Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation marks Earth Day with grants totalling $410,000

April 25, 2013, Fredericton, NB – The Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation (ASCF) celebrated Earth Day with the announcement that grants totaling some $410,000 will be awarded to 38 projects slated for the 2013 season. This is both the largest number of grants and the highest amount of funding ever dispensed in the Foundation’s seven-year history.

This year’s round of competition attracted some 58 applications from conservation, environmental, sports angling and Aboriginal groups in Atlantic Canada and Québec.

“The Foundation has established itself as the funding agent for wild Atlantic salmon conservation in Canada,” the Honourable Rémi Bujold, ASCF Chair, said today.

Of the 38 projects, three are interprovincial, with funding totaling $58,000 and work spanning salmon habitat in both New Brunswick and Québec. The Atlantic Salmon Federation will receive $25,000 to continue its salmon tracking research, tagging smolt and kelt in the Miramichi and Restigouche Rivers in New Brunswick and in the Grand Cascapedia River and Rivière St. Jean in Quebec, and then monitoring their movements through the head of tide in the Cascapedia, Miramichi, and Restigouche rivers, Miramichi Bay, the Baie de Chaleur, Strait of Belle Isle (Gulf of St. Lawrence) and Cabot Strait. The purpose is to find out why many of the fish that leave the rivers do not to return.

The Restigouche River Management Council will receive $20,000 as the final installment for a two-year project to study the thermal refuge habitats in the Restigouche, which flows though both New Brunswick and Québec, and a grantof $13,000 has been awarded to Gespe’gewaq Mi’gmaq Resource Council (GMRC) to engage Mi’gmaq youth in Atlantic salmon in the communities they serve in Québec and New Brunswick.

The remaining 35 provincially-based projects funded by ASCF this year include: 11 in New Brunswick, with a total of $117,770 in support; four in Newfoundland and Labrador, $73,700; sixin Prince Edward Island, $70,400; nine in Nova Scotia, $57,000; and five in Québec, $33,200.

Funding for projects in PEI and New Brunswick was supported through partnerships between ASCF and the PEI Liquor Control Commission and Alcool NB Liquor, both of which mounted special sales events last year, with all proceeds dedicated to salmon conservation projects.

“All of us with ASCF are very grateful to these partners, as well as to our other sponsors, Picaroons Traditional Ales and Abel Reels, for their valuable support,” said Hon. Bujold.

Submissions were assessed by the Foundation’s five provincial advisory committees and its central advisory committee. “As is the case every year, we were very impressed with the quality and quantity of the applications we received,” said Hon. Bujold.

“We are also pleased that each of the provinces has a number of long range, multi-year projects,” Bujold added. “This shows that interest in conservation of wild Atlantic salmon is widespread, active and enduring. Organizations needing support now look to ASCF as a reliable, established source of funds.”

The Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation is a volunteer, non-profit, charitable organization established with the goal of helping to achieve healthy and sustainable wild Atlantic salmon stocks in Atlantic Canada and Québec Funded with an endowment from the Government of Canada, the proceeds from partnership arrangements, sponsorships and donations from generous supporters, the Foundation has created a trust fund to promote and strengthen partnerships among groups working to conserve wild Atlantic salmon. Conservation projects and program administration are financed from interest earned by the trust fund.