Prioritization of Salmon Recovery on the Olympic PeninsulaNews & Program Updates

Innovative Science and Grass-Roots Effort Guide Salmon Conservation

Olympic Peninsula Program Coordinator Devona Ensmenger sharing the importance of a healthy salmon habitat.

This winter, Wild Salmon Center's Olympic Peninsula Program Coordinator Devona Ensmenger partnered with Washington's North Pacific Coast Lead Entity (a citizen-driven, salmon recovery group) launching a scientifically-grounded process for prioritizing salmon recovery projects in the Hoh River watershed.

Expanding on WSC's recently published report, "Identification and Prioritization of Salmon Tributaries for Conservation in the Hoh River Basin, Washington State" Ensmenger and NPCLE's Coordinator, Dr. Rich Osborne, convened a group of local salmon specialists, Intrinsic Potential modeling experts and the architects of Earth Systems Institute's NetMap in developing a living database used to guide project selection.

The preliminary results from these analyses guided the selection of all NPCLE projects proposed to the Salmon Recovery Funding Board for 2008/2009, totaling $1.38 million including matching funds.