High school teacher revived salmon population in British Columbia creek

Ruth Foster and biology teacher Rod MacVicar founded a student salmon club at Centennial Secondary School in Coquitlam, British Columbia, in 1976 to restore fish populations to Mossom Creek.

The educators encouraged students to engage in local conservation efforts by moving their learning from the classroom to the creek banks. The club aimed to bring back a modest run of chum salmon, which had not appeared in the waterway for about 15 years.

The project faced early setbacks when students discovered that dumped debris from a nearby housing development destroyed their first batch of 50,000 eggs. Students responded by writing protest letters to the environment minister and local members of the legislature. These actions eventually led the Port Moody council to establish an environmental advisory committee, one of the first of its kind in the province.

Over the following years, the students successfully managed a hatchery and released thousands of fry into the water. By 1991, the initiative saw roughly 700 chum salmon return to the stream annually. The program eventually became a formal senior-year course and led to the construction of a two-storey hatchery and education centre. Although a fire destroyed the facility in 2013, the site was rebuilt and continues to operate as a community hub.