Despite buffetting winds that pressed off the broad expanse of the

Youngsters from the area of Castlegar were able to participate in the release, and they got wholeheartedly into the spirit of the event.

Columbia River below the Hugh Keenleyside Dam just upstream from Castlegar, BC, on April 22, a steady procession of youngsters gingerly wound their way to the water’s edge toting red pails brimming with precious cargo. By day’s end, a total of 4,000 juvenile white sturgeon–each of them barely 10 months old and eight inches snout to tail–had been released in the river as part of the Upper Columbia White Sturgeon Recovery Initiative. All told, during the course of the week’s events unfolding in different communties along the Columbia between Revelstoke and the Canada/US border, 12,000 of the fish raised at BC’s Kootenay Trout Hatchery were released in a program that not only returned the ancient fish to their historic range but also fostered a sense of ownership and responsibility in tomorrow’s generations.

Doug Crawley, manager of BC’s Kootenay Trout Hatchery, holds one of the 4,000 juvenile sturgeon released into the Columbia River on Earth Day, 2009.

Once abundant through most of the Columbia River’s 1,900 kilometre circuitous route to the sea, sturgeon numbers plunged to a low of only 4,200 fish (1,000 of these in the Canadian portion of the river) in the span of the last century, a decline that coincided with the proliferation of dams along the river. Worse yet, almost no juvenile sturgeon were to be found, prompting the creation of the Upper Columbia White Sturgeon Recovery Intiative made up of both Canadian and American stakeholders in 2000. Since then, the organization has released between 10,000 and 13,000 young sturgeon in the Canadian portion of the river while additional releases are carried out in the US. All of the fish have marked skutes or plates coded to the year of release and have implanted transponders to monitor their movements up and down the river.

“That must be neat to see,” I ventured to Crawley.

“You bet it is,” he shot back, a smile spreading across his face.

There are not many men you meet in the course of a lifetime who can truly be called gentlemen in every sense of the word. Men who respect your opinions, honour your dreams and listen carefully to your words to understand the thoughts they convey. Men who are upright in their dealings with their comrades and treat all with a quiet dignity.

Len Rich was every bit a gentleman and more. Best known in eastern Canada as a wonderful writer about things outdoors, as a guide and lodge owner and as a mentor to all, Len passed away on April 13 following a short but courageous run-in with cancer. Though his words are stilled and his easy-going manner are just a memory, the world has been a better place because he lived in it.

So long, good friend. We’ll miss you.

Forget about the daffodils, the budding magnolias and the birds. I saw my first real sign of spring on BC’s Lower Mainland today — a big black Conservation Officer Service pickup truck headed through North Vancouver with one of those blue cylindrical live bear traps in tow. Guess the bruins are out of hibernation and straight into people’s garbage. Right on sched. Between the people who take absolutely no responsibility for the way they store their garbage and the self acclaimed nature lovers who leave out tidbits for the poor hungry bears, COs throughout the region and in fact the province, have their hands full every spring catching and transplanting problem bears. There wouldn’t be a problem if there was no food for the bears to find. And if we stopped encroaching on their habitat.