WCS Arctic Beringia: Supporting Yukon River salmon restoration for the benefit of ecosystems and communities
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) was founded in 1895 and is a global non-profit organization with a mission to save wildlife and wild places worldwide through science, conservation action, education and inspiring people to value nature. The Arctic Beringia Program of WCS is headquartered in Fairbanks, Alaska along the banks of the Chena River, which historically supported the Yukon River drainage’s fifth largest Chinook salmon run. The Arctic Beringia Program uses the best available science and Indigenous knowledge, along with expertise in trans-boundary policy, to work with diverse communities, Indigenous groups, agencies and other partners to understand and protect wild places and wildlife, including their role in local food security
The health of Yukon River salmon populations is a priority for WCS, not only because of the ecological importance of salmon for fish, birds, and mammals in protected areas such as the Koyukuk National Wildlife Refuge, Gates of the Arctic National Park, and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but also our employees are members of Alaskan and Canadian communities within the watershed and have personal ties to the resource. Additionally, Yukon River salmon are integral to the culture and way of life our Indigenous and rural partners.
WCS advocates for habitat restoration. Restoration of degraded streams in the Yukon River drainage is a useful step towards repairing freshwater and riparian ecosystems in Alaska and Canada that have been negatively impacted by the severe declines of Chinook, chum, and coho salmon populations. Enhanced juvenile rearing and adult spawning habitats created by habitat restoration activities may partially offset the decrease in freshwater productivity that was once boosted by marine-derived nutrients from abundant salmon carcasses, mitigating the cascading effects of salmon population declines.
We also promote Indigenous involvement and strategies for salmon conservation. Contemporary models of restoration have largely excluded place-based knowledge systems and measures of cultural continuity that contribute directly to the resilience of fisheries and their governance. The collapse of salmon runs across the Yukon River Basin underscores the ecological and cultural costs of sidelining Indigenous Knowledge in fishery management and demands that we find ways to embed cultural indicators of fishery health into decision-making and governance frameworks. Building from a strong history of collaboratively developing governance solutions with local communities and Indigenous partners, the WCS Arctic Beringia Program is in the early stages of building local relationships to co-produce ecological and cultural (“ecocultural”) indicators of fisheries health that reflect local meanings of resilience. These indicators could help advance long-term, place-based monitoring and fishery governance models that support ecological and cultural health
Arctic Beringia Fish Ecology 