Workshop Coordinators; Darren Mierau, CalTrout; Eric Palkovacs, UC Santa Cruz Fisheries Collaborative Program; David Boughton, NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center Fish Ecology Division; and Nate Mantua, NOAA Fisheries, Southwest Fisheries Science Center
 

Our community of dedicated scientists, resource managers, and restoration practitioners has worked tirelessly to turn the corner toward the recovery of abundant, self-sustaining populations that are able to withstand climate extremes and produce a harvestable surplus. That said, salmon recovery success stories are unfortunately few and far between. Realistically, what will it take? How will we get there? Where success has been realized, how was it achieved? And while salmon recovery success stories are few, the huge investments made toward watershed restoration, reform of instream flow management, hatchery genetics management, and technical advances in population monitoring and modeling represent important and lasting progress. 
 

But there’s much more work ahead to achieve recovery goals. One important step forward is to replace the opportunistic and scatter-shot approach to restoration investment and implementation with watershed, basin-scale or system-scale efforts that can identify feasible, prioritized, and integrated suites of recovery actions (considering all the H’s) to increase the probability of measurable recovery outcomes. Acknowledging that a salmon-focused approach is not likely enough, how can we build broad coalitions based on a broader sense of co-benefits of improved river and wetland functioning?
 

In this workshop, we will (1) hear NOAA’s vision for transformational salmon recovery science, integrated modeling, and restoration programs; (2) hear case studies of salmon recovery success stories that highlight ingredients and recipes for effective planning and action; and (3) explore a few case studies aimed at system-level recovery plans and actions at a range of developmental stages. 

 

Speakers and panelists in parts (2) and (3) of our agenda will address these two questions:

Product: A synthesis article describing the workshop elements, lessons-learned about recipes for successful salmon recovery at the watershed/systems-level, and ideas for better linking quantitative integrated models to salmon recovery scenarios and programs.