon and trout.

ONGOING OPERATIONS

Since 1996, in a typical year 30,000 to 50,000 spawning pink, coho, chinook, and chum salmon return to the Oyster River. During this time we have expanded our incubation facilities, adding moist incubators for incubating eggs, and additional Heath trays for rearing of fry, constructed another 100 meter pond in 2024,  and now maintain some 11 in stream Capilano troughs, and other structures for tools, equipment and machinery storage and also added several round holding tanks which help avoid injury to broodstock fish.

Under our current hatchery manager Lyle Edmunds, our operations have been improved and modernized. We have upgraded our power system with additional solar panels (as we are totally off grid at the site), and an automated backup generator. For the safety of our volunteers, we have sponsored first aid training for designated members, and have installed a cellphone booster at the hatchery building. Along with our broodstock capture, we participate in ongoing scientific collaborations with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and with local research groups.

COMMUNITY SUPPORT

Over a number of years, through the "Stream to Sea Program - Salmonids in the Classroom" program and with guidance and support from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, ORES has coordinated with a few schools in the local area to grow Coho salmon eggs in DFO-provided aquariums, where the students can observe the eggs evolve into free swimming fry. We then lead a discussion regarding the salmon lifecycle and the effects of the environment on the health and development of the fish. When the fish are ready, the students bring them to the hatchery on a field trip and release them to continue their life cycle.

ORES also supports the Provincial Youth and Ecological Restoration Program.  We host students of this program on most volunteer days.  They help out with fish feeding, screen cleaning, and they learn about watershed ecology.

FUNDING & MEMBERSHIP

Today the heart of our organization is our membership which grows and wanes stands at about 50 active volunteers under the direction of an invested Board of Directors. With full involvement in the Salmon Enhancement Program “SEP” with Dept of Fisheries and Oceans we welcome Coho, Chinook, Chum and Pink Salmon with total license to take almost 1,000,000 eggs yearly.

Funding is still acquired by donations and is an active process. Two streams of monies are needed for the operations to continue. One stream is the day to day operational.  The other stream is for project costs, asset development, assets maintenance, or consulting fees.  All operational monies are acquired by membership donations, community fund raising and by a unique fund built by endowments from the estates of volunteers/members and various donators. No operational monies are supplied by supporting agencies.

Major participants in the hatchery project funding have been Comox Valley Regional District, Pacific Salmon Foundation, Campbell River Salmon Foundation, Mowi, Mosaic, Cermaq and Greig Seafoods to name a few.

TODAY

This 2025 year saw two in water camera systems being installed on Traps 2 & 3 to help with recording incoming fish numbers.  In 2024 we handled some 11,000 fish by hand.. 2026 will see us working on completing the Camera systems with upgraded camera boxes.

Thank you to the Campbell River Salmon Foundation.

Other projects on the books are Spawning gravel replacement on channels which have had large quantities of gravel pushed down from active areas and repairing or replacing damaged predator fencing on ponds 1 & 2.  This gravel replacement will be handled by machine and by hand into areas that only can be accessed by hand.

FUTURE

Future work area is the rehabilitation of the channel system (Raven Lands) at the confluence of the Little Oyster River. This area has been Left to Mother Nature for now more than 25 years and is in need of better water flow to turn it into prime Coho habitat. Discussions are ongoing with the land owner.

Another project in the same area is the Woodhouse Creek fish ladder rebuilding.

Both Woodhouse and the Little Oyster River areas would contribute an estimated 50 + acres of working fish habitat.

The Oyster River Enhancement Society has been blessed over the years with many thoughtful committed people, hardworking and resourceful.  With partnership and community funding and support, ORES has helped the Oyster River become one of the most productive volunteer-driven salmon producers on Vancouver Island.