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150 YEARS OF SALMON RESTORATION: ASSORTED TRUTHS
Citation:
Lackey, R T. 150 YEARS OF SALMON RESTORATION: ASSORTED TRUTHS. Presented at organizational Learning: Adaptive Management for Salmon Conservation, Bellevue, WA, December 3-4, 2001.
Description:
Billions of dollars have been spent in a so-far failed attempt to reverse the long-term decline of wild Pacific salmon. Of the Earth's four regions (i.e., Asian Far East, Atlantic Europe, eastern North America, and western North America) where salmon runs originally occurred, it looks increasingly like our region will follow the pattern of the other three: extirpated or much reduced runs in the southern half of the range; larger runs in the northern half of the range, that is, British Columbia northward. Based on experiences from 150 years of effort to protect and restore salmon in western North America, several lessons-learned, or self-evident truths, are proposed: (1) society's preferences ? thus restoration policy goals ? are fleeting; (2) time scales of the principal players rarely coincide; (3) scientists are essential, but supporting players; (4) infatuation with optimization is naive; and (5) ecological reality or scientific truth is often an orphan. These truths are offered as the starting points or benchmarks to begin formulating an effective role for adaptive management in salmon conservation.