A salmon champion on how the stronghold strategy builds a global network of local heroes.

In the early 1980s, Ivan Thompson moved to Lake Babine, in British Columbia’s remote Skeena watershed, to teach at a school that served many children of the Lake Babine First Nation. But as he tells it, he’s the one who got actually schooled: by the parents and grandparents of his students.

“I learned how connected these folks were to the rivers, the salmon,” remembers Thompson. “Over the years, I watched local communities fight logging and mining companies that put these values at risk. I saw the power of people when they work together.”

“I learned how connected these folks were to the rivers, the salmon. I saw the power of people when they work together.”

Ivan Thompson, board member, The Stronghold Fund

It’s a lesson he never forgot in his second, much longer career as a salmon champion. A close Wild Salmon Center partner who’s now a board member of The Stronghold Fund—our impact fund for salmon—Thompson has devoted more than four decades to building community “immune responses” in salmon watersheds in British Columbia and beyond. 

It’s work that’s spanned roles with the Tides Canada Foundation, the Sage Centre, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s Wild Salmon Ecosystems Initiative. There and as a three-term member of Wild Salmon Center’s Board of Directors (2015-2023), Thompson saw firsthand how communities mobilized quickly to respond to threats from the Lelu Island gas export terminal at the mouth of the Skeena to Pebble Mine in Alaska and the near-auction of Oregon’s Elliott State Forest. 

Key to all of these victories, Thompson says, was tireless grassroots campaigning, buoyed by outside support, the best science, and a great story. When all these elements are present to drive home a win, that’s not a coincidence, he says—that’s strategy.

“In the early days, there was no Wild Salmon Center to show us how the Skeena fit into a grand vision,” Thompson says. “The stronghold strategy does that. It uplifts the lonely work of championing your home river.”

“In the early days, there was no Wild Salmon Center to show us how the Skeena fit into a grand vision. The stronghold strategy does that. It uplifts the lonely work of championing your home river.”

Ivan Thompson, board member, The Stronghold Fund

How powerful can a good story be, in the hands of local champions armed with facts and funds? Thompson gives an example: in the early 1990s, friends of his began to champion an idea called the Great Bear Rainforest: an ambitious, if imaginary, 6.4-million-hectare “place” that’s since taken root in magazines, on movie screens, and deep in the popular imagination. WSC’s stronghold approach, Thompson says, carries that vision across oceans.

“No one else out there is telling the big-picture story of wild Pacific salmon,” Thompson says. “Wild Salmon Center has the best scientists on the planet, and the ear of privileged people who love these places.”

“No one else out there is telling the big-picture story of wild Pacific salmon. Wild Salmon Center has the best scientists on the planet, and the ear of privileged people who love these places.”

Ivan Thompson, board member, The Stronghold Fund

As a young teacher in the 1980s, Thompson found his place by accident, in one of the best wild fish rivers on the planet. Over the next four decades, Thompson’s story has helped to shape the course of salmon advocacy in the Skeena and beyond. Within WSC, Thompson’s knowledge and experience have guided our strategy for years.

Now, on the board of The Stronghold Fund, his work continues—connecting grassroots communities with resources, research, and a place within a story that spans the North Pacific.

“This work starts with neighbors talking to neighbors,” Thompson says. “Once we all see ourselves in the story of salmon, we truly build our power.”

“This work starts with neighbors talking to neighbors. Once we all see ourselves in the story of salmon, we truly build our power.”

Ivan Thompson, board member, The Stronghold Fund