Work for fish, rivers recognized

Work for fish, rivers, recognized
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published June 4, 2003

A pair of environmentalists from Burnaby were honoured by the federal fisheries minister this week, as part of the lead-up to Canada Rivers Day, this Sunday, June 8.

Jennifer Atchison of the Stoney Creek environment committee and Elmer Rudolph of the Sapperton Fish and Game Club are two of only five people in the country to receive the prestigious 2003 Recreational Fisheries Awards.

The honour comes with a sterling silver commemorative medal struck by the Royal Canadian Mint and a certificate of merit. The other recipients are former B.C. Wildlife Federation executive director Bill Otway, the late Bill Chinnick of Sechelt and the Big Rideau Lake Association in Ontario.

"The work you've done shows that the spirit of volunteerism is alive and well in Canada," minister Robert Thibault told the Burnaby volunteers Monday during the presentation ceremony at the Lord Elgin Hotel in Ottawa.

"There was nothing in this for any of you, in the way of personal gain," Thibault said in the press release making the announcement. "Your incentives came from within. I hope as many Canadians as possible will hear about what you've achieved and look to it as an example. It's one more demonstration of how much can be accomplished when people direct a strong passion at a good cause."

Atchison has spent seven years volunteering for local waterways, serving as chair of the Stoney Creek committee and helping to found the Stewardship Action Network in B.C.

Rudolph has been with the Sapperton Fish and Game Club on the Brunette River since 1984 and is credited with much of the success in bringing back coho, cutthroat and steelhead runs to the urban waterway.

"Canada has always been known for its recreational fishery, but keeping up our reputation and the habitat on which it depends comes at the cost of hard work by imaginative people," Thibault said. "Our recreational fishery is a resource every Canadian has a stake in. All of us understand that, but we don't all act on it."

And the awards were not the only accolades offered to Burnaby Streamkeepers in the week leading up to the Canada Rivers Day.

On Wednesday, Byrne Creek Streamkeepers and Stream of Dream organizers Joan Carne and Louise Towell were heading off to the nation's capital to transplant portions of the local 'dreamfish mural' to central Canada.

The Stream of Dreams is the colourful mural made of painted plywood fish that was originally installed at Edmonds and Kingsway and has since been repeated at nine other Burnaby schools, plus in Mission, Langley and White Rock. After this week, portions of those murals will now be seen in Ottawa and Gatineau, Quebec, too.

"When we heard that Rivers Day was going national, I thought that B.C. needs to give the rest of the country a Stream of Dreams," Carne said Tuesday morning. "So we spent nine months getting permission to do this in Ottawa."

But despite all the accolades, Carne agrees with recent comments made by Rudolph and other local Streamkeepers that the honours and awards are nice, but what is really needed is a little bit of professional help - preferably of the kind formerly offered by the full-time stewardship coordinator whose job was lost due to federal funding cuts last month.

"As volunteers, it is very easy to get burned out, so having a person act as a bridge between the agencies and volunteers was really, really valuable," Carne said. "That was just one professional position to support all the work the volunteers do. It would be nice if we could maintain that support."