H.D. Stafford Middle School Grade 7 students helped about 1,000 chum babies settle into their new home with a fish release recently.

The Nicomekl Enhancement Society provided the fish smolts from its hatchery. The fish, a few months old, were released into Pleasantdale Creek, in the area of 49A Avenue and 203 Street, and will remain in the area until they are old enough to make their way from the creek out to the ocean before returning in a few years to the area to lay their eggs.

The society works with schools in promoting salmon education in the classroom, in this case, with students as part of the OACES program. The program, Outdoor Aboriginal, Community and Environment Studies, sees every Stafford student take outdoor education.

Open house

The enhancement society was founded in 1989. Its volunteer-run hatchery at 5263 232nd St. will be open to the general public on Saturday, April 26. The society was going to release 50,000 fish into local waterways at the open house.

Nigel Easton, society president, issued an invitation to members of the public to help out on Saturday. They could carry buckets containing the tiny smolts down to the stream that runs by the hatchery.

The open house was also a chance for people to learn about salmon's life cycle, and the local waterways that provide homes to the young fish before they head out into the ocean.

The hatchery raises Boundary Bay endangered chinook, coho, and chum. As well, volunteers restore salmon habitat in the summer, collecting brood stock in the fall, rear juveniles through winter and release them in the spring.

The hatchery stocks some of the tributaries that flow into the Nicomekl- Anderson, Chantrel, Pleasantdale, Murray, McClellan, Logan and Elgin waterways.