Wild Salmon Center Newsletter Summer, 2009

National Geographic Features Salmon in Kamchatka and the Work of WSC

National Geographic Magazine reveals more than 20% of the world's wild salmon population are at risk on Russia's remote Kamchatka Peninsula

Russia's Kamchatka salmon fishery is one of the most productive globally, providing at least twenty percent of the world's wild Pacific salmon. Poaching is prolific throughout the peninsula and the rich marine waters that surround it. Anatoly Dekshtein, Coordinator of the World Wildlife Fund's Marine Program on Kamchatka noted that, "We estimate the annual illegal salmon catch at 55,000 tons -- more than double the legal salmon harvest in Canada." Corruption, depressed local economies, and a constantly changing management framework are some of the root causes for the region's poaching epidemic.

In 2008, Wild Salmon Center worked with National Geographic Magazine to support development of a feature article highlighting key salmon rivers in Kamchatka and issues affecting their long-term viability. The resulting article, "Where Salmon Rule" appears in the August issue reaching 35 million readers worldwide. It reveals that for Kamchatka to remain the world's foremost salmon fishery, "its rivers don't need to be restored; they need only to be protected from poaching, overcatch, oil and gas development, disruptive and poisonous mining, and other forms of shortsighted mistakes." The article states that the lack of adequate protection and effective management will lead to permanent salmon declines that are not recoverable. Salmon are an important keystone species for natural ecosystems supporting bears, eagles, and scores of other wildlife and provide the foundation of the region's economy and social well-being.

In the article National Geographic acknowledges the work done by both Wild Salmon Center and its partners in Kamchatka.

An excerpt from the article:

"The Wild Fishes and Biodiversity Foundation of Kamchatka, and its American partner, the Wild Salmon Center . . . (have) backed an ambitious vision of adding five more such protected areas--on the Oblukovina, Krutogorova, Kolpakova, and Opala Rivers, and the Zhupanova River. Those five areas, together with the Kol and the Utkholok, would make Kamchatka the planet's greatest, boldest experiment in nurturing wild salmon species for their own sakes and for the measured use of humankind."

• View the photos and full article "Where Salmon Rule" in National Geographic Magazine's August 2009 issue.
• Read the Wild Salmon Center - World Wildlife Fund joint Press Release.
• Get more information on how WSC is working to protect Kamchatka's last, best wild salmon rivers and support "the planet's greatest, boldest experiment in nuturing wild salmon."

U.S.-Russian Summit

WSC participates in Moscow Summit with President Obama

U.S.-Russian Summit WSC participates in Moscow Summit with President Obama On July 6 and 7 WSC's President Guido Rahr participated in an environmental panel of the 2009 Civil Society Summit in Moscow, organized by the Eurasia Foundation. Held in conjunction with the U.S.-Russian Presidential Summit, ten non-governmental environmental organizations (NGOs) from the United States and Russia worked together on a common list of priorities for U.S.-Russia NGO cooperation on the environment.

Recommendations on broad areas of cooperation were presented to U.S. President Barack Obama, and more detailed model programs including salmon conservation in the North Pacific were included in the Civil Society Summit proceedings. During his visit, President Obama, along with Russian President Medvedev, signed an agreement to create a bilateral Presidential Commission on U.S.-Russian cooperation to replace the Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. The new Commission will include an energy & environmental sub-committee. WSC and other groups at the Civil Society Summit gave a strong message to President Obama that environmental NGO representatives be included in the Commission.

President Obama joined the last session of the Civil Society Summit to hear recommendations from each group. WSC presented President Obama with a framed photograph of a bear fishing on a salmon river in Kamchatka with a note about the importance of conserving shared salmon resources.

The Obama-Medvedev Commission may provide an important high level U.S.-Russian forum to advance environmental conservation efforts that are priorities for both nations, including the conservation of globally important salmon ecosystems. WSC will continue to work with both administrations to build support for our work and to ensure that wild salmon conservation is on the agenda for bilateral cooperation.

Salmon Stronghold Program in Canada

WSC partner Pacific Fisheries Resource Conservation Council to apply the "salmon stronghold" approach to British Columbia's Harrison River

June 24, 2009 -- The Pacific Fisheries Resource Conservation Council (PFRCC) announced in a press conference in Vancouver, BC that it will launch the first "salmon stronghold" pilot program in Canada.

The salmon stronghold strategy complements conventional salmon recovery activities by supporting proactive, collaborative conservation projects, and focusing resources on the most abundant and productive wild salmon river ecosystems that still remain--salmon strongholds.

"Historically, salmon conservation has been driven by crisis management after watersheds are degraded and salmon populations are depleted," said Guido Rahr, President & Chief Executive of the Wild Salmon Center. "We now know this approach must be complemented with a pro-active, preventative strategy to conserve healthy wild salmon ecosystems. Any long-term conservation strategy must include efforts that keep strongholds intact, and prevent them from declining."

"We applaud the leadership of the PFRCC for their energetic efforts to accelerate the protection of Canada's most productive wild salmon rivers and for sharing their successes with the salmon bearing nations of the Pacific Rim."

The six-month pilot project will begin this summer in the Harrison River watershed in British Columbia, with the PFRCC providing leadership and resources. The Harrison River and tributaries are one of Canada's watersheds that supports all six species of salmon, including sockeye, pink, Chinook, chum, Coho and steelhead. The Harrison also represents one of many rivers in British Columbia that currently supports strong wild salmon populations that number in the millions. The health of these rivers and their watersheds however, is under increasing threat from encroaching major industrial, agricultural and urban development and pressures. The PFRCC will also work closely with partners, such as the Rivers Institute at British Columbia Institute of Technology, the Chehalis First Nation and the Nature Trust.

"The Salmon Stronghold project and its recognition of the 'need to protect the best first', is an innovative concept that we fully support," said Kelsey Charlie, Councilor with the Chehalis First Nation. "(The Salmon Stronghold pilot project) gives us hope that the Harrison will remain strong, avoiding the pitfalls of incremental damage from poorly planned development and ensure that the Harrison will receive the attention it deserves."

The Wild Salmon Center currently coordinates the North American Salmon Stronghold Partnership (Stronghold Partnership), a public-private partnership that provides resources and expertise to facilitate high-value conservation action at the basin level. The Stronghold Partnership is coordinating multiple agencies and land managers to accelerate conservation actions across federal, state, tribal and private lands and is working to leverage public and private funding. PFRCC intends to follow a similar approach by implementing proactive conservation projects which involve voluntary and locally-based initiatives, along with government agency participation.

"We believe that implementing the Salmon Stronghold concept in Canada would have significant benefits to the long-term viability of wild salmon and steelhead populations," said Mark Angelo, Chair of the PFRCC.

Notes from the Field: Sakhalin Russia

GIS and Watershed Analysis: Tools for Conservation

By Daniel Nelson, Communications Assistant, Western Pacific Programs

In May I joined WSC's Conservation Geographer Christina Friedle for the second in a series of GIS and Watershed Analysis seminars on Sakhalin Island. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a computer-based tool used to analyze salmon and habitat data, and to represent information spatially on maps and charts. WSC partner organizations, including the Sakhalin Salmon Initiative Center (SSIC), are beginning to use GIS and other technologies in their salmon monitoring programs. High-quality, accurate maps are an essential tool for tracking habitat changes in Sakhalin and promoting salmon conservation.

SSIC's new Education Center at Sakhalin State University hosted the seminar. Participants represented a variety of organizations and specializations--a botanist from the Russian Academy of Sciences; fish biologists from SSI, Sakhalin Fisheries Research Institute (SakhNIRO) and Sakhrybvod; and students and teachers from Sakhalin State University.

Several participants, including seminar organizer Anatoly Semenchenko of SSIC, joined us on a five-day expedition to the Kura River in southern Sakhalin to put into practice the concepts learned in the classroom. During the day, the group collected fish, habitat, and vegetation data. Data collection methods used by the group in the field built upon the methods already used by local fish biologists, but they included some new techniques to make it easier to input the data into GIS. Evenings were spent uploading data and reviewing mapping techniques using GIS software.

Over the last few years, WSC and GIS software company, ESRI, have provided conservation organizations on Sakhalin with Russian-language mapping tools and instruction. Full implementation of this complex software takes time, but with continued interaction between GIS specialists and Russian fish biologists, high-level mapping technology will enhance monitoring of salmon habitat for years to come.

Advancing Protected Areas in Russia

WSC and Portland State University host Russian partners for a Protected Areas Management Workshop.

Kamchatka and Khabarovsk partners joined WSC staff in Portland, Oregon for a workshop focusing on protected area management in the Columbia River Basin watershed. Several Russian salmon strongholds are slated to attain protected area status in the coming year and it is important that our partners receive support from the international community and learn how protected areas are designated and managed in other countries, including the U.S.

The workshop was conducted by Dr. Peter Paquet and Dr. Craig Shinn, faculty members of the Executive Leadership Institute at Portland State University. The primary topics addressed during the workshop were multi-level governance of protected areas, public and private salmon conservation efforts, habitat restoration, and resource management at both the state and federal levels.

The complexity of the American system of protected areas surprised the Russians, but it also provided a good comparison and a vision for the future.  Evgeny Lobkov said at the end of the conference, “In addition to the new information we learned during the seminar, I’ve become more confident that the work we’re doing is beneficial and that we’re on the right track.”

Salmon Stronghold Legislation

Legislation advances through House and Senate Subcommittees.

In April 2009, Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and the entire West Coast Senate delegation introduced federal legislation to protect and restore the healthiest remaining wild Pacific salmon ecosystems in North America--"Salmon Strongholds." A companion bill was introduced in the U.S. House on April 22nd by Representatives Mike Thompson (D-CA 1st) and Mike Simpson (R-ID 2nd).

The Pacific Salmon Stronghold Conservation Act (S. 817; H.R. 2055) will establish a new, proactive U.S. policy recognizing the need for conservation of salmon strongholds as a complement to recovery of federally-listed salmon populations. It will also create a grants program to support cooperative conservation efforts that implement locally-led, high value conservation actions in salmon strongholds across Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, and Alaska.

On June 16th, the House Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans, and Wildlife held a favorable hearing on the Act. Three of our partners, Sara LaBorde (WA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife), Jack Williams (Trout Unlimited), and Tom Weseloh (California Trout), testified in support of the legislation.

Current Status: H.R. 2055 is being debated in the House Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans, and Wildlife. The bill has 29 co-sponsors, including members from all five Pacific salmon states. S. 817 was referred to the Senate Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard.

Next Steps: The House bill will undergo a Subcommittee mark-up and will then be referred to the Natural Resources Committee. A hearing on the Senate bill will likely be held in September.

• Pacific Salmon Stronghold Conservation Act 2009
• Background on Legislation
• Statement by Senator Maria Cantwell

Tillamook Faces Increased Clearcutting

The Oregon Board of Forestry votes for more logging in Tillamook and Clatsop State Forests.

In a June 3 meeting of the Oregon Board of Forestry, protections for salmon and steelhead were rolled back as the Board voted to increase the areas open to clear cutting from 50% of the forest to 70% of the forest. The Board refused to conduct a peer-reviewed scientific analysis before making the decision, and the Board also rejected calls to consider climate change and carbon sequestration in their decision making. However, the meeting saw a partial victory for our efforts, as the Board approved some long-term salmon protections, but the planned harvest increases will nonetheless cause serious ecological damage.

The Tillamook and Clatsop State Forests that are affected by this decision are the largest publically-owned coastal rainforest south of the Olympics and home to some of the healthiest remaining runs of wild salmonids in the lower 48 states. These forests and the health of their watersheds face an uncertain future because of the weakened environmental protections. In tandem with our partners and allies, Wild Salmon Center is playing a leadership role in promoting long-term and ecologically sustainable management of Oregon's state forests. Last fall, WSC made the case for keeping Wild Salmon Anchor Habitat areas in northwest Oregon's state forests using data gathered in collaboration with the Oregon Department of Forestry and Department of Fish and Wildlife. In the months leading up to the June 3 meeting, WSC coordinated ten different conservation organizations in support of conservation on these critical salmon streams. In the coming months we will continue our work with partners to bring science to bear for conservation policy on these outstanding public lands.

With your continued support we can reach our shared goal of having a sustainable economic and ecological management plan for the Tillamook. For more information go to thetillamook.net.

Also in WSC News

• In Bristol Bay, Alaska WSC and Trout Unlimited are collaborating on the development and publication of a technical report that examines the threats posed by Pebble Mine, an enormous gold and copper mine proposed at the headwaters of North America's most productive salmon stronghold and largest sustainable fisheries.
• In Alaska's Copper River Basin WSC partnered with Ecotrust and the U.S. Forest Service on a project to validate models used to predict salmon “hotspots” for conservation planning over whole watersheds.
• WSC participated in a meeting in May with University of Montana's Flathead Lake Biological Station and Moscow State University staff to review progress with the Salmon River Observatory Network, a large-scale research program studying targeted Pacific salmon strongholds.
• In Washington D.C. WSC joined Russian elected officials, U.S. Senators, U.S. House members, executive branch officials, and conservation organizations to explore the creation of a conservation caucus in the Russian Duma and assess the landscape for deeper U.S.-Russian cooperation of environmental matters of global importance.
• The Salmon Stewardship Summit brings together American and Russian students in Portland, Oregon for a nine day residential camp program focusing on promoting environmental stewardship and leadership in today's youth.
• The North American Salmon Stronghold Partnership held its annual meeting in Portland, Oregon. The meeting focused on aligning Stronghold Partnership priorities with the needs of conservation partners working in stronghold basins. Participants representing strongholds in California, Washington, Idaho, and Oregon presented conservation challenges and opportunities in their watersheds. Representatives from Alaska and British Columbia, which recently joined the Stronghold Partnership Committee, also attended the meeting.