Salmon Steward

Canada's Policy for the Conservation of Wild Pacific Salmon (also known as the Wild Salmon Policy, or simply, the WSP) was adopted by the Government of Canada in 2005. It recognizes Conservation Units, or CUs, as the primary units for salmon monitoring and conservation activities. A CU is a group of wild salmon which are born in a specific stream, lake or river. The salmon that make up each CU have developed a unique array of genetic, physical and behavioural traits which are adapted to their particular natal environment; maintaining these CUs is a crucial mechanism for maintaining biological diversity. For the past 10 years, the Salmon Watersheds Program has been partnering with First Nations, DFO, the Province of British Columbia, community members and local non- governmental organizations in the Skeena River Watershed to develop approaches for advancing the implementation of the WSP in the region. Learn more: salmonwatersheds.ca done in isolation. "We work through technical committees and bring dierent groups to the table to provide feedback and expert input," she explains. "The work on the Central Coast was done over two years in partnership with four First Nations on the Central Coast including the Heiltsuk, Kitasoo/Xais Xais, Nuxalk and Wuikinuwxv Nations. "This project has been instrumental in identifying critical data gaps and determining where additional monitoring eorts are required to improve our understanding of salmon populations that are socially, culturally and economically important to First Nations communities of the Central Coast," says Mike Reid, fisheries manager with the Heiltsuk First Nation. The impact of this accessible open data is immense, adds Connors. "It's not only part of our stated program objectives to advance the implementation of the Wild Salmon Policy, we are also focused on making the best available information available to support evidence- based decisions related to the conservation and management of wild salmon." PSF has been working to use this information to help identify cost-eective strategies for supporting the recovery of wild salmon. Working in collaboration with the Central Coast First Nations, the Central Coast Indigenous Resource Alliance and researchers from SFU, UBC and UVic, as well as DFO, PSF has used Priority Threat Management (PTM) methods to work with salmon experts to identify strategies for their conservation and management. Connors is hopeful this approach will help to inform the allocation of resources for salmon recovery to ensure that investments in wild salmon recovery get the biggest bang for their buck. "It allows you to take a structured and transparent approach for evaluating where you should be investing your resources for conservation," she explains. "Using decision-support tools like PTM, we can ask important questions like how much will it recover all salmon populations, which management strategies are likely to recover the most salmon populations per dollar invested, and which salmon populations are unlikely to be recovered regardless of investment?" Eric Hertz (far left) and Christine Stevenson (third from right) with PSF's Salmon Watersheds Program joined (from left) Allison Dennert, Nicola Rammell and Sonja Panozzo on the Central Coast. The SWP team met with the Heiltsuk Integrated Resource Management Department to present the final version of the Central Coast Pacific Salmon Explorer. The Pacific Salmon Explorer (salmonexplorer.ca) was expanded to the Central Coast last fall and the Nass this February. The Fraser and Vancouver Island are currently in the works. salmon Steward magazine 13 THE WILD SALMON POLICY, EXPLAINED

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