In 2018, Coast Mountain coordinated environmental funding from Patagonia’s Wholesale Impact Grants Program to help enhance salmon habitat. This was a unique project because so many groups worked together to make it happen: the federal government, a local First Nation, non-profit organizations, and of course local and international businesses.

With the 2018 funding, a study was done by Kwanlin Dün First Nation, Fisheries & Oceans Canada, Yukon River Panel and the Yukon Fish & Game Association to measure water temperatures and their effect on salmon return. Essentially our goal was to better understand the Yukon Ibex watershed and the salmon that call it home.

Then, in 2020, Coast Mountain facilitated, and the Yukon Fish and Game Association applied once again. Patagonia generously sponsored a continuation of the program to continue to develop a rating curve and to monitor the discharge of the Ibex River. Additionally, this secondary project provided support to an already ongoing egg incubation study on the Takhini River by Kwanlin Dün First Nation.

This year, the study continues to monitor survival and development timing of eggs and fry. In small steps, thanks to Patagonia and the many groups who have worked to make it happen, we are working for our environment.

Photo by Peter Mather, check out his amazing photos and his conservation work at https://www.petermather.com/