From the President

If the earth is a living, breathing organism, and the oceans are its lungs, then the salmon are the blood cells. In one of the largest and most miraculous migrations known, salmon stream like clockwork each year towards the coasts, bringing marine nutrients far up the rivers and streams that flow into the North Pacific. We are all linked to that food web. And like an organism, we must build a local “immune response” to defend these river systems from internal or external threats.

The mission of the Wild Salmon Center is to strengthen this immune response in each of the Pacific’s salmon strongholds. Whether it’s a proposal to de water a coastal salmon stream on the Tillamook rainforest, or an open pit gold mine in Alaska, threats will continue to come. We must build the strength and resilience to be prepared to fight back—for as long as it takes.

In this year's Annual Report, you’ll read more about the role salmon play as the "keystone" of the North Pacific. And you’ll learn about WSC’s integral role in the region, as a catalyst for protecting the great river systems built on salmon. Among our key 2018 accomplishments, we:

• Supported legislation to stop the federal permitting process for Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay;
• Won new protections for the Skeena River estuary;
• Launched the Coastal Rivers Conservancy in British Columbia;
• Joined a new Klamath Chinook partnership; and
• Helped establish the Frank and Jeanne Moore Wild Steelhead Sanctuary on Oregon's North Umpqua River.