Salmon Steward

I n last year's spring issue of Salmon Steward, we presented a timeline of the Pacific Salmon Foundation's development since inception in 1987. The timeline identified 19 milestones through 2016; but what proved most notable was the steady progression from a small charity that funded five commu- nity projects in 1989, to an environmen- tal leader that has now supported 2,172 community-based projects, through grants totalling $17.6 million. When you account for all of the Foundation's programs, that number grows to $58.4 million for 3,144 projects representing a total investment of $199 million in wild Pacific salmon. Not president's message 6 2018 psf.ca BY DR. BRIAN RIDDELL, President and CEO, Pacific Salmon Foundation FOUNDATION FOR SUCCESS Looking back on the Pacific Salmon Foundation's road so far, and looking ahead to what's next bad for a humble organization founded with the simple mission of getting people engaged with the wild salmon in their local streams. ("Bringing them back, stream by stream," as we like to say.) COMMITTED TO COMMUNITY Our support for community-based stewardship remains and will continue to be the core commitment of the Foundation. However, we have diversified over time. Initially, we expanded localized community projects to watershed-scale programs. But the sheer cost of full-watershed restoration meant we were severely limited in the number of watersheds we could support. So we took a new approach to broaden our impact. We partnered with the Fraser Basin Council and the BC Conservation The Fraser Salmon Watershed Program funded a study partnering First Nations, recreational fishers and DFO. The study investigated the short-term impacts on survival for Sockeye after being hooked in a recreational catch-and-release fishery. Foundation, with support from the provincial and federal governments and the Pacific Salmon Endowment Fund, to create the B.C. Living Rivers and Fraser Salmon and Watershed programs. Between 2006 and 2012, these two programs alone contributed $23 million to more than 300 projects supporting salmon and their habitats. These projects also increased the diversity of work being conducted. Habitat restoration continued to be prominent, but science, salmon population analyses and data management also became important to the Foundation and its partners. These latter activities broke ground for the Foundation's evolution into a scientific leader for salmon. SPEARHEADING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH Our largest, most ambitious project undertaken to date began in 2009 when one donor put into words a question that most people around the Strait of Georgia had been wondering about: Why did the abundance of Chinook and Coho salmon in the Strait crash dramatically in the mid-'90s and fail to recover? This donor's objective was simple; he wanted to ensure that his grandchildren would have the chance to enjoy salmon fishing the way that he had as a boy. That one question lead to the largest research program ever conducted about wild Pacific salmon production in the Salish Sea (the international waters of the Strait of Georgia, Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca). Designed by the Pacific Salmon Foundation in Canada (and other partners internationally), the Salish Sea Marine Survival Project (SSMSP) grew to involve more than 100 researchers, dozens of

• Cover