The vandalism of equipment this fall has significantly disrupted a local conservation organization's research efforts, preventing them from obtaining an accurate count of coho salmon in the Campbell River watershed during the fall run.

This comes as coho populations have reached their highest numbers in several years.

Keely Dodds, community engagement coordinator with Greenways Land Trust, said the organization added new equipment at a fish fence to help with their salmon counts at a Campbell River creek. The new camera allows the salmon to swim through the fence rather than trapping them, allowing a more passive way to gather information. 

Shortly after installing the equipment, Dodds said they experienced the first act of vandalism. 

"People had dropped big boulders and smashed the box that the camera was in and then broke off the lock," she said. "It didn't look like they went into the box and tampered with the camera, but they did cut the cable so there is no video feed."

It was a big upset for the organization because the vandalism happened during the first big rainfall of the fall at the end of September, she said. Because the vandalism has continued, it has disrupted how the organization engages with its community volunteers - a crucial component of its goals as a conservation organization. 

"Because we were putting out fires the whole season, we couldn't get volunteers involved," Dodds said.  

Unfortunately, not much can be done unless whoever is perpetrating the vandalism is caught in the act, she said. She added the organization plans to set up a wildlife camera to identify whoever is doing it. The RCMP have been contacted, she said. 

The Campbell River Mirror reached out to the Campbell River RCMP but did not receive a response before publication.