Programs
Kol River Salmon Protected Area & BiostationProtected & Priority Areas
In April 2006, Governor Mashkovtsev of the Kamchatka Regional Administration signed a historic decree officially designating the Kol River Salmon Refuge, the world's first protected area dedicated to wild salmon conservation. The formal creation of the 544,000-acre, headwaters-to-ocean preserve is the result of several years of collaboration between Russian and international partners, including the Wild Fishes and Biodiversity Foundation (Kamchatka), United Nations Development Programme, Pacific Institute of Geography (Kamchatka branch), Moscow State University and the Wild Salmon Center.
The formal establishment of the refuge is the crowning achievement in what has been a multi-step process. We reached a major milestone in 2004, when the Governor Mashkovtsev issued a decree officially sanctioning the work of the Wild Salmon Center and its partners to create the refuge. Such official government support is a necessary condition to carry out the documentation and environmental assessment process needed for the final designation of a protected area.
The Kol River system flows from the Central Mountains in west-central Kamchatka 75 miles west to the Sea of Okhotsk. The river contains one of the richest known assemblages of salmonid fish, including native stocks of chinook, coho, sockeye, chum, pink and Asian masu salmon (all six Pacific salmon species), as well as steelhead, rainbow trout, Dolly Varden char, and white-spotted char. The Kol Basin is also extremely productive. Annual salmon returns generate nutrient inputs of 581 to 1161 kg/square kilometer of watershed area. The watershed provides habitat for Kamchatka brown bears, Steller's sea eagles, and numerous other marine and terrestrial bird and mammal species. For these and other reasons, the Kol has been designated a Project Site by the United Nations Development Programme/Global Environment Facility's $13-million initiative "Conservation and Sustainable Management of Kamchatka's Wild Salmonid Biodiversity." The work of the Wild Salmon Center and its partners led to the approval of this initiative, which is the UN's first ever effort to protect wild salmon, and Wild Salmon Center is a main partner in the project's execution. The creation and operation of the Kol River Salmon Refuge is one key project outcome.
The Wild Salmon Center has constructed a permanent biostation and laboratory facilities on the Kol, providing an unparalleled opportunity for scientists to study salmon in a pristine habitat. Every May-October the Kol River Biostation hosts an international team of researchers from Moscow State University and University of Montana's Flathead Lake Biological Station. Their research on salmon habitat and monitoring of the Kol's salmon stocks and biodiversity can help to unlock the secrets of salmon diversity, health and abundance.
The Wild Salmon Center continues to support multi-stakeholder research and education programs and the maintenance and operation of biostations. We are working collaboratively with the Kamchatka Administration, the Kol Protected Area Administration, and other national and international partners to support the management of the Kol River Salmon Protected Area and to develop new opportunities to protect priority watersheds throughout the peninsula.