The numbers are not in yet, but there are enough returning Chum in Basil Creek to justify milking them for eggs. A group of nine Klahoose employees and Cortes Island Streamkeepers carried this out on Tuesday, November 4, 2025.
No one wished to comment at this time.
Continue reading Milking the Chum in Basil Creek
Over the past decade, a quiet but deeply dedicated group of islanders has transformed the health and future of Cortes Island’s salmon-bearing streams. At the heart of this story are Christine and Cec Robinson, whose leadership helped launch the Cortes Streamkeepers into a community-wide conservation effort that today is rebuilding fish populations, improving habitat, and inspiring a new generation of salmon stewards.
Continue reading The Story of the Island’s StreamkeepersThe algae blooms that began appearing in Hague and Gunflint Lakes in 2014 signaled a looming ecological crisis on Cortes Island. Fueled by excessive nutrient runoff—particularly phosphorus from septic systems, runoff from gardens, farms, and soils and sediments from eroding ditches—these blooms posed a serious threat to water quality and lake life. Recognizing the urgency, the Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) launched a lake-monitoring program and, through years of data collection and expert analysis, identified wetland restoration as a key solution. That’s where the Dillon Creek Wetland Restoration Project began.
Continue reading Restoring Life to Dillon Creek
French filmmaker Jérémy Mathieu’s award winning documentary ‘Salmon Secrets,’ will be coming to Gorge Hall at 1 PM on Sunday, January 12.
This 40 minute film was produced by Clayoquot Action, whose co-founders Bonny Glambeck and Dan Lewis will be speaking at the screening.
Continue reading The Documentary ‘Salmon Secrets’ Comes to Cortes IslandThe final numbers for Cortes Island’s 2024 Chum run are in. Local streamkeepers Cec and Christine Robinson gave a rundown.
Christine Robinson: “I think we all know that this was a stupendous year for Chums up and down the coast. So not just Cortes, not just Quadra, not just the Sunshine Coast, but from the mainland all the way up to Alaska and down through to Puget Sound and I think possibly further south. The numbers on Cortes were the highest that we have seen since we’ve lived on Cortes, which is now 34 years.”
Cec Robinson: “To put it in context, they’re probably three times higher than the best years we’ve ever seen. So it was pretty huge.”
Continue reading Final Numbers for Cortes Island’s 2024 Chum Run
