Salmonfest Fans Agree: No Road in the West Su! 

Salmonfest 2022 was another organizing success for Wild Salmon Center and our Defend the West Susitna coalition. You might remember our successful 2016 fight to defeat a dam on the Susitna River—a watershed that supports five Pacific salmon species, including Alaska’s fourth largest Chinook population, along with stunning wildlife and more than 20 backcountry sport fishing and hunting lodges. Now the West Su faces a new threat: a $350 million publicly-funded industrial access road that would literally pave the way for hard-rock mining and other development. Learn more about our West Su Wild campaign, and help us tell Alaska's governor and legislature to shut this project down.

Meet Jon Hart, Our New GIS Spatial Analyst 

Back in 2018, Jon Hart spent a lot of time mapping backcountry in Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments. For Hart, it was an adventure, but one that came with a sense of heartbreak—knowing that his research informed a Bureau of Land Management mandate to downsize the monuments as ordered by the Trump Administration. Now, as Wild Salmon Center's new GIS Spatial Analyst, his skills will support efforts to build protections, rather than strip them away. “I’ve always felt that the more land we can protect, the better," he says. "And good maps have real power to make that happen.” Welcome, Jon! We're thrilled to have you on the team.

ACTION ALERT: Final Weeks to Take Action for Bristol Bay

This summer, Bristol Bay's commercial fleet again shattered all records in the 130-year history of this fishery. And that's just the commercial catch, as many more wild salmon head upstream to spawn. This bounty shows the world what's possible when wild fish strongholds are healthy and intact. Which makes it all the more improbable that any open pit mine, let alone one of the world's largest, belongs anywhere near here. We have just three weeks left to tell the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to veto Pebble Mine. Help us end this years-long nightmare, and add your voice to the call for EPA to stop Pebble Mine.

Celebrating 30 Years of Wild Salmon Center

In case you missed it: our 30th Anniversary Annual Report has landed! Thirty years ago, our work started with a vision of an archipelago of protected wild fish watersheds across the North Pacific. Today, the stronghold strategy is working. Since our founding in 1992, WSC and our local partners have secured eight new national and regional parks, instituted new riparian setbacks along more than 60,000 river miles, and protected 6.7+ million acres of critical wild salmon and steelhead habitat. Some of the most significant successes in WSC history came just this past year. Read the report for more on our recent wins—as well as a peek at where we're headed next.

The mission of the Wild Salmon Center is to promote the conservation and sustainable use of wild salmon ecosystems across the Pacific Rim.

Photo/image credits (from top): Wild Salmon Center Alaska Program Director Emily Anderson (left) with Salmonfest goers at our Defend the West Susitna coalition table (WSC); Wild Salmon Center GIS Spatial Analyst Jon Hart (Leana Goetze); wild sockeye (Ken Morrish @FlyWaterTravel; Knutson Creek, Iliamna Lake, Bristol Bay (Jason Ching @JasonSChing); Bristol Bay (Jason Ching).

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