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Wild Salmon Center Newsletter Spring, 2008

In this issue

Members the Yakama Tribe met with a Russian delegation of indigenous peoples to discuss common tribal and salmon issues. Photo Credit: Hillary Colter

Wild Salmon Center Hosts Russian/US Indigenous Fisheries Management Exchange

In May, the Wild Salmon Center hosted a week-long indigenous fisheries management exchange that brought native fisheries managers and political leaders from the Russian Far East together with numerous tribes from the Pacific Northwest.

With the valuable organizational aid of the Columbia River Inter-tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC) and the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, the Wild Salmon Center organized and facilitated meetings between the Russian delegation from Sakhalin and Kamchatka and members of the Warm Springs, Nez Perce, Yakama, Nisqually, Hoh and Tulalip tribes in Oregon and Washington.

The exchange focused on sharing experiences regarding fishing rights history, effective means of tribal negotiation between sovereigns, fishing practices and management, and hatchery management. The Trust for Mutual Understanding provided funding for this event.

Highlights of the exchange included:

  • A trip to the Columbia River Gorge, where the delegation visited several tribal fishing sites and toured the East White Salmon Processing Plant, a tribal project that is still in its development phase;
  • a cultural day on the Yakama Reservation;
  • a meeting with the natural resources manager of the Nisqually tribe at the Nisqually River Wildlife Refuge;
  • a meeting with the Hoh tribe, where tribe members prepared a spring Chinook salmon feast, gave a tribal dance performance and shared outlooks on past and present problems in the Hoh basin;
  • a meeting with the Tulalip tribe north of Seattle, where restoration efforts in the Puget Sound were discussed, along with plans for a new fisheries office including a fish processing plant and a genetics laboratory.

There is great interest in continuing and expanding the Sakhalin Salmon Initiative indigenous exchange program to include additional native peoples from the US, Canada, Russia, Japan and China and discuss tribal salmon rights and tribal management of salmon ecosystems across the Pacific Rim.

Christina Friedle

Notes From the Field
GIS & Watershed Analysis Seminar in Sakhalin, Russia

by Christina Friedle

In April, Wild Salmon Center's Christina Friedle and Nicole Portley traveled to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Sakhalin Island, Russia, to conduct a seminar on GIS Mapping & Watershed Analysis. Below are the details of the trip and seminar. Here is Christina's account:

In mid-April, the Wild Salmon Center, Sakhalin Salmon Initiative (SSI) and Sakhalin State University collaboratively conducted a five-day "GIS & Watershed Analysis" seminar at a local school in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Attendees of the seminar included the Sakhalin Fisheries and Oceanography Institute (SakhNIRO), the Russian Federal Fisheries Agency Sakhalin branch (Sakhrybvod), and Sakhalin State University.

The GIS tools introduced in the seminar will be used in a six year island-wide monitoring plan for six anadromous and resident salmonid species: Sakhalin Taimen, pink, chum, masu, kundja, and Dolly Varden. The main goal of the project is to determine status and detect trends in these fish populations, their habitat condition, and population dynamics among distinct populations throughout the Island.

Attendees and speakers benefited from the exchange of information at the GIS & Watershed Analysis Seminar

In the days before the seminar, presenters visited the nearby Taranai River and Aniva Bay ecosystems firsthand and collected local data that was used during presentations. Between lectures and hands-on exercises, participants were fully engaged in learning GIS skills for five full days.

The workshop was a success particularly because the information and tools will be used immediately by our partners in Sakhalin. Fieldwork has already begun in the Naicha, Taranai and Kura River basins to determine monitoring sites, analyze mapping data, and assess salmon habitat conditions.

Christina Friedle is the Wild Salmon Center's Conservation Geographer. She can be reached at cfriedle@wildsalmoncenter.org.

Washington State Adopts Steelhead Plan

Washington's State's new policy makes protection and restoration of wild steelhead stocks the state's highest priority in all aspects of steelhead management. Shown: Hoh River, a wild steelhead stronghold. Photo Credit: John McMillan

Spring 2008 -- The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission approved a new steelhead management plan designed to protect and rebuild wild stocks throughout the state. Wild Salmon Center was involved in the public process to shape this plan, providing written comments and direct testimony at the Commission's hearings.

Many of the conservation policies that Wild Salmon Center supported to restore wild steelhead stocks in specific watersheds were included in the final plan, including:

  • A clear statement that protection and restoration of wild steelhead stocks is the state's highest priority in all aspects of steelhead management;
  • Specific limits on genetic mixing between hatchery steelhead and wild fish in different types of hatchery operations, and the establishment of in-stream "gene banks" where wild stocks are protected from interaction with hatchery fish;
  • A new focus on protecting wild steelhead through habitat-restoration programs and state fish-passage laws;
  • A directive that the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife establish performance goals for each wild steelhead stock and benchmarks for achieving them.

The statewide plan provides the institutional backbone for regional management plans (RMPs), which will contain the specific management prescriptions for wild steelhead rivers and will be completed in 2010 and 2011, with Treaty Tribe co-managers' involvement. The Wild Salmon Center will monitor the development of these RMPs, especially as they apply to Washington salmon stronghold basins.

Wild Salmon Center wants to especially thank our partners in the Wild Steelhead Coalition in Washington State, which played a lead role in helping to develop the state plan.

WSC Contributes to Creation of Shiretoko World Heritage Site in Japan

Iwaobetsu River, Shiretoko Photo Credit: Brain Caouette

Wild Salmon Center contributed to the development of Japan's newest international protected area, the Shiretoko World Heritage Site in northeast Hokkaido Island, Japan. Recognized as a World Heritage Site (WHS) for its noteworthy land-sea ecosystem linkages, the Shiretoko WHS is an important stronghold for wild salmonids including cherry, pink and chum salmon as well as white-spotted charr and Dolly varden charr. The Shiretoko Peninsula also lies along a critical migration corridor for salmon returning to the Russian Far East, Japan and Korea.

Wild Salmon Center's involvement in the WHS led to the formation of an interagency government commission charged with developing Japan's first-ever holistic wild salmon management plan. Furthermore, Wild Salmon Center's efforts have resulted in the removal/modification of two check dams, enhancing fish passage for naturally spawning salmon. These reforms spurred by the Shiretoko WHS have important implications for salmon and watershed management across Japan.

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