INSIDE:
2006 SRF Conference Agenda & Information
Spring Salmon Summit
Salmon 2100 Conference Announcement
24th Annual Salmonid Restoration Conference
Info is Now Posted at www.calsalmon.org
The Salmonid Restoration Federation
will hold the 24th Annual Salmonid Restoration Conference, “Rediscovering
Urban Creeks and Creating Healthy Watersheds,” at the Santa Barbara
Veterans Memorial Center February 22-25. This premiere restoration
conference offers full-day workshops including Water Conservation,
Fisheries and Wildlife Friendly Agriculture: A Workshop on Sustainability,
Removing Coastal California’s Fish Passage Barriers: From Prioritization
to Implementation, and Reestablishing Salmonids in Cities: The
Next Generation of Urban Stream Restoration Projects. Field tours
include visits to the Ventura River and Matilija Dam, Native Chumash
restoration sites, Urban Creek projects, and fish passage sites
on the Santa Clara River as well as tours to urban creek restoration
projects and to a local vineyard and ranch that have restored
steelhead habitat.
Concurrent sessions focus on environmental, biological, and policy
issues that affect salmonid habitat restoration and recovery of
native fish populations. Sessions include Dam Removal, Project
Monitoring for Watershed Management, Floodplain Management, Salmonid
Education, Southern Steelhead Research and recovery, Habitat Mapping
for Southern Steelhead, Environmental Justice and the Restoration
Movement, and “The Local Perspective: Science, Structure, Streams
and Steelhead in Santa Barbara County.”
The plenary session will feature Assembly Member Pedro Nava who
will address the California Ocean Protection Council. Brock Dolman
of the WATER Institute will address issues of human development
patterns on watershed resiliency, biodiversity, and endangered
salmonids. Julia McIver, Principal Consultant to the State Senate
Committee on Natural Resources and Water, will discuss Salmonid
Education and the Legislative Process. Lisa Thompson of UC Cooperative
Extension will address Southern Steelhead Recovery. And Geomorphologist
David Montgomery will give a talk adapted from his book King
of Fish, The Thousand-Year Run of Salmon.
This year SRF, South Yuba
River Citizens League and the Community Environmental Council
will also offer a watershed, river and fisheries film festival
on Thursday, February 23. The poster session and reception will
be held on Friday evening and the conference will culminate with
a Cabaret, Awards Ceremony, and Banquet on Saturday night.
View the Conference Agenda at: http://www.calsalmon.org/conference/2006/workshops.htm
Conference Logistics:
Please see the Conference website for information about
lodging, transportation, the poster session and other logistics.
To receive the discounted rate at hotels you must book your room
by January 20 and let the reservation desk know that you are attending
the Salmonid Restoration Conference.
SRF Presents Awards for Outstanding Achievements
in the Salmonid Restoration Field. If you would like to nominate
someone for the Restorationist of the Year award, a Lifetime Achievement
award or the Golden Pipe award for innovations in the restoration
field, please email srf@calsalmon.org
200 words describing the nominees accomplishments by December
1, 2005.
Spring Salmon Summit Dec 2nd 10:00- 6:00
in Orleans, CA at the Karuk Community Center*
The Klamath Basin Community Explores the “Moral Imperative”
Over the “Legal Hammer” to Repair Its Lost Spring Chinook Fishery.
In the heart of Salmon Country- Klamath River Ca., community members
are facing potential extinction of their once largest fishery.
Recent spring Chinook salmon runs are the lowest on record and
problems for fish runs in the basin have been historically complex.
“We know that the real solutions are never easy to find, but
the people of the Klamath basin have shown a willingness to cooperate
when given the opportunity” says Karuk Tribe Cultural Biologist
Ron Reed. Many people who work on the controversial issues of
the Klamath know that federal government regulations can bring
an element of fear into deliberations between stakeholders who
are otherwise neighbors.
Representatives from either side of the fence agree that the listing
of coho salmon under the endangered species act (ESA) has polarized
communities and bound up recovery processes with law suits from
both farmers and fishing interests. Now the recent drop in spring
Chinook salmon numbers in the Klamath is causing managers and
fish advocates to pose the question, would ESA listing be an effective
way to protect this species. Petey Brucker the Salmon River
Restoration Council (SRRC) Program Coordinator says, “Since our
inception, we have promoted that the stakeholders pull together
to develop a voluntary recovery framework, regardless of listing.
This kind of effective strategy, including Conservation Agreements,
may be the best way to avoid listing and also lead to the successful
recovery of spring Chinook recovery. ”
A group called the Salmon River Spring Chinook Voluntary Recovery
Group, initiated by the SRRC, has been working on this kind of
solution. The group is comprised of the tribes, fishing community,
managing and regulatory agencies, and community members and is
taking a voluntary approach to restoring their spring Chinook
fishery. “One thing we know for sure is that these fish can’t
wait anymore, we are seeing lower returns than ever before and
the regulatory processes set up to protect them haven’t proven
to work quickly”, says Nat Pennington, Fisheries Coordinator-
SRRC. The group is now looking to begin voluntary management and
restoration of spring Chinook populations in the entire Klamath
basin by applying the Salmon River model to the other stocks.
With a decision on whether to remove or alter four dams for anadromous
fish passage on the Klamath looming, the spring Chinook run which
originally populated large amounts of habitats above the dams,
will continue to gain interest. “One significant concern is that
the runs not drop so low that they can't act as a resource to
restore other runs should dams on the Klamath be removed someday,
places like the Salmon River might be some of the best brood stock
to use for those efforts," says Dave Hillemeier, a Senior
Fisheries
Biologist for the Yurok Tribe .
The next step in the Recovery Work Groups’ process is to integrate
the diverse stakeholder interests throughout the entire basin
and affected ocean communities to discuss what types of actions
are necessary to restore the Klamath’s spring Chinook run, which
has been and continues to be so important to tribes and river
communities. The Klamath Voluntary Spring Chinook Recovery Group
is holding a public meeting on Dec 2^nd at the Karuk Community
Center in Orleans from 10am 6pm to discuss strategies for species
recovery and is encouraging public participation. During this
event, panel presentations, and discussion points will include:
significance of spring Chinook to tribes and the fishing community,
currents status of the runs and their management, and open forum
on community input. Lunch will be provided and dinner will be
available at the public opening of the Orleans Community Center
and Mid
Klamath Watershed Council offices.
Contact Information: Nat Pennington, Phone- 530 623 0883, Fisheries@srrc.org
Salmon 2100 Project: Alternative Futures
for Wild Pacific Salmon in Western North America
January 25, 2006, Portland, Oregon
The Salmon 2100 Project was founded on the premise that wild salmon
in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and southern British
Columbia are struggling to hang on as remnants of once flourishing
species in small portions of their original range. Given current
policy drivers and foreseeable trends, the long-term trajectory
for wild salmon is downward. The Project has assembled 33 salmon
scientists, policy analysts, and salmon advocates to answer the
question:
What is it really going to take policy-wise to have wild salmon
populations in significant, sustainable numbers through 2100 in
California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and southern British Columbia?
The main purpose of the Salmon 2100 Project is to raise the overall
rigor and reality of the dialogue, not to argue for or against
saving wild salmon, nor for or against any particular policy prescription.
The Salmon 2100 project leaders asked authors develop realistic,
effective, and straightforward policy prescriptions that allow
policy makers and society to assess available and viable options.
Some of them are radical, many of them are uncomfortable, all
of them are still options that would only become policies if people
explicitly choose to pursue them.
The conference will be a venue for presenting publicly a cross
section of the policy prescriptions (the morning session) and
an opportunity for government and nongovernmental salmon recovery
leaders to respond to those policy prescriptions (the afternoon
session). William Ruckelshaus, chairman of the Salmon Recovery
Funding Board for the State of Washington, will be the conference
keynote speaker.
Contacts: Robert T. Lackey, lackey.robert@epa.gov,
(541) 754-4607
Denise H. Lach, denise.lach@oregonstate.edu, (541) 737-5471
Sally L. Duncan, duncan.sally@epa.gov, (541) 754-4862
Please send SRF salmonid restoration
job descriptions, conference announcements, training and funding
opportunities to include in this monthly enewsletter.
Dana Stolzman
Salmonid Restoration Federation
Executive Director
(707) 923-7501
(707) 923-3135 fax
www.calsalmon.org
srf@calsalmon.org
