Management of Pacific salmon has traditionally focused on production, supplying fish for the commercial and sport fisheries. Scientific assessments frequently have identified this production orientation as an underlying cause of Pacific salmon decline and have called for a radical restructuring of salmon recovery programs based on re-establishing natural processes in salmon ecosystems.
Despite this scientific awareness and an unprecedented management infrastructure now devoted to salmon recovery, conservation ideas and expenditures still emphasize prediction and control of salmon abundance, particularly during freshwater life stages. The unpredictable effects of ocean variability on salmon survival, projections of future climate change, and likely environmental disturbance accompanying rapid human population growth only increase the likelihood of continued ecological surprise affecting salmon in the region.
These prospects emphasize the need for a management strategy based on adaptation and flexibility rather than on prediction and control. In January 2006, 60 scientists, resource managers, and others met to examine whether the idea of resilience can be applied to restoration of salmon and their ecosystems, with special emphasis on the role of estuaries in salmon recovery. Through presentations, case studies, and discussion groups, the workshop explored the scientific and social dimensions of a conservation approach based on the concept of resilience.
The workshop reviewed the meaning of resilience, its relationship to life history diversity and habitat connectivity throughout the salmon life cycle, and the changes that would be necessary to incorporate these ideas into salmon, estuary, and watershed restoration. In short, is it possible to manage for resilience under the existing conservation paradigm? If not, what new framework is required, and how might it be implemented?
The questions continue here, where papers, presentations, and discussions from the workshop can be found, and where, over time, the discussion may continue.
Where possible, we have prepared HTML versions of the original, formatted abstracts and discussion summaries for easy Web reading. Downloadable Word documents are available as well. A few files are presented as .pdf (Adobe Acrobat) conversions from the original PowerPoint presentations. To save any of these files, PC users can right-click on the file name and then choose "save as..." Mac users click and hold, and save accordingly.
If you are unable to access any of the files, please contact Joe Cone at Sea Grant Communications.
Conference presentations
- Edgefield meeting agenda [HTML] [.rtf]
- Introductory material
- Abstract (Jim Lichatowich) [HTML] [.doc]
- Conceptual overview (Dan Bottom) [ .pdf] (37 MB)
- Definition - initial [HTML] [.doc]
- Definition - final draft [HTML] [.doc]
- Discussion - defining resilience [HTML] [.doc]
- Resilience bibliography [HTML] [.doc]
- IEMSS titles [HTML] [.rtf]
- Case study sites - visual [.jpg]
- Case studies
- Breakout Group reports
- Group A - [.doc]
- Group B - [.pdf]
- Group C - [.pdf] (15 MB)
- Group D [.doc]
Discussion list
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The research projects underlying this meeting were funded by the NOAA Office of Sea Grant and Extramural Programs, U.S. Department of Commerce, under grant number NA16RG1039, (project numbers R/ECO-02, R/HBT-4-PD, R/ECO-14) and by appropriations made by the Oregon State legislature.