The Ibex river flows into the Takhini River downstream from Steamboat Landing. Salmon that spawn on the Takhini are most likely the same stock that spawned on the Ibex before the 1955. As an ES project, funded under an HRSEP grant, we flew the Takhini River spawning stretch in 2003 with fisher biologist Pat Mulligan to determine and map redds along both rivers and count salmon during the fall spawn.
We were able yto map a number of old redds along the stretch of the Ibex downstream from the confluence of the Scout Lake Road, past the Arkel to the confluence with the Takhini but saw no salmon spawning. On the Takhini we counted 156 spawning salmon in the reach between Kusua Lake and Steamboat Landing.
We took the sighting of old redds along the Ibex as evidence that salmon populations used the river for spawning but both the hydro diversion and subsequent beaver dams across the lower river levels limited salmon access to the traditional spawning areas.
We were able yto map a number of old redds along the stretch of the Ibex downstream from the confluence of the Scout Lake Road, past the Arkel to the confluence with the Takhini but saw no salmon spawning. On the Takhini we counted 156 spawning salmon in the reach between Kusua Lake and Steamboat Landing.
We took the sighting of old redds along the Ibex as evidence that salmon populations used the river for spawning but both the hydro diversion and subsequent beaver dams across the lower river levels limited salmon access to the traditional spawning areas.