Wild Salmon Center is the leading group working to protect the strongest wild salmon rivers across the North Pacific.
We work from northern California and the Pacific Northwest, up to British Columbia and Alaska and across to the Western Pacific. (Here’s where we work). We focus on salmon because they are an iconic and powerful conservation symbol, wild to the core, with an incredible life story.
When you protect salmon, you protect the benefits of healthy watersheds. The North Pacific’s most beautiful and important rivers all depend on salmon. And the science is clear that these rivers, in turn, safeguard global food security, species biodiversity, and climate resilience. This scientific foundation has guided our work for decades. We call it the stronghold strategy.
We focus on wild salmon
If we want salmon around for our kids and grandkids, we have to protect wild salmon—they are among the most adaptable creatures on the planet. Wild-born fish are the best equipped to survive in the face of industrial development, population increases, and climate change.
We focus on “strongholds”
We target salmon strongholds—the richest, strongest salmon rivers in the Pacific—because it’s easier to protect rivers while they are still healthy and thriving. History tells us it’s incredibly difficult and expensive to fix a river once it’s dammed, mined, diverted, or otherwise broken.
We build powerful alliances
We build alliances with the most effective local and regional partners working in North Pacific salmon strongholds. We help these groups design and implement winning strategies built on our scientific, political, legal, fundraising, and communications expertise.
Our strategy at work
Since 1992, we and our partners have together secured 89 rivers and more than 35 million acres in protected areas or special wild fish management areas.
