Home > Special Features

Pathways to Resilient Salmon Ecosystems

Jun 2010

Guest Editors: Daniel Bottom, Kim Jones, Charles Simenstad and Courtland Smith
Background
By Joseph Cone
Oregon Sea Grant, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR

For nearly a decade, the Oregon Sea Grant program at Oregon State University supported an extraordinary, multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional team of researchers who delved into the overlooked role of estuaries in salmon life history. That research, which centered on Oregon’s Salmon River estuary and began with questions about the benefits of estuary restoration to a local salmon population, came to consider afresh the complex ecological and social systems of which salmon are a part. The Salmon River study led naturally to an interest in understanding salmon ecosystem resilience, an inquiry that was enthusiastically encouraged by the director of Oregon Sea Grant, Robert E. Malouf, and that culminated in a 2006 workshop and, finally, the April 2007 conference from which this special feature is derived. The conference brought together a wide range of experts for an unprecedented exchange of ideas regarding the social-ecological resilience of Pacific salmon. This special feature transmits the energy and insights shared at the conference to a wider audience of professionals and practitioners who, it may be hoped, can integrate these insights into their own work.

Guest Editorial

Synthesis

Insight

Research

See all Special Features