Photo: Kristen Holliday

A team records measurements on Adams Lake in October. The Adams Lake Indian Band said data from the second year of the Upper Adams Lake Nutrient Restoration Program has showed an increase in phytoplankton production, nutrients needed to help salmon smolts get stronger, boosting their chances of a successful return.

A program that aims to boost the Upper Adams sockeye return has completed its second year, with data showing fertilizer added to Adams Lake has begun to increase the production of some nutrients needed to help salmon smolts grow stronger.

According to the Adams Lake Indian Band, which spearheaded the project, this year’s data indicates the fertilizer, applied to the lake by boat over the spring and summer months, has boosted phytoplankton production — the food source for zooplankton.

“Zooplankton is the main food source for young sockeye and will allow for better growth in the smolts,” a release from the band said.

“The increased size of the sockeye smolts will result in better survival rates on their ocean migration.”

The Upper Adams Lake Nutrient Restoration Program was spearheaded by the Adams Lake Indian Band, and runs in partnership with the Secwepemc Fisheries Commission, Okanagan Nation Alliance and several government ministries.

According to the Adams Lake Indian Band, the first year of the program consisted of collecting background information on the chemical, physical and biological characteristics of the lake.

This year, agricultural-grade liquid fertilizer was added to the water and a team conducted “extensive monitoring” of the lake ecosystem, collecting frequent water samples from various depths below the water surface.

In an earlier interview with Castanet, Dave Nordquist, title and rights and natural resource director for the Adams Lake Indian Band, said the Upper Adams “used to be red with salmon from top to bottom in that whole watershed.”

Nordquist said more than 100 years ago, the logging industry installed a splash dam on the Adams River that kept salmon from spawning, exterminating the fish which, in turn, caused the lake to loose its nutrients.

Nordquist said the salmon population is now in the thousands, instead of in the millions.

Tests done in the mid-1990s showed lake fertilization could help to increase the salmon return, with a larger number of returning fish benefiting the entire lake and land base, as well as the Adams Lake Band.

“If we get tens of thousands of kilograms of returning salmon, when they die and spawn they feed the whole ecosystem. The lake gets richer, so all of the lake char, the Kokanee, everything in the lake gets bigger, and more of them,” Nordquist said.

According to the band, nutrients will continue to be added to Adams Lake throughout 2022 and 2023. The program is projected to end in March 2024.