The Great Salmon Send-Off at Stoney Creek

Saturday morning at Stoney Creek. Kids crouched on the boardwalk, a hatchery volunteer in the water passing up a bucket of fry, and a few hundred Burnaby and Coquitlam neighbours showing up for something that matters.

This is the Great Salmon Send-Off — the annual release of young salmon into Stoney Creek, run by the Stoney Creek Environment Committee and a small army of volunteers. It’s part celebration, part science lesson, part reminder of what we have right here in our backyard.

I went with my family. We talked to Wildlife Rescue Association about what to do when you find an injured bird. We watched my kid lean over the bucket and lock eyes with a fry that, with a bit of luck, will come back to this same creek to spawn in a few years.

That’s the thing about Stoney Creek. It’s one of the last viable salmon-bearing streams in this part of the Lower Mainland. It runs through Burnaby. And it’s under pressure — from development, runoff, and the slow grind of decisions made in rooms most of us never enter.

This past February, the Stoney Creek Environment Committee brought their concerns directly to Burnaby City Council and asked for stronger protections for the watershed. Council referred the matter to staff. That’s where it sits.

I was in the gallery that night. I’ll be in the gallery when it comes back.

Events like Sunday’s are not just photo ops. They’re the volunteer hours, the kid-sized rubber boots, the decades of stewardship that make a creek like Stoney still worth fighting for. The least we can do — as residents, as voters, as a council — is make sure the protections keep pace with the love.

Thank you to every volunteer who made the send-off happen. See you at the creek.

— Garnet