07/22/2026
On a hot July day, we invited members of the public out to Germaine Creek to help with our annual salmon restoration project. For over two decades the DDRRC have been rescuing salmon juveniles and other species of fish stranded in ponds here in the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in Traditional Territory.
With the help of everyone involved we were able to catch and successfully live release 137 fish! 8 Arctic Grayling, 2 Burbot, 6 Long Nose Suckers, 101 Round Whitefish and 16 Slimy Sculpin. Sadly, this year only 4 salmon juveniles were saved, in previous years before the current devastating population decline of Yukon origin Chinook Salmon, our annual efforts often resulted in 1000+ salmon juveniles restored back to the Klondike River.
The DDRRC would like to thank the Pacific Salmon Commission for funding assistance, their support has helped sustain this project for many years, employing local youth and empowering the next generation of salmon stewards. This year River McGlaughlin and Arden Bullen joined our team as youth project technicians. Local Dawson PhD student Natasha Ayoub was involved as a youth mentor and assisted with field activities. Natasha is currently finishing her thesis at the University of Waterloo, studying habitat use and movement of juvenile Chinook salmon in the Yukon River watershed. We also collaborated with Alex deBruyn from EDI Environmental Dynamics Inc. to offer youth employed more hands-on experience in the field. And a big Màhsi' cho to Sunstone Tech Enterprises lnc , a local company that specializes in GIS mapping, this year they helped the project team create drone imagery maps and educated us on how drones are used in the field.
Thank you also to John Howland Photography for documenting the event, and The Klondike Experience for providing transportation.
For more information about the DDRRC please visit our website: www.dawsonrrc.ca
