SkeenaWild Money Give-Away in Smithers

Also from the SkeenaWild website, this novel publicity stunt on Main Street in Smithers recently.

SMITHERS (July 3, 2009) SkeenaWild Conservation Trust has devised an innovative poster to attract attention to its cause.

The poster is entirely covered with removable $5 bills, beneath which hides a startling message: If salmon disappear from the Skeena, so will $100 million from the local economy.


It was unveiled on Smithers’ Main Street. And much to the delight of the gathered lunch crowd, the money—roughly $2,100 in total—was free for the taking.

“Everyone knows salmon are important for our ecosystem, but most people aren’t aware of their economic worth,” said Greg Knox, Executive Director of SkeenaWild. “Literally putting money in people’s hands demonstrates how we all directly benefit from them. It’s like a mini stimulus package, from salmon.”


“As one of the most diverse wild salmon habitats in the world, the Skeena has always had a salmon economy. We just wanted to get people talking about it again,” said Tricia Bradshaw, Account Manager at Rethink Communications, the Vancouver-based ad agency behind the stunt.

SkeenaWild Conservation Trust, now in its second year of operation, is dedicated to making the Skeena watershed a global model of a sustainable wild salmon system. Among other projects, the Trust is working to improve wild salmon management and prevent threats to habitat.

-30-

For more information, please contact:

Greg Knox, SkeenaWild Conservation Trust, (250) 638-0998 or (250) 615-1810 (cell)
gregk@skeenawild.org

Tricia Bradshaw, Rethink Communications, (604) 685-8911 triciabradshaw@rethinkcommunications.com