HELP WANTED!

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davidh
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HELP WANTED!

Post by davidh » Sat May 20, 2023 7:30 am

,

HELP WANTED!

Many of our HWF forum members and friends will remember the tower cams located on the Harrison-Chehalis Flats that were featured on the Hancock Wildlife Foundation website several years ago.  Unfortunately, they were vandalized and left unrepairable. The damaged cams were subsequently rescued, but what remained of the tower itself is still on the Flats.

It is now time (see article below) to remove what is left of the tower/camera platform and the HWF is requesting your assistance in its recovery.  

Needed is a volunteer(s) with a smallish 16 to 18 foot outboard. We already have the strong backs and able bodies. The tower knocks apart into 10 foot aluminum beams.  It just turns out none of our key workers have a boat.  We have the trailer to haul the materials away -- we just need to get the dismantled aluminum bars to the shore.  If you have a few hours we are more than willing to contribute the gas. 

Thanks,

David 
604 761-1025  
[email protected]  


The Sts'ailes Bald Eagle Cafe

The Harrison-Chehalis Flats is not just the world's largest gathering place of bald eagles, it is an ecological treasure house of many species.  The eagles gather there because the river shallows offer all the salmonids species some of the richest spawning beds in all of Canada.  Naturally many waterfowl gather here to feast on the carcasses and drifting eggs.  

As some of you will recall the HWF had operated two wonderful PTZ cams from a 10m tower for a few years.  This was eventually vandalized -- now it is our responsibility to get the aluminum frame back. That is what prompted this note.  We soon expanded our desires to make this incredible eagle resource available to more people -- and to expand eagle feasting season back to what it originally was -- about 6 months long.  This evolved into a plan to develop the first of several Bald Eagle Cafes' -- places where eagles could readily access the wasted salmon and agricultural carcasses.  The Sts'ailes had first not just agreed to this, but loved that my suggested site was adjacent to their Sasquatch Eco Lodge.  

These Sts'ailes projects are still building. The entire First Nations project will focus on tourism and educational outreach.  The recent meetings now include many First Nations Trails, information outreach centers, an elevated walkway already under construction and leading to the heart of the Sts'ailes Bald Eagle Cafe.  The HWF Plan was to oversee the eagle outreach through more Live Streaming CAMs.   Some CAMs will be underwater to follow the seven species of salmon, track the beavers into their bank dens, follow otters, bears and wolves. Others will focus on the feasting eagles. Since we first proposed the idea and site,  Roosevelt Elk have re-invaded the flats -- another wondrous species.  It is incredible that the HWF can be part of this First Nations project.  Following the Sts'ailes Chiefs' acceptance of the Bald Eagle Cafe idea, they then accepted our next proposal of setting aside the entire Harrison-Chehalis Flats as an educational ecological reserve.  But they added a wonderful twist.  

You may recall when the HWF and Fraser Valley Bald Eagle Festival Committee first proposed making the area a "Bald Eagle Reserve" to the Sts'ailes Chiefs.  The immediate response was: "What a wonderful idea but let's call it the Chehalis Bald Eagle & Salmon Reserve." That was instantly accepted by all.  With the Reserve now also receiving full Provincial Government approval as a Wildlife Management Area, the funds and tourist-educational outreach are now coming to fruition.  

So today, the "Bald Eagle Cafe" forms the hub of an extended set of First Nations Trails around the Chehalis Flats, an elevated walkway to keep the public safely above the ecologically sensitive flats, and ending at the feeding site.  I am even hoping to rebuild one of our artificial bald eagle nests adjacent to one of the viewing towers.  The feeding site will extend the eagles' feasting season back to closer to the 6 months they enjoyed before we Europeans diminished the numbers of spawning salmon.  The 'feeding site,' outfitted with observation and photographic opportunities, would give world wide acclaim to the First Nations outreach.  This will focus not just the eagle and wildlife component but all the associated First Nations trails to their ancient housing sites, their food gathering and pre-European farming sites, and how they have successfully occupied this region since the retreat of the glaciers.  This fitted perfectly into the developing Sts'ailes tourism & education plans.  

We had proposed the Cafe site near their Sasquatch Eco Lodge tourist facility. This site is now back on track. You may recall Betty Anne Faulkner, the original owner of the Sandpiper Golf & Country Club, and the sponsor of our Harrison Mills Bald Eagle CAMS and the world's biggest and best bald eagle observatory right on the flats. She also co-sponsored the first fundraiser to start the Bald Eagle Cafe.  The Hancock Wildlife Foundation still sits on that first $4,700.00 that the sponsored dinner raised to initiate live streaming cams.  Our home still is adorned with some of the wonderful collection of Christian Sasse's marvelous featured Bald Eagle Photo Gallery display.  Betty Anne and the  Chung Ai Photographic Society of BC sponsored the dinner to raise the funds.  It is so incredibly positive to see these ideas coming to fruition as they are incorporated into a fully expanded Sts'ailes full First Nations educational outreach program.  

So that is now why we need to retrieve our fallen CAM tower.  It is now a blight on the land and perhaps may become another part of the proposed outreach. But it no longer needs to lie on the ground.   

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