Continuing the legacy of Buck Suzuki in protecting BC salmon habitat

Admission: free

Intergenerational Room 105

David Lane will be talking about the work of Buck Suzuki during the 1960s and 1970s in protecting B.C. salmon habitat and rallying fellow commercial fishermen to help in conservation effort. He will talk about the formation of the T. Buck Suzuki Environmental Foundation in 1981 and its work protecting marshes, streams, rivers and ocean waters that salmon depend on. Current threats to wild salmon include loss of streamside vegetation from urban development and logging, pesticide runoff, industrial pollution along the Fraser River, sewage pollution, diseases from salmon farms and potential impacts from increased oil tanker traffic on the coast.

David Lane is the Executive Director of the T. Buck Suzuki Environmental Foundation and is the Environmental Director for the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union. In both capacities he has worked on successful campaigns on environmental issues relating to fish habitat protection ranging from salmon farming, poor logging practices, pulp mill pollution, sewage pollution, hydroelectric developments and urbanization.

The T. Buck Suzuki Environmental Foundation was founded in 1981 by the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union to focus the volunteer efforts of those in the commercial fishing industry to help with conservation of salmon habitat and ocean migration routes. It was named after Buck Suzuki, a long-time UFAWU activist and executive member who was instrumental in bring public attention to the need to protect marshlands and riparian habitat essential to maintaining healthy salmon runs for future generations in the 1960s and 70s.