Home after nearly a week on the road.

I was in Comox, BC, for a three-day SEHAB (Salmon Enhancement and Habitat Advisory Board) meeting. We meet three times a year after collating information from streamkeeper and stewardship groups from across BC, and take our advice to Fisheries and Oceans Canada Pacific Regional HQ.

I represent groups on the north side of the Fraser River from Burnaby to Mission.

SEHAB is an amazing board that I’ve been blessed to participate in for decades initially as an alternate board member, and then as a full board member. The breadth and depth of knowledge shared by board members from across the province is impressive.

We share what’s going well with volunteer groups, and what’s needed.

Unfortunately, over the last few months, Fisheries and Oceans Canada has been in upheaval due to drastic budget cuts. Staff are disappearing, even managers don’t appear to know what’s in the future.

Programs continue. . . or not.

And these are programs that leverage hundreds of thousands of hours of volunteer time from over 10,000 volunteers across BC.

I tacked on a couple of days camping on the back end.

One of the local stewardship sites that we visited: