The ceremonial first shovels will be dug in Penticton on March 7 for what will be a new passage aimed at bringing salmon back to Okanagan Lake for the first time in close to a century.

The snpink香蕉视频直播檛n (Penticton) Indian Band announced the partnership between First Nations, the provincial government and the City of Penticton on Feb. 27.

The dam at the mouth of Okanagan River, the current one built in the 1950s, was part of efforts in the early 1900s by settlers to deal with flooding on Okanagan River, converting it into the narrow, and died River Channel it is today. 

As a result, many oxbows were cut off and the traditional spawning habitat for salmon destroyed, as well as access to the lake and more than 350 square kilometres of habitat for the keystone species. 

Since the 1990s, the Okanagan Nation Alliance (ONA) and its member nations, including the PIB, have worked to restore the salmon population to the river and their traditional territory. 

The fishway is the latest in a long-running effort to restore the salmon population to the Columbia River system on both sides of the border, including the establishment of the ONA  hatchery on snpink香蕉视频直播檛n band land.

Past modifications to dams downstream, including Oliver, Osoyoos and across the border in the U.S., have helped to bring salmon back and up to Penticton. 

香蕉视频直播淥ur collective success has been a series of processes all coming together, like keeping the water flowing in the river, restoring the habitat that we had available and then adding more habitat over time,香蕉视频直播� Chief Greg Gabriel said. 香蕉视频直播淓veryone in our Nation has been supportive of this important work and many have worked directly with the ONA Fisheries department to get the work done."

An attempt to make a fishway at Penticton was made in 2019, however, a review found structural problems that made it inaccessible at certain lake levels among other issues.

Efforts at restoring the salmon have borne fruit, or rather eggs, in recent years with 2024 seeing one of the biggest salmon returns since the ONA began its broodstock and repopulation programs. 

Last year in Osoyoos Lake, the number of returning salmon was 50 times what it was in the mid- to late-1990s. 

Together with project partners such as the Habitat Conservation Plan, TD Friends of the Environment and the Habitat Subcommittee of the Priest Rapids Coordinating Committee, the new, naturalized fishway will also provide an adjustable invasive species migration barrier and monitoring station for further research. 

During the construction access to Okanagan Dam will be unavailable from the east bank, adjacent to Loco Landing, along with a stretch of the dike. 

A portion of the parking lot at Loco Landing will also be unavailable. 

During the process, riparian plants and additional native shrubs will be planted in the area, replacing the existing plants by a factor of three according to a notice posted near the site.