Keystone members

The current directors of QISES are as follows:

* Lawrie Bowles (president)
* Paul Puddy (vice-president)
* Rob Johnson (treasurer)
* Lauren Miller (secretary)
* Jess Williamson
* Claire Hemingway
* Colin Chapman

Our group is so much more than our the regular board of directors.  There are so many more phenomenal, dedicated people who’ve been an important part of Quadra Island Salmon Enhancement and their legacy is huge. Below are just a few:

Janis McLean, long-term president, has been involved with QISES for many years and at the helm from 2010-2023. She brings to the group a decade of experience as an environmental assessment technician with a keen interest in fish and forest habitat.  Many thanks to Janis for years and years of field work, agendas, and numerous Drought-proofing reports, President’s reports (links in “News & Reports”), and more.  A rare species to be caught on camera, Janis is shown below in a picture of the Hyacinthe Creek “Drought-proofing gang.”

“Drought-proofing gang” – phot by Al Beattie – featuring Frank Gleeson, Doug Richardson, Grant Hayden, Janis McLean

Don McEachern is an islander whose dedication and passion carried QISES from its point of origin to 2006. In 1984 Don was hired to oversee the Katimavik volunteers. About his early work with salmon on Quadra, he says he was ‘just kind of interested,’ yet his curiosity and commitment translated into two decades of full-on leadership in the group. For a conversation with Don about the early years at the hatchery and what salmon enhancement brought to the island, go to (Don McEachern link)

If you look at Quadra Salmon’s watershed reports and projects, you’ll see another name again and again. Lawrie Bowles, a registered biologist, has been a key consultant and project manager with Quadra Salmon for decades, contributing to assessments and rehabilitation of the Drew Creek watershed, helping initiate and implement data monitoring in Village Bay Lakes, and designing aspects of the current Village Bay Lakes fish counting system. In 2023 he announced his retirement from QISES, but he continues to share reports, data, and even stream health classes with the Quadra community and beyond.

 Another significant development for Quadra Salmon was the development of a video counting system at our fish fence on Village Bay Lakes.  QISES director Larry Hafemeister was instrumental in initiating and researching this project, and director Doug Biro dedicated hours of time and his unique brilliance to the design of an off-grid, battery-powered light and camera system.

Photo: QISES director Doug Biro boating across Village Bay Lakes to the salmon counting fence, where he designed and helped install a unique and custom video system for counting the adult salmon returning to the Village Bay Lakes watershed to spawn.  Photo by Rochelle Baker for the National Observer.

Larry Hafemeister and his wife Perrin Sparks moved to Village Bay Lakes and bought a house with a dock where the Quadra Salmon boat was parked.  Larry counted salmon at the Village Bay Lake fish fence for over 10 years, and was a key catalyst in Quadra Salmon’s development of a video counting system that would not impede the migration of the salmon.  Larry passed away in 2023.  Photo:  portrait of Larry by Perrin Sparks.