Phil Janz, manager of the Powell River Salmon Society is at the hatchery on the grounds of Powell River Division.

The hatchery operates year round on our site and has the capacity to incubate over 2.5 million salmon each year. In 14 years, more than 12 million salmon and trout fry have been reared and released into local streams.

Supporting salmon-friendly homes

Some cast-offs from our mills are finding environmentally friendly second lives in B.C. streams.

Used nylon talc bags — each holds a tonne of talc used for bleaching pulp — have proven useful for moving spawning gravel for stream enhancement projects. The bags are also used as underwater diversions to create spawning areas.

Elk Falls Division provides about 3,000 of the used bags every year — keeping them out of landfills and saving the government and taxpayers money, as similar new bags cost $65 each.

Elk Falls also provides used felts — cloth sheets that hold paper against drying rolls during production — to line the bottom of streams and prevent erosion.