Workshop brings together salmon users

November 17, 2016

Courtney Carothers photo. Lee Stephan, President of the Native Village of Eklutna, gives the group a traditional welcome.

More than 200 people attended a recent workshop in Anchorage to discuss how to maintain salmon populations and the communities that depend on functioning salmon ecosystems.

The workshop, “Long-term Challenges to Alaska’s Salmon and Salmon-Dependent Communities," drew representatives from Alaska Native groups, nongovernmental organizations, fishing and processing companies, and academic institutions, who spent three days discussing a wide range of topics, from from subsistence fishing to habitat biology.

Many Alaska communities are dependent on salmon as a key source of food, a principal driver of the economy and a cultural keystone species. But increasing population size, urbanization, and climate change pose long-term challenges to salmon populations.

“The ability to think and collaborate in such a diverse room of people was one extremely positive outcome of this workshop,” said Milo Adkison, a workshop organizer and professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. “People tend to get siloed in the issues that they work on or think about. For me, it was eye opening to look at and listen to some of the panels on racial equity and salmon governance, which is outside of my research-focused field. People got exposed to completely different sides of the salmon story.”

Courtney Carothers photo. Andrea Sanders and Jorie Paoli lead a discussion about racial equity.

Breakout sessions aimed to define key issues relating to salmon habitat and development, community sustainability, governance of salmon and racial equity. The sessions included discussion about topics such as comanagement of fisheries by government and Native groups and regulation enforcement. Breakout group teams will continue to develop plans to address the issues discussed at the workshop.

“This workshop provided a great opportunity for people to meet and begin a dialogue on a lot of tough conversations. It brought together a group of people who otherwise wouldn’t have had the opportunity to learn and understand each other’s perspective. We all have the same goal, to protect salmon dependent societies, and it was refreshing to witness those gathered to collaborate on the future sustainability of Alaska,” said Barbara Blake, special advisor to Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott.

This workshop was designed to inform what may become the UA Center for Salmon and Society. It was coordinated by the UAF College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences and sponsored by CFOS, Alaska Sea Grant, the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, the Mat-Su Salmon Habitat Partnership, the Southwest Alaska Salmon Habitat Partnership, the Salmon Project, and the Bristol Bay Habitat Land Trust.