Alaska Resource & Economic Development,  Inc.

Comprehensive assessment is critical to all phases of effective stewardship:

·        Historical stock data

·        Baseline habitat data

·        Baseline salmon stock assessment

·        Watershed limnology

·        Emergent fry assessment

·        Out-migrating fry and smolt assessment (freshwater survival)

·        Returning adults (ocean survival)

ARED’s salmon restoration initiative is an intensely hands-on approach to stewardship. As such, it requires expertise that can only be realized through training and experience developed in the diverse watersheds that salmon inhabit. Assessment must be integrated into any project undertaken in order to quantify results and identify a need for further training or where fish husbandry is not effective.

Such proactive husbandry compliments habitat restoration efforts. Enhancing wild salmon stocks concurrently with habitat restoration, measurable through effective assessment practices, affords further opportunity to measure the health of our habitat restoration programs. Comprehensive ecosystems that tie oceans and watersheds together require an equally comprehensive vision when such existing salmon stocks are in need of assistance.

Feasibility of such initiatives must be assessed to include social as well as economic benefit to supplement what current science has to offer. Blending traditional knowledge with “good science” creates a more “complete science” and a strong foundation for developing sustainable and adaptive management plans for our present and future natural resources.