Last month in our regular Pacific Salmon Foundation feature I let you know about their annual gala fundraiser held at the Convention Centre. Over the past few years I've sat on the Dinner Committee for it along with a group of a dozen or so others. We meet in the months leading up offering ideas and support for the organizers and connecting our personal networks of other people who are passionate about salmon and conservation, so that they might help with sponsorship, auction items and more.
This year I decided to reach out to the folks at Wesgroup, the company that's spearheading the River District development. If you haven't seen it, it's that massive new neighbourhood located on the edge of the Fraser in South Vancouver. Here is a post we did about it last year.
I knew that a cornerstone of River District was working on improving the habitat for fish (salmon!) at their development, so I asked them if they might want to lend even more support for the species by attending the PSF gala. They didn't even blink, immediately buying a table for $2,000, sending 10 of their folks to the gala.
More than 700 people attended, raising a total of $275,000 for the Foundation who help to sustain salmon populations in British Columbia. Guests were greeted with champagne, appies and tables filled with silent auction and raffle items.
The silent auction is always a hit
As the night moved along mingling made way to being seated for dinner, and host Michael Meneer shared stories about the foundation and why salmon are such an important species in our province. The evening ended with a live auction where big ticket items like all inclusive trips to fishing resorts were up for grabs.
More than 700 people attended the PSF’s 2016 gala fundraiser at the Vancouver Convention Centre
Wesgroup are one of many, many organizations who help the Pacific Salmon Foundation every year. Some have CEOs with a personal interest in fishing, many are companies that profit from angling in one way or another (resorts, rod and reel manufacturers, etc) and others are just good corporate citizens. Wesgroup seems to fall into the latter category.
The location of their River District project is on a large swath of land that was historically industrial, home to a sawmill and other businesses that left the place contaminated with heavy metals after more than a hundred years operating there. When the company came in and begun turning it into a place where people could actually live they had a big job in remediating the soil, and they went a step beyond by actually doing all of that on-site. In contrast, Vancouver's Olympic Village (the neighbourhood I live in, and love) installed a massive plastic sheet over the contaminated soil on the edge of False Creek, then dumped 6 feet of fill on top of it, essentially containing the bad just below the neighbourhood.
Selections from River District’s plan to rehabilitate their section of the Fraser
Remediation is one thing, but what do you do after you've cleaned up the crap that man left behind? If you're Wesgroup you then formulate and execute a plan that'll result in a net gain of fish and wildlife habitat. Specifically what they've done to achieve this is they've created a new intertidal marsh, a tidal channel, sanctuary island habitat and they've enhanced the riparian areas. All in it represents 1000 m2 of increased habitat for fish, as well as an increase in the value of the area that existed previous. What's good for the fish is good for the people and vice versa, and I'm happy to say that Wesgroup is doing good for all of us.
