Community Articles (listed by posting date)
General News · 26th October 2025
FOCI Streamkeepers
So say Cortes creeks and spawners. Basil Creek is usually the first on Cortes to receive returning salmon, and true to form, the first chum showed up on October 23. These first chum are gorgeous, big, strong, with no decay, and moving steadily up the creek. The chum typically have a 4-year cycle – we saw good returns in the fall of 2021, so we can expect this year to have a strong return of spawning chum. Last year’s spectacular chum run will have no affect on 2025 spawners.
It is a privilege to witness the epic return from the long sea migration and their final heroic act to spawn and return their spent bodies back to stream, forest and all the wild creatures who thrive on this.
For the sake of these salmon, please be mindful of your presence when watching spawning salmon in creeks, and follow simple guidelines:
• no walking in the creek; that means enthusiastic children of all ages!
• keep dogs on leashes and out of the creek, but best if dogs are left at home
• approach salmon quietly & slowly; It’s hard not to point enthusiastically, but this gesture often scares them
• approach from downstream (that way, if you startle the salmon, they will swim upstream rather than downstream where they came from)
• be respectful of private property
There are 2 public viewing places for Basil Creek, and we ask that you stay off private property. The public can easily observe salmon at the mouth of the creek where it empties into Squirrel Cove, and also at the public trail below the restored open-bottom arch where the salmon enhancement educational signage is erected. Chum are often seen pooling just below the arch, so move carefully, please.
Please remember these important pointers for salmon & stream etiquette!
And please be respectful of private property where you park and walk.
Send the spawners a wish, as the school kids do, for this last all-consuming stage of their lives.
Community salmon watch is alway appreciated, so if you see salmon in other Cortes creeks, please let the FOCI office or one of the following streamkeepers know.
Cec & Christine Robinson, Chris Napper, Mike Manson, Carrie Saxifrage, Maureen Williams, Ralph Garrison, Leona Jensen
It is a privilege to witness the epic return from the long sea migration and their final heroic act to spawn and return their spent bodies back to stream, forest and all the wild creatures who thrive on this.
For the sake of these salmon, please be mindful of your presence when watching spawning salmon in creeks, and follow simple guidelines:
• no walking in the creek; that means enthusiastic children of all ages!
• keep dogs on leashes and out of the creek, but best if dogs are left at home
• approach salmon quietly & slowly; It’s hard not to point enthusiastically, but this gesture often scares them
• approach from downstream (that way, if you startle the salmon, they will swim upstream rather than downstream where they came from)
• be respectful of private property
There are 2 public viewing places for Basil Creek, and we ask that you stay off private property. The public can easily observe salmon at the mouth of the creek where it empties into Squirrel Cove, and also at the public trail below the restored open-bottom arch where the salmon enhancement educational signage is erected. Chum are often seen pooling just below the arch, so move carefully, please.
Please remember these important pointers for salmon & stream etiquette!
And please be respectful of private property where you park and walk.
Send the spawners a wish, as the school kids do, for this last all-consuming stage of their lives.
Community salmon watch is alway appreciated, so if you see salmon in other Cortes creeks, please let the FOCI office or one of the following streamkeepers know.
Cec & Christine Robinson, Chris Napper, Mike Manson, Carrie Saxifrage, Maureen Williams, Ralph Garrison, Leona Jensen