October 01, 2026

Leith Wheeler’s Focus on Philanthropy: Pacific Salmon Foundation

If you’ve never seen a salmon run, you really need to check it out. As a child growing up in Victoria, I had the good fortune each year to go and watch thousands of fish kick their way up the Goldstream River. Watchful eagles, struggle, resilience, and of course (of note to a 10-year-old boy), fish carcasses.

Many may take this cycle of life for granted, but the salmon population along and into BC’s coast is a fragile ecosystem, something the folks at the Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF) have been working hard to preserve for nearly 40 years. 

I had the chance to sit down recently with the team at PSF to learn more about the stakes of the work PSF does, what progress has been made, and importantly, where to catch the next run.
 

The Return of the Sockeye

Sockeye runs go through four-year cycles, and this year – 2026 – is a big one. PSF has created an online salmon spotting map that shows accessible locations for seeing the returns. In person, aside from Goldstream, there are many places you can go to witness runs across BC. Among them are Brackendale near Squamish, where you can see both the salmon and the accompanying congress of eagles, and notably, Adams River, 75 km east of Kamloops. 

From October 9-25, the Adams River Salmon Society — with support from Skwlāx te Secwepemcúl̓ecw, PSF, and other partners — will produce the four-week Salute to the Sockeye festival. It features a viewing platform co-funded by PSF where you can watch the estimated two million fish climb to their spawning grounds. 
 

“They have school kids in every day, who go down the river and learn how to dissect salmon,” said Margaret Buttner, Manager, Development at PSF. “It's very family oriented [and] quite a big thing.”

This year will be a special one for Adams River as it will be the first since the 2023 Bush Creek fire tore through the area, devastating it and changing the way the river flows. 

“In response, PSF has been funding major work in the lower Adams to restore those natural river processes by creating channels and putting in structured engineered log jams so that the river will rebuild its natural flow, and create more of that spawning habitat,” Buttner said. 

Fingers crossed it yields a bountiful run.
 

The Stakes

Pacific Salmon Foundation was founded in 1987 with a start-up grant from the federal Department of Fisheries, and according to Michael Meneer, President and CEO of the foundation, the stakes today couldn’t be higher. 

“Pacific salmon are a cornerstone of the coast, sustaining ecosystems, economies, and cultures for millennia. With two-thirds of populations in BC and the Yukon in long-term decline, we've reached a tipping point,” Meneer said.
 

“But given the opportunity, salmon can recover. When we work together to restore a river or reconnect an estuary, salmon can come back, even at-risk populations. We've seen it happen in watersheds across BC. This summer and fall, PSF is helping make possible game-changing restoration projects in some of our province's most iconic salmon rivers.”

About PSF

Pacific Salmon Foundation is about more than rebuilding habitats. It funds research to understand the causes of declining salmon stocks, which include industrial development, climate change, natural disturbances, urban development, aquaculture, mismanaged fisheries, and… Canada geese! Apparently the Canadian cobra chickens do more than threaten tourists – they tear up grass in estuaries PSF has been working to restore. Located at river mouths along the east coast of Vancouver Island, the estuaries help mitigate wave action and reduce flooding to enable juvenile salmon to grow. 

PSF also strives to be an agile problem-solver when time-sensitive problems arise. One example was Indian River, circa 2023, when 20,000 salmon were poised to spawn and the river had dried up. Buttner described how, along with BC Conservation, PSF funded a digger to come and dig the channel. “Someone needs a digger, we can get the digger there. That timeliness of our funding is really important.”

The organization is also a major funder of a project in the Nicola River watershed, which has been hit by the unholy trinity of wildfire, drought, and flooding in recent years – and resulting in a dangerous loss of stream complexity (like Adams River).

A cornerstone of PSF’s approach is rallying and coordinating support from multiple stakeholders. “PSF is a galvanizing force that gets different groups to the table so that we can work together on the projects that make the biggest impact for salmon,” said Connal McNamara, Marketing & Communications Manager at PSF. "And across the game-changing habitat restoration projects that PSF supports, you really see that with First Nations, angler groups, community stewardship groups, and government coming together."
 

An example of this approach is their work in the Muchalat River watershed near Gold River on Vancouver Island, where PSF has helped create about 200 metres of spawning gravel for a threatened Chinook population. 

“The Muchalat story really demonstrates collaboration with a number of partners. It was the Nootka Sound Watershed Society, it was the local Mowachaht/ Muchalaht First Nations… it was several other funders, and there were in-kind donations as well,” Buttner said. 
 

“They rebuilt this whole spawning channel from the lake to the river, and the impact was almost immediate. They did it last summer and the salmon were returning already. With each salmon laying, like 10,000 eggs, it's exponential growth over time.”

As a finance guy, my ears perk up. In markets, as in salmon stock restoration, exponential growth is the holy grail. 

In closing, Meneer adds, “The takeaway I hope readers hold onto is this: their support has a direct, lasting impact. Game-changing projects are only possible when people choose to invest in an abundant future for salmon.”

By working in tandem and focusing on a common goal, Pacific Salmon Foundation has found a way to make a real difference in protecting and regrowing our important natural endowment. A worthy investment. 

If you’re interested in supporting Pacific Salmon Foundation, you can learn more here. 

At Leith Wheeler, we support our clients’ giving by facilitating the creation of Donor Advised Funds (DAFs), which can be an effective tool in tax and philanthropic planning. To learn about how you can centralize your giving to all Canadian registered charities via a DAF, reach out to your portfolio manager or connect with us here.


Cover image photo by: Fernando Lessa.

Author

Mike Wallberg

Principal, Head of Marketing & Communications