Community Hatchery Program

ONTARIO FEDERATION OF ANGLERS AND HUNTERS

Doug Clarke Memorial Award

This award was founded in 1982 in memory of C.H.D. Clarke, who devoted his career to the philosophy, science and art of wildlife management. At the time of his death in 1981, he was a director of the Canadian Wildlife Federation. This award is presented to a CWF affiliate for the most outstanding conservation project completed by its clubs or members during the previous year.

IN 2013, THE ONTARIO FEDERATION OF ANGLERS AND HUNTERS, working with Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, launched a program to provide financial and technical support to small community fish culture stations throughout the province in their essential work enhancing angling opportunities and species rehabilitation efforts. Over the past seven years, the program has expanded its capacity, funding and outreach to community-run hatcheries: in 2019, it distributed $150,000 in provincial operational and capital improvement grant funding to organizations from 37 communities that engaged 1,085 volunteers. Together they raised and stocked eight million walleye, chinook salmon, coho salmon, rainbow trout, brown trout and brook trout into public waters in Ontario and did species restoration work with lake trout, Atlantic salmon and muskellunge. By facilitating the transfer of knowledge and technical expertise among small community hatcheries, the program assists with addressing government requirements and provides support for fish health testing, proper egg collection, and rearing and stocking procedures. Brian Mcleod, president of the Atikokan Sportsmen’s Conservation Club, says his small community-based conservation club and walleye hatchery in northwestern Ontario relies on the program’s technical support, in addition to the much-needed provincial funding. “The technical assistance we really cherish. Their manuals and how-to videos on the complete operation of a hatchery are invaluable… and their website is a valuable service that enables all the hatcheries to share the knowledge that they have gained.”