Sponsor
Funding for this article was provided by the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund via the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board to Oregon’s Independent Multidisciplinary Science Team
Published In
Fisheries
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-2016
Subjects
Fisheries -- Conservation, Fishery management, Adaptive natural resource management, Salmon -- Habitat
Abstract
We discuss the importance of addressing diffuse threats to long-term species and habitat viability in fish conservation and recovery planning. In the Pacific Northwest, USA, salmonid management plans have typically focused on degraded freshwater habitat, dams, fish passage, harvest rates, and hatchery releases. However, such plans inadequately address threats related to human population and economic growth, intra- and interspecific competition, and changes in climate, ocean, and estuarine conditions. Based on reviews conducted on eight conservation and/or recovery plans, we found that though threats resulting from such changes are difficult to model and/or predict, they are especially important for wide-ranging diadromous species. Adaptive management is also a critical but often inadequately constructed component of those plans. Adaptive management should be designed to respond to evolving knowledge about the fish and their supporting ecosystems; if done properly, it should help improve conservation efforts by decreasing uncertainty regarding known and diffuse threats. We conclude with a general call for environmental managers and planners to reinvigorate the adaptive management process in future management plans, including more explicitly identifying critical uncertainties, implementing monitoring programs to reduce those uncertainties, and explicitly stating what management actions will occur when pre-identified trigger points are reached.
Rights
Published 2016 by Taylor & Francis.
To the best of our knowledge, this work was authored as part of the Contributor's official duties as an Employee of the United States Government and is therefore a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law.
DOI
10.1080/03632415.2016.1175346
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/18052
Citation Details
Kathleen G. Maas-Hebner, Carl Schreck, Robert M. Hughes, J. Alan Yeakley & Nancy Molina (2016) Scientifically Defensible Fish Conservation and Recovery Plans: Addressing Diffuse Threats and Developing Rigorous Adaptive Management Plans, Fisheries, 41:6, 276-285, DOI: 10.1080/03632415.2016.1175346