Palmerville Adventures | A Lifelong Association

Greg Palmer began visiting the Khutzeymateen when he was 10 years old. In the early 1970s, Greg and his family holidayed in the area. It was here that he first watched grizzly bears with their young.

In the late 1970s, his father, Ben, was contracted by the Ministry of Fisheries to clear massive log jams from the river. While blowdown occurs naturally, the number of trees that had fallen was excessive and was restricting salmon from returning to their spawning beds.

Ben and his crews worked to clear the Khutzeymateen and other salmon creeks to improve access to spawning beds. Greg and his two brothers worked with his father's crew on many of these projects.

The Khutzeymateen River now enjoys strong salmon returns, important to grizzlies because this is the most critical food source for coastal bears and sustains them through hibernation.