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Page 10 WEST VANCOUVER HISTORICAL SOCIETY April 1998 ARCHIVES CORNER Mary Chapman, Archives Volunteer Coordinator There's Something Fishy About These Volunteers Happiness is the wide grin on the face of the young boy that accompanied the shouts of joy when he landed his trout on the bank of a small creek, a picture no camera could ever capture. This scene would be repeated many times during the first fifty years of this century by most little boys whose families became permanent settlers in West Vancouver. No special uniforms, registration fees or a fishing license was required, just a visit to dad's tackle box for a length of line, a leader with the right hook and weights and a stick for a fishing pole and he was ready to join a friend or two or go off on his own. Many "fish stories" were recalled of the years of these happy days in their young lives. One young lad always took his fishing line to school toting the bait in his pants pocket, a handful of worms from his dad's compost! He would fish all the way home following the creek that eventually led to home, usually arriving with a string of fish. A few years later he and his three brothers discovered Brother's Creek in West Vancouver and found that not only could they feed their family, but that they afforded a small source of income too. They could sell their "catch" to Peter Larson's Capilano View Hotel located at the Second Canyon of Capilano for 25 cents per fish. The fish appeared on the hotel's "Special of the Day" menu as "Brook Trout." With the housing explosion and the building of the Upper Levels Highway from the late 1950s most of the small streams in West Vancouver were butted or diverted into underground tunnels and about the only fish one sees these days are the painted ones on the black-topped streets. But while these painted fish are appearing more frequently, something is happening on the east side of West Vancouver. Some twenty-four business groups, government and a community group of about 80 VOLUNTEERS have been working very quietly for the last few years, trying to revitalize Brother's Creek with real fish and the fall of 1997 saw more than 100 adult salmon return to spawn in West Vancouver's last remaining salmon stream. Paul Berlinguette, a landscaper and volunteer coordinator of the West Vancouver Streamkeepers and Jim MacCarthy, a Past-President of the British Properties Area Homeowner's Association and a resident of that area since 1959, reported the Brother's Creek Task Committee estimates that $100,000 worth of volunteer labour and donated materials was given to the project last year. Some of the work done so far: 1) West Vancouver Engineering staff installed a fish ladder of seven concrete boxes in a culvert at Wildwood Lane. 2) British Pacific Properties took out a fifteen metre section of concrete and restored a section of Hadden Creek, a Brother's Creek tributary that a resident had turned into a fast-flowing sluiceway during the 1960s while building an adjacent lagoon. 3) Streamkeeper volunteers built pools and planted native shrubs to recreate the natural habitats that give salmon food and shelter. They also removed a pile of uncovered dirt that the rains were carrying to the streams and a dump truck of hog fuel that a British Properties resident had placed on municipally-owned streamside land. One resident had used some bed springs to shore up the bank. None of these residents had realized that they were destroying a salmon habitat. Hard-working Jim MacCarthy is also a member of the West Vancouver Historical Society. He has done an A-1 job for the past several years in providing the Guest Speaker for the Society's General meetings and you can be sure he's doing a good job with the fish. He may be retired, but not too tired to lend a hand. Whin's Wiring?????? If you notice the layout of this edition of "History-Onics" is a little different from usual it is because Waring Pentiand our hardworking publisher is recovering from surgery & was not able to produce this month's issue. Helen Davies, working under Waring's direction, undertook to produce this issue. We are happy to report that Waring is on the mend, so you can look forward to his return.