Then she moved to Seattle for a job with NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center. Orienting herself in the Salish Sea’s complex network of bays, lakes and fjords was a very different challenge. For help, she turned to salmon.

“Tracking where the salmon were helped me to figure out where I was in these strange new landscapes,” says Dr. Sullaway. “Salmon really helped me get to know both the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.”

Photo Credit: Photo courtesy Dr. Genoa Sullaway.

Wild Salmon Center Fisheries Analyst Dr. Genoa Sullaway.

As Wild Salmon Center’s new Fisheries Analyst, Dr. Sullaway leverages data to help us see where salmon are today—both physically, in oceans and rivers, as well as how they’re faring in a changing world. 

Below, Dr. Sullaway shares why she doesn’t take a “winner-takes-all” approach to salmon conservation, the big questions her research can answer, and why her home river gives her hope. 

“Tracking where the salmon were really helped me get to know both the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.”

Wild Salmon Center Fisheries Analyst Dr. Genoa Sullaway

Wild Salmon Center: Were salmon part of your early life? 

Dr. Genoa Sullaway: They weren’t, not really. Around San Diego, rivers are different. They’re pretty dirty, with lots of concrete. My first connection came from eating salmon, as food. But perhaps even more, from loving the ocean.

My family are water people. Driving down the hill from my parent’s house, you can see tidepools and kelp forests. I grew up surfing and sailing. It’s remained a big force in my life. In my spare time now, in Port Angeles where I live, I spend a lot of my time connecting with the ocean. I free dive for sea urchins, forage for shellfish, recreate on or near the water.

Do you have a favorite salmon memory?

Maybe the first time I went to Lake Iliamna, in Alaska. It was 2023. I was completing my PhD in Fisheries with the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. My research focused on both Bristol Bay sockeye and chum populations in the Yukon River. 

We came into the inlet of Knutson Bay, and the water was so blue, so clear. That year, Bristol Bay recorded the biggest run of sockeye it had ever seen, and before me stretched what seemed like walls of red fish. From the boat it seemed like it went on forever. I think sockeye are still my favorite fish.

Photo Credit: Photo courtesy Dr. Genoa Sullaway.

Dr. Genoa Sullaway with a sockeye salmon in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region.

What was the focus of your doctoral research?

Broadly speaking, I used models to understand how both climate change and anthropogenic factors impact salmon. 

For Lake Iliamna sockeye, for example, I was looking at how changes in climate impact when sockeye come back from the ocean. One of the things we found is that in warm years both in the lake and in the ocean, sockeye runs were returning younger. 

For Yukon chum, we looked at both climate and human factors, and how they impacted return numbers overall. It was clear from the data that these runs were struggling.

Zooming out: what would you say was your big takeaway? 

In salmon conservation, sometimes people try to pick winners and losers. It’s true that sockeye in Bristol Bay so far seem to be doing really well at adapting to climate change—especially as compared with Yukon chum, who we’ve seen to be feeling negative impacts from climate change at all stages of their life cycle. By the data, some might say that these runs are losing in the race to adapt.

But conversations like that can leave out a huge lever, which is fisheries management. Every year, we change how we manage different fisheries. These decisions are actually right in the middle of the winners and losers narrative. So what we do, as humans, can be huge in nudging even a so-called loser toward more successful adaptation.

“In salmon conservation, sometimes people try to pick winners and losers. But that can leave out a huge lever. What we do, as humans, can be huge.”

Wild Salmon Center Fisheries Analyst Dr. Genoa Sullaway

You joined the Wild Salmon Center team in late 2025. What convinced you?

The stronghold approach is pretty exciting to me. It’s relatively unique in the conservation space. It brings a more positive lens to salmon conservation, in protecting these ecosystems that really do give us so much, rather than focusing on direness and decline.

I’m also excited to have a seat at the table between many groups. Inside the agencies that manage fisheries, folks are really busy day in and day out. It can be hard for our partners to find time to develop new tools, or move toward more sustainable fishing practices. In this role, I can zoom out, look at the bigger needs.

What kinds of needs are you seeing?

There are a lot of questions that we can answer to help our partners be more strategic with their resources. For me, I can thread a lot of salmon ecology data that’s out there—like the genetics work of my colleague Dr. Tasha Thompson—with other datasets to help with these decisions.

“It can be hard for our partners to find time to develop new tools, or move toward more sustainable fishing practices. In this role, I can look at the bigger needs.”

Wild Salmon Center Fisheries Analyst Dr. Genoa Sullaway

Photo Credit: Photo courtesy Dr. Genoa Sullaway.

Dr. Genoa Sullaway, center right, with colleagues sampling salmon carcasses for research.

Take spring Chinook: we’re looking at questions like whether access to exclusive habitat is make-or-break for the persistence of these populations. When spring Chinook can access places that fall Chinook can’t reach, what magnitude of benefit do we see? These are insights that could be really useful.

There are many questions right now about marine salmon fisheries—particularly around stock interception in the ocean. Where specific stocks are, for example, and how many are being caught at sea? 

Answers are critical for fisheries to be able to adapt to climate change and the dynamics we’re seeing in salmon. With the Wild Salmon Center Science team, I’m working to pull together and synthesize data so that communities and fisheries can pursue more informed and equitable approaches to salmon management in a changing ocean.

Issues around salmon fisheries can be pretty fraught, especially between different nations and regions. How do you see your role?

Good science, in my view, can really help more people engage in processes like these. Conversations about salmon fisheries can be difficult and emotional. At Wild Salmon Center. I’m part of a team that’s deeply committed to sharing data in a fair way and helping people follow the science.

“Conversations about salmon fisheries can be difficult. I’m part of a team that’s committed to sharing data in a fair way and helping people follow the science.”

Wild Salmon Center Fisheries Analyst Dr. Genoa Sullaway

What kind of impact would you like to make with your research, in the coming years?

Ultimately, my hope is that my work can help drive change in fisheries management. For example, many managers today base escapement goals on the reproductive ability of an average salmon, salmon of a certain size. That average salmon size might be from the 1990s. And yet we know that fish are returning to rivers smaller and smaller. Smaller fish have fewer eggs. So these escapement goals might need to shift.

Since your boat trip to Knutson Bay, you’ve spent a lot more time in salmon rivers. What do these places mean to you today?

 

Photo Credit: Photo courtesy Dr. Genoa Sullaway.

Dr. Genoa Sullaway gets a little too close to a bed of mussels. Ouch! (Photo courtesy Dr. Genoa Sullaway.)

I live about 10 miles away from the Elwha River. I see it every day. I walk my dog there, gather there with friends, camp and backpack along the stretch of the watershed. There’s an encouraging story there, with the return of ceremonial fisheries to the river.

I think about what salmon represent outside of ecology, or science. I think of them as part of my community. I think about hosting a potluck, having a bunch of people over where we’re all eating salmon. And I want to be able to keep doing that. 

“I think about what salmon represent outside of ecology, or science. I think of them as part of my community.”

Wild Salmon Center Fisheries Analyst Dr. Genoa Sullaway

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Dr. Saulyegul Avlyush was nearly 13 years old when she received her current first name, Saulyegul, replacing Tuyatsetseg, the Mongolian name she’d been given at birth. Her parents, members of Mongolia’s ethnic Kazakh minority, had relocated the family to Ulaanbaatar to secure an urban education for their children. In Mongolia’s capital city, where Kazakh heritage was more rare, Dr. Avlyush’s parents wanted their children to draw strength from their roots.

“It was a new name, new city, new school,” says Dr. Avlyush. 

Today, she recognizes that this time offered early lessons in adapting to change—even embracing it. When her dream of becoming a medical doctor faltered, she pivoted to teaching. Then, near the conclusion of her undergraduate education, her path forked again. Dr. Avlyush adapted—we’d even say thrived. 

Today, Wild Salmon Center’s new Senior Mongolia Consultant reflects on the path that’s taken her to remote rivers like the Üür, Kharaa, and Delgermurun—and to an unexpected career as an ecologist, biologist, and researcher focused on aquatic species like Siberian taimen.

“I never planned it, but I’m really happy with my life,” she says. “This work has been the door to a larger world.”

Below, we talk with Dr. Avlyush about detours, role models, and the historic meeting that she hopes will help shape Mongolia’s freshwater story for years to come.

This work has been the door to a larger world.

Wild Salmon Center Senior Mongolia Consultant Dr. Saulyegul Avlyush

Wild Salmon Center: You started your professional life planning to teach secondary school. How did you instead become a world-traveling research scientist?

Dr. Saulyegul Avlyush: In 2003, I’d graduated from university with a thesis in microbiology. I was looking for positions as a biology teacher, at my parents’ suggestion. Time was running out. Mongolian schools all start in the beginning of September, and I hadn’t received any offers. 

Maybe a week before the school term started, a professor called to tell me about some German scientists who were travelling to an area in Northern Mongolia known for gold mining. They were going for one week to do freshwater ecology training in the Yerüü River. My professor said, this would be good training for you. So I packed my sleeping bag, my backpack, and I went to this area for the first time. It was wild, and green, and for the first time I met foreign people. I was so shy! I would only tell them my name. But it was an amazing week. I changed course completely. I wanted to be a scientist.

I packed my sleeping bag, my backpack, and I went to this area for the first time. It was wild and green. I changed course completely. I wanted to be a scientist.

Wild Salmon Center Senior Mongolia Consultant Dr. Saulyegul Avlyush

Back in Ulaanbaatar, I started looking for positions with the Institute of Geoecology  [part of the Mongolia Academy of Sciences]. I asked for an appointment with the director. I was so young, without any experience, and there weren’t any positions. For two months, I kept showing up to try to meet with him, and he never had time. By the end, though, his secretary knew me so well, and ultimately I got the meeting. He gave me a chance to work as a junior water researcher in the Land Division, and then one month later I got a position in freshwater ecology.

What was it about freshwater ecology that called to you so strongly?

In part, it’s the pristine places this work takes me to. And it’s also the people. This work is a door to the world. Over the years, I’ve met so many scientists from across the world. 

One is Dr. Bud Mendsaikhan [of the Institute of Geoecology and Geography]. Dr. Mendee was a role model for me. Early on, I was working in the hydrochemistry lab, and she took me on my first professional field training, to a lake in March—when it’s freezing. We arrived so early in the morning. Dr. Mendee had just one backpack and a cup of tea, and by 6 a.m. she was working. Such energy, this lady! There were two gers [traditional portable Mongolian dwellings] by this lake, and one was full of Chinese fishermen. They were catching fish, and Dr. Mendee started measuring the fish lengths, their weights. She had this amazing memory. I remember how she walked, how she communicated with these fishermen. I wanted to be just like her. 

It’s the pristine places this work takes me to. And it’s also the people. Over the years, I’ve met so many scientists from across the world. 

Wild Salmon Center Senior Mongolia Consultant Dr. Saulyegul Avlyush

Freshwater ecology helps you see how we impact the land and water. In one place I visited in Northern Mongolia, it was so pristine, but just 20 kilometers away there was a gold mine. We could see that the impacts of both that and livestock overgrazing were reaching this river system. We have so many megaprojects now that our scientific work has become very important.

In one place I visited in Northern Mongolia, we could see the impacts of both mining and livestock overgrazing. We have so many megaprojects now that our scientific work has become very important.

Wild Salmon Center Senior Mongolia Consultant Dr. Saulyegul Avlyush

Where has your career taken you since those early days?

In addition to continuing my career at the Institute of Geoecology and Geography, I’ve worked at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), and I was part of the 2030 Water Resources Group hosted by the World Bank and Millennium Challenge Account in Mongolia. I’ve worked with German and Australian scientists on taimen migration and movement, as well as on heavy metal exposure and contamination among fish fauna.

Why did you join the Wild Salmon Center team? How can an international group help advance wild fish conservation in Mongolia?

Freshwater ecology is kind of a missing field of study in Mongolia. There is Dr. Mendee and a few other leading researchers at Mongolian Academy of Sciences. The Institute of Biology [also part of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences] has a Hydrobiology and Ichthyology Laboratory and perhaps five or six scientists. And not a lot of international organizations are here that specialize in working with fish. 

But Wild Salmon Center has 30 years of experience already doing this in Russia and in North America. So when I learned that WSC was looking to help build a team here, I thought, this is a good opportunity for me. 

Freshwater ecology is kind of a missing field of study in Mongolia. Not a lot of international organizations are here that specialize in working with fish. But Wild Salmon Center has 30 years of experience doing this in Russia and in North America.

Wild Salmon Center Senior Mongolia Consultant Dr. Saulyegul Avlyush

Wild Salmon Center has a long term vision for conservation, and the capacity to help build local leadership. Both are very important here. It also has the International Taimen Initiative, which is bringing even more scientific expertise and knowledge exchange to Mongolia. 

Wild Salmon Center has a long term vision for conservation, and the capacity to help build local leadership. Both are very important here.

Wild Salmon Center Senior Mongolia Consultant Dr. Saulyegul Avlyush

What would you like people outside of Mongolia to understand about the work that you do with Wild Salmon Center—and why it’s important?

Mongolia, as a nation, is very large. Yet we only have 3.3 million people. Right now, most of our rivers are not dammed, but we also have growing pressure to expand our energy production through hydropower. 

People here are looking to the international community to share the good and the bad in their fish management practices, so that we can make the best decisions. Wild Salmon Center can help bridge some of that work. With Wild Salmon Center support, we recently had our first stakeholder meeting on national fisheries and freshwater ecology in more than 60 years. It was historic. For the first time, we brought together environmentalists, fish biologists, ecology experts, fishers, and even private sector representatives. Everyone was very happy with this meeting. So much feedback came out of this one-day meeting that within that month, we arranged to officially bring these outcomes to the Mongolian Ministry of Environment and Climate Change.

I hope that this momentum can help us with some immediate goals, like training opportunities for rangers who help manage fisheries. That’s one of the new ideas that came from our meeting. But the wider scope is policy reform. We need changes to help protect taimen and other wild fish in Mongolia. Wild Salmon Center can help us develop sound conservation policy, tell our story, exchange knowledge, and focus on stronghold science. 

We need changes to help protect taimen and other wild fish in Mongolia. Wild Salmon Center can help us develop sound conservation policy, tell our story, exchange knowledge, and focus on stronghold science. 

Wild Salmon Center Senior Mongolia Consultant Dr. Saulyegul Avlyush

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In many ways, it seems as if Wild Salmon Center and the Sieglers were meant to cross paths.

“I’ve fished in many places where WSC works—Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Kamchatka,” Mitch Siegler says. “And there’s a certain connection when you’ve visited those places.”

But it was a book that brought the Sieglers into WSC’s orbit.

“I first heard about the organization in 2019 when I read Stronghold, the biography of WSC’s Guido Rahr by Tucker Malarkey,” Siegler says. “I found the story very powerful and decided to learn more.”

After digging more deeply, WSC’s model proved to be a strong fit for their philanthropic goals.

“A healthy environment and a well-functioning ecosystem are really important to us and to the future of our children,” Siegler says. “What I like about WSC is that they focus on a particular species, pursue just a few target initiatives, and have stitched together a compelling story about how salmon are a linchpin species supporting healthy rivers, forests, and natural ecosystems.”

“A healthy environment and a well-functioning ecosystem are really important to us and to the future of our children.”

Mitch Siegler

Over the years, Mitch and Elizabeth became more involved by acting on key campaigns, spending time on the river with WSC staff, and supporting our work with high-impact gifts through their Donor Advised Fund.

“By virtue of WSC being targeted and efficient, our donations were ultimately more meaningful than if they were made to a larger, less focused nonprofit,” Siegler says. “We felt our gifts were harder-working.”

In 2021, Mitch and Elizabeth decided to take the next step, by including WSC in their estate plans to help ensure that our conservation efforts are sustained into the future.

“The need for WSC’s work will continue for some time, and like the twists and turns of a river, there will be different challenges 10 to 20 years from now,” Siegler says. “Setting the stage for continuity and permanence through our bequest helps WSC think more strategically, and in longer-term fashion, to continue to thrive and fight the battles likely to present themselves in the future.”

“The need for WSC’s work will continue for some time, and like the twists and turns of a river, there will be different challenges 10 to 20 years from now. Setting the stage for continuity and permanence through our bequest helps WSC think more strategically.”

Mitch Siegler

To learn more about creating a legacy with WSC, please visit wildsalmoncenter.org/legacy.

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This summer, the Green Spoon Sales team took a vote. At stake: which nonprofits would the Boulder-based natural foods sales agency support with its 1% For the Planet pledge?

“This is just the second year that we’ve been in a position to participate in the pledge,” says Green Spoon CEO and Co-Founder Kari Pedriana. “We wanted everyone on the team to have a voice in where those dollars would go.”

She’s not surprised that her team picked Wild Salmon Center. After all, building a better world is at the heart of the startup that Pedriana and her husband launched in 2012.

And Green Spoon employees truly live these values. In 2023 alone, the 200+ staff completed more than 1,552 volunteer hours. This year, the team is on track to surpass 2,250 volunteer hours—and once again give back to nonprofits.

Pedriana says the environment is also why customers flock to the products that Green Spoon gets on grocery shelves across the United States: beloved brands like Primal Kitchen, Patagonia Provisions, and Kettle & Fire. These are brands that meet Green Spoon’s exacting standards in areas including water conservation and ingredient sourcing.

“Our goal is to clean up grocery shelves across the country,” Pedriana says. “It’s why, for us, nonprofits that focus on the health of the land stand out. I fell in love with the natural world on the rivers of Montana. So it means a lot to me to be able to give back.”

Learn more at greenspoonsales.com.

“For us, nonprofits that focus on the health of the land stand out. I fell in love with the natural world on the rivers of Montana. So it means a lot to me to be able to give back.”

Kari Pedriana, Green Spoon CEO and Co-Founder

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Glaciers are melting. Sea levels are rising. Just two more ways that climate change spells catastrophe for salmon—right?

Across the North Pacific, there’s no doubt that wild fish are struggling. But according to Dr. Jonathan Moore, a Wild Salmon Center Science Advisor and the Director of Simon Fraser University’s Salmon Watersheds Lab, we can still make a huge difference in how well some runs adapt to our changing world.

“The story of climate change is one of massive transformation, but also of agency,” Dr. Moore says. “The actions we take today will have a huge impact on the ability of salmon to adapt in the future.”

Case in point: rising sea levels. The same conditions that will elevate flood risk for communities will also inundate the estuaries that provide critical rearing habitats for young salmon.

But since we know these changes are coming, Dr. Moore says, we can be proactive—fixing or removing fish-blocking dikes and culverts, for example, and reconnecting estuary floodplains so they can continue to support salmon and fisheries into the future. Proactive planning can also benefit salmon and people in glacially-fed watersheds, Dr. Moore says—as with the Taku River Tlingit First Nation, which is exploring ways to safeguard future salmon habitat within its territory from extractive industries.

“We often hear about how the salmon journey is one of cumulative harms from humans,” says Dr. Moore. “But we can flip that narrative. Because it’s also possible for humans to provide cumulative benefits to salmon across their life cycle.” 

Below, we talk with Dr. Moore about the way forward for salmon in a changing climate, and the beauty of straying from the beaten path.

“The story of climate change is one of massive transformation, but also of agency. The actions we take today will have a huge impact on the ability of salmon to adapt in the future.”

Dr. Jonathan Moore, Simon Fraser University

A Conversation With Dr. Jonathan Moore

Wild Salmon Center: You’ve co-authored studies that look at how sea level rise, glacier retreat, logging, and mining could impact salmon well into the future. Why focus on the future?

Dr. Jonathan Moore: My early work focused on how salmon changed ecosystems—how amazing abundances of salmon can engineer landscapes and support so many other species. But over time, my work has gotten more and more focused on applied questions of how ecosystems are changing. And what we can do about it.

Climate change is unfurling across the salmon life cycle. It used to be a topic of, ‘oh, it seems like this might be happening.’ But the data is now rolling in on the impacts of oceans and estuaries warming, food webs shifting, stream flow changing. The loss of snowpack and ice. And the human impacts that keep chipping away at salmon habitat. 

The reality is that we’re asking too much of salmon and their ecosystems. There are so many ways where we can take action and lessen harms to salmon. And, because the world is changing so fast, we need to know what’s going to be important for salmon in the future. 

WSC: Salmon conservation often centers on protecting and restoring habitat right now. Is it doable to expand this work to habitat that hasn’t even been created yet?

Dr. Moore: It feels quite doable. The path forward aligns to some extent with what people are already doing. We just need to be a bit more holistic about how we think about salmon habitat. For example, large-scale dam removals like the Elwha River continue to showcase the ability of salmon to flourish if given the chance. 

We don’t always know  precisely how salmon ecosystems are going to change. This uncertainty just means that there is even more of a need to  protect large functional ecosystems and their different habitats. This approach, like the Wild Salmon Center stronghold approach, keeps in play more of the potential puzzle pieces of habitat that salmon might need in the future. 

“The path forward aligns to some extent with what people are already doing. We just need to be a bit more holistic about how we think about salmon habitat.”

Dr. Jonathan Moore, Simon Fraser University

In some cases, however, the science is actually pretty clear on what we can expect. For example, we estimated that glacier retreat will open more than 6,000 new kilometers of salmon rivers by about 2100, largely in the transboundary region and southeast and central Alaska. These new river miles mean new local opportunities for salmon to find habitat and flourish. But these future habitats are also at risk from mining companies that are already staking claims in these emerging ecosystems. 

WSC: What specific actions can we take now to protect the salmon habitat of the future?

Dr. Moore: One example that inspires me is the Gitanyow First Nation in the Nass Basin. They’ve experienced glacier retreat, and have seen salmon moving into these recently deeply glaciated regions. So they’ve expanded their Protected Area to steward future generations of salmon and fight back against mining companies. 

WSC: Let’s say we take the example of the Gitanyow and attempt to protect areas that we think might be great future salmon habitat. How do we know that salmon will even find it?

Dr. Moore: Remember that salmon evolved and adapted over millions of years in landscapes and watersheds that were always changing. Salmon are renowned for finding their way back home. But they’re also great at finding new habitats. Usually, a small percent of a run strays so they return to somewhere other than their home spawning grounds. Scientists think that straying is an evolutionary strategy—so that salmon don’t literally put all their eggs in one basket. 

This combination of homing and straying is really powerful. Homing means that over time salmon can fine-tune their life histories and biology through local adaptation. And straying means that salmon can also find new landscapes. They can tap into those future promises. 

WSC: So as glaciers melt, we can act now to protect potential emerging salmon streams from extractive industries and development. What other opportunities do you see?

Dr. Moore: One project I’m really excited about is called the Estuary Resilience Project, led by the Nature Trust of British Columbia and many coastal First Nations. The project’s collaborative research and monitoring looks at how estuaries will rise with sea change—to inform and catalyze large-scale, forward-looking estuary restoration projects. 

The urgent concern is “coastal squeeze”—where coastal habitats like marshes and estuaries will be squeezed between coastal development and a rising ocean. Estuaries are critical habitats for young salmon. Young salmon can grow fast in estuaries—growth that bolsters their future survival in the ocean. In one intact estuary, we discovered that estuary growth and residence can boost ocean survival for coho salmon by more than 40 percent. 

Because we have a sense of what’s coming, there are real opportunities for us to help these habitats remain productive for salmon even with coastal squeeze. For example, we can pursue the large-scale removal of dikes and culverts to restore the natural connectivity of estuaries as sea levels rise. We can make smart decisions now to build resilience—for salmon, for fisheries, and for coastal communities.

“We can make smart decisions now to build resilience—for salmon, for fisheries, and for coastal communities.”

Dr. Jonathan Moore, Simon Fraser University

WSC: With so much at stake—and so many factors that could still shape the future of salmon in unknowable ways—how do you stay motivated in your research? What keeps you going?

Dr. Moore: Well, I feel so fortunate to work in these watersheds. The people I work with are amazing. From scientists to Indigenous Guardians, there’s something very special about spending a long day with a small team of folks, with rain and mosquitoes and bears, wading through rivers. I love listening to the people and places where I get a chance to work. It’s deeply inspiring. And the fish themselves are amazing. 

One moment that really stuck with me: I was in the Nass watershed at the base of a waterfall. I got into the river in a drysuit and a mask, and found I was surrounded by dancing salmon. I struggled to not get swept downstream and was holding hard onto a boulder, but the fish looked effortless. It was beautiful clear water, and the bubbles looked like shining diamonds. It made me think about how this moment was part of something so much bigger: a migration that started with these fish traveling out to sea, and then returning back again. Swimming up these cascades and this water that melted from ice fields hundreds of kilometers upstream. Everything was so big and so connected. It was hard to wrap my mind around. 

After that, I sat on the banks and watched these fish try to make the leap up the falls. I think I counted 500 before I saw one make it up. And they just kept trying.

Learn more here about Wild Salmon Center’s Science Advisory Board.

“I watched these fish try to make the leap up the falls. I think I counted 500 before I saw one make it up. And they just kept trying.”

Dr. Jonathan Moore, Simon Fraser University

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Lane has also been pivotal in advancing our stronghold strategy, through his service on the WSC board and his leadership gift to The Stronghold Fund. 

“Ray Lane believes in the link between humans and nature,” says WSC President & CEO Guido Rahr. “He takes the work of salmon conservation very seriously, and has been incredibly influential in getting us to where we are today.”

Via The Stronghold Fund, Lane underwrote the creation of our Oregon Water Initiative, which is securing natural streamflows for wild salmon from the Rogue River north to the Nehalem. Now, he’s helping us build an ambitious 10-year capital campaign to empower salmon champions around the North Pacific and catalyze new support for wild salmon conservation through immersive storytelling—including a salmon IMAX film currently in development.

“When I meet people unfamiliar with WSC’s mission, I say, ‘yes, it’s about the salmon, but their importance as fish is unparalleled,’” Lane says. “They carry the vital nutrients to support the entire Pacific Rim lifecycle. Without them, the patient dies. We must get out of their way.”

Below, Lane shares more about his salmon journey—and why, for him, the work of conservation is personal.

“[Salmon] carry the vital nutrients to support the entire Pacific Rim lifecycle. Without them, the patient dies. We must get out of their way.”

Wild Salmon Center Board Member Ray Lane

Wild Salmon Center: Where does your salmon journey start?

Ray Lane: Probably in 2003, when I made my first trip to Alaska. I’d joined the board of the Special Olympics in 1996, and this took me to the World Games in Anchorage that year. 

While there, I met [former Alaska] Senator Ted Stevens. He was surprised it was my first visit—and even more surprised that I’d never fly fished. So on that challenge I came back to Alaska the following year to King Salmon to fish the Naknek. I fell in love with it, and never looked back. I’ve returned to Alaska over 20 times since then.

But up until the time I met Guido, the value of salmon, for me, was as a sport fish. I met Guido in San Francisco about eight years ago, and he pretty much had me at hello. 

What was it that happened, in that first conversation?

At that meeting and dinner, there were a bunch of anglers that had just returned from Russia. They’d just spent a week in Kamchatka. So two things happened: I realized that you could go to more places than Alaska to fish, and that Russia was one of those very undisturbed places. 

But what really got me was the way that Guido explained the importance of salmon to the ecosystem—that they’re part of the bloodstream of the Pacific Rim, important for bears and eagles and wolves and trees. And that we were destroying these habitats for salmon. It opened up my mind to a whole new world of challenges. That challenged me broadly, but more personally in my fishing life. So when Guido asked me if I’d be interested in the WSC board, I said yes.

Since then, I’ve had the time to explore many different regions: Russia, Mongolia, Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, the Bahamas, and, this year, Jurassic Lake, Argentina. I’ve now embraced this mission of making sure that the Pacific Rim is protected—that we don’t go the way of the Atlantic salmon.

“What really got me was the importance of salmon to the ecosystem—that they’re part of the bloodstream of the Pacific Rim. And that we were destroying these habitats for salmon. It opened up my mind to a whole new world of challenges.”

WSC Board Member Ray Lane

The Pacific Rim is a big place. What convinced you that Wild Salmon Center could make a difference for salmon? 

The thing that I appreciate about Wild Salmon Center is that it’s very focused on the long term. Even though this organization takes on specific things—like Pebble Mine, Oregon water, dams, logging, and poaching in Kamchatka—the scale is effectively placed on the long term. That’s the whole idea of the stronghold strategy: let’s focus on saving what we can save, not spread ourselves too thin.

You said that this work is also personal for you. Does that go beyond fly fishing?

I do relate in other ways. I have a large organic farm in Oregon, right on the Rogue River. We’ve had that for about 20 years. For Californians, particularly Southern Californians who come to Oregon, it’s amazing to see the appreciation for the greenery, the water, the pines, the mountains—everything that’s just not there in Southern California. 

So we certainly appreciate it. But when Guido came to me a couple years ago and asked if I’d support a new project, the Oregon Water Initiative, I don’t know that initially I’d have picked it out of a line up of all the big projects WSC had going on, like Pebble Mine and the work in Russia. 

But I did think it was doable. Though in no way could I have predicted the success this program has had already. In terms of the legislation passed and more, it’s been delightful to be involved with it. Due to WSC staff, one million acres are also protected from logging [through the Private Forest Accord] by establishing permanent riparian setbacks. 

So far, this is the thing that really stands out in my time with WSC. I didn’t do anything other than give money. But it’s had great success. Everybody wins. A lot of times when donors give money, they don’t see results. They might see programs continue, and they might get reports, but rarely do they get to see results as fast as that. As a donor, there is nothing better than that. 

“A lot of times when donors give money, they don’t see results. They might see programs continue, and they might get reports, but rarely do they get to see results as fast as that. As a donor, there is nothing better than that.” 

WSC Board Member Ray Lane

In addition to your connection with the Rogue, you also have ties to another salmon stronghold: Butte Creek, on the Sacramento River?

Yes. Several years ago, I purchased one half of the Berry Patch: a duck hunting club in the Butte sink, in the middle of the California flyway. It’s a beautiful lodge. If you’re a duck hunter in California, you know about the Butte sink. 

The story here is a bit like my salmon journey. Again it was Guido who called me one day—about a year after he first came with me to the Berry Patch. He said, do you know that Butte Creek holds 10-20,000 spring Chinook every year? He told me the story of how [Butte Creek dam operator] Pacific Gas & Electric had destroyed so many of these salmon—and yet, how resilient this population has been to human challenges. 

I love the story of how these salmon make their way up the Sacramento River into this system. Now, with WSC, we’re doing more studies of these populations, to understand how farmers, hunters, and anglers can do more. 

You move in so many different circles, from Silicon Valley to the world of cancer research to hunting and angling. How do you talk about the story of salmon to people who might not be familiar with these issues?

When I talk to people who maybe aren’t into fishing, they’re often clueless about salmon. But when they hear how important salmon are to the region, and the human-induced challenges they face—it’s a powerful story. It’s not like the story of climate change. It’s more specific. And it’s something we can do something about. 

I’ve talked with Guido about another big project, an IMAX movie about salmon. Exposing this story to more people will be very beneficial. When it comes to the environment, many people are happy to talk about it, but don’t ask what we can actually do. WSC isn’t about organizing a parade to protest harm we’re doing to the environment, but getting to specific outcomes—each of which takes resources, knowledge, and science. 

When I talk to other people, that’s what I say. I have a WSC fleece and when people ask, “what’s that logo?,” I don’t say, “you should sign up!” I tell them my story about protecting strongholds across the Pacific Rim.

“When [people] hear how important salmon are to the region, and the human-induced challenges they face—it’s a powerful story. It’s not like the story of climate change. It’s more specific. And it’s something we can do something about.”

WSC Board Member Ray Lane

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Growing up in Mount Rainier’s shadow near the foothills of Enumclaw, Washington, Nicole Rasmussen spent long days playing on the banks of Newaukam Creek. Often, she’d just stop and stare into the water, which teemed with darting invertebrates on inscrutable missions.

“I was fascinated by ecosystems,” she recalls. “Little did I know then that you could have a career literally snorkeling streams and counting fish.”

That fascination took Rasmussen from early volunteer work with Mid Sound Fisheries, a Seattle-based advocate for wild fish habitat, to internships with Weyerhaeuser and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service as she pursued her university degree.

Ultimately, ecosystems brought her back to the water: to rainy Forks, in the westernmost reaches of the Olympic Peninsula. For the past 16 years, Forks has been Rasmussen’s home base as she’s applied her skills as a water quality and habitat biologist for the Port Gamble S’klallam Tribe, Quinault Indian Nation, and the Quileute Tribe. 

“On the OP, we can hunt and catch our own food, and teach our kids to do that,” says Rasmussen, an enrolled member of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians. “But it’s getting harder. I’ve seen the water get warmer, things get drier. I can’t imagine what it would be like to take salmon out of that equation—to not be able to see that life cycle with my own eyes.”

This twin sense of urgency and hope is woven into Rasmussen’s work. Over the past several years—first as a frequent Wild Salmon Center collaborator, and now as a member of WSC’s team herself—Rasmussen has walked and kayaked countless fish streams across the Washington Coast to inventory fish passage projects, assess road decommissioning, steer ambitious restoration campaigns, and build up sorely-needed data sets on water temperature, eDNA, and more.

As Wild Salmon Center’s newest Washington-based Fish Habitat Specialist, Rasmussen will draw on these deep skills and relationships to help speed and scale our coastal habitat restoration work.

“I’ve seen the water get warmer, things get drier. I can’t imagine what it would be like to take salmon out of that equation—to not be able to see that life cycle with my own eyes.”

WSC Fish Habitat Specialist Nicole Rasmussen

With Betsy Krier and Michelle Cramer, Rasmussen is part of a growing restoration team focused on achieving high-impact fish passage corrections through our Washington-based Cold Water Connection campaign. Rasmussen’s expertise comes as our campaign kicks into high gear. Thanks to waves of federal, local, and private funding, WSC and our partners are now channeling increasing resources into these job-creating local projects.

“It’s great—now I can go back to the Quinault and others and say, ‘I’m here to help, what do you need?’,” Rasmussen says. “We want to be that ultimate partner for Tribes and local communities. We can help make it happen, whether that’s project funding, design, engineering, or boots on ground.”

We’re thrilled to welcome Rasmussen to the team fulfilling these wild fish dreams. Together, we’ll aim to make sure that on the Washington Coast and beyond, salmon are always part of the equation.

“We want to be that ultimate partner for Tribes and local communities. We can help make it happen, whether that’s project funding, design, engineering, or boots on ground.”

WSC Fish Habitat Specialist Nicole Rasmussen

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For Cyndi Curtis, late fall brings one of the best features of living next door to the Tillamook State Forest. For a solid several weeks each November, she and her 100-pound yellow lab Ozzie have a special ritual—one that probably looks pretty odd to the uninitiated.

As Wild Salmon Center’s new Oregon North Coast Manager, Curtis is now tapping these connections to help implement on-the-ground projects targeted by our Nehalem watershed strategic action plan—one of a growing number of restoration roadmaps developed by the WSC-managed Coast Coho Partnership. She’s also helping to advance the years-long work of developing a new action plan for the Tillamook watershed.

“With the return of salmon comes a celebration of life cycles. I’m grateful to bear witness to a magical event that most people only see in documentaries.”

WSC North Coast Manager Cyndi Curtis

Curtis draws not only on community connections and an academic background in habitat restoration ecology, but also deep expertise in tidal estuaries—expertise she brings from her previous work as the Restoration Program Coordinator and interim Executive Director of the Coquille Watershed Council.

“For a long time in Oregon, the focus in salmon recovery has been on headwater restoration,” Curtis explains. “But we’re starting to realize how important estuaries are not just for juvenile salmonids, but also for storm surge protection and climate change mitigation.”

On the North Coast, that’s especially true. These diked, dammed, and disconnected landscapes have functioned for so long in an altered state, she says, that salmon conservationists are just now coming to understand the importance of intact estuaries for salmon and other species.

“We just couldn’t see how salmon would have been using estuaries and coastal wetlands, because we’ve changed them so dramatically,” she says. 

Estuaries and wetlands might comprise a small percentage of total watershed acreage, Curtis explains, but these landscapes have been profoundly changed by humans over the last 175 years.

In reshaping estuaries for development, farming, and ranching without thinking about fish, we’ve cut off their historical benefits for salmon at two highly vulnerable life stages: as juveniles gathering strength for their ocean migration, and as adult spawners returning to seed the next generation.

“For a long time in Oregon, the focus in salmon recovery has been on headwater restoration. We’re starting to realize how important estuaries are for salmonids.”

WSC North Coast Manager Cyndi Curtis

Finding solutions that bridge human activities and fish habitat is complicated work, she says. But WSC’s growing Coastal Restoration team is increasingly connecting with landowners, timber companies, Tribes, and local agencies who see a multiplier effect in targeted projects that restore natural hydrological function.

“What I’m most excited about in joining WSC is getting to participate in the bigger picture,” Curtis says. “There’s been this upwelling of restoration work spilling out onto landscapes from the Nehalem to the Coquille and beyond, and we know that it’s helping to put salmon recovery within reach. In five years, my hope is that we’ll have made a huge impact in helping these ecosystems work again for fish.”

That surge is set to accelerate over the next several years, she says, with historic funding for fish passage and restoration work flowing into the Pacific Northwest from both state and federal sources. These funding flows are meeting a pipeline of shovel-ready projects built by WSC’s Washington and Oregon teams alongside key partners. On Oregon’s North Coast, that means that Curtis has her work cut out for her. She’s ready for it.

“This diversity of fish habitat is exactly what we need,” she says. “Salmon are resilient; they can change their life history. By giving these estuarine landscapes a chance to heal, we’re providing more avenues for salmon to navigate what we can’t control for out in the ocean. And in the process, we win, too.”

“By giving estuarine landscapes a chance to heal, we’re providing more avenues for salmon to navigate what we can’t control for out in the ocean. And in the process, we win, too.”

WSC North Coast Manager Cyndi Curtis

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Dr. Tasha Thompson has been a mountaineering guide and a wildland firefighter. She’s traveled throughout southeast Asia, owned motorcycles and mountain bikes, and conducted research on subjects ranging from HIV to walruses.

But in 2015, while doing a lab rotation as a doctoral candidate in UC-Davis’s genetics and genomics program, Dr. Thompson found her true passion: salmon. 

“They’re amazing,” says Dr. Thompson. “To witness how evolution has shaped this species—and continues to do so—is just endlessly fascinating.”

She’s not your average salmon-fascinated bystander. With her spouse Dr. Mike Miller, also a geneticist, Dr. Thompson is now a leading scholar in salmon conservation science. And she definitely takes her work home with her; in 2020, as Oregon’s Archie Creek Fire approached her family’s home on the North Umpqua River, a collection of newly-acquired salmon fin clip samples was among the precious few things she grabbed in the last-minute evacuation.

Now, as Wild Salmon Center’s first Polsky Science Fellow, Dr. Thompson is working to literally crack the code that first fascinated her. For the next two years, she’s dedicating her time to a project of unprecedented scope: creating a range-wide whole-genome database for both Chinook salmon and steelhead. 

“Our database will essentially serve as an atlas for genetic diversity,” she says. “Our goal is to provide a brand new tool for researchers—one that they can use to better understand how any discoveries made in one river might play out across the rest of the species’ range.”

According to WSC Science Director Dr. Matt Sloat, this foundational data could enable an entirely new generation of salmon conservation science.

“Dr. Thompson’s research was advancing the world of salmon conservation genetics even before she joined our team,” Dr. Sloat says. “But the work she’s doing now as a Polsky Fellow has truly international implications. It could help unlock rafts of promising new conservation strategies across the North Pacific.”

“The work that Dr. Thompson is doing has truly international implications. It could help unlock rafts of promising new conservation strategies across the North Pacific.”

WSC Science Director Dr. Matt Sloat

Dr. Thompson was part of the team that in 2017 discovered the specific gene within Chinook salmon responsible for fall and spring run timing. Then, in 2018, Dr. Thompson led a groundbreaking research project which found that one key gene factored into the fast decline of spring Chinook in Oregon’s Upper Rogue River—a system where fall Chinook populations are now crowding out other genotypes. 

Together, these discoveries have upended schools of thought about how to best protect spring-run salmon populations.

“We now know that if we lose the gene for spring Chinook in a river, we can’t expect that run to ever recover on its own, no matter how much we might improve water conditions or restore habitat,” Dr. Thompson says. 

Thanks to her Polsky Fellowship, Dr. Thompson is now building on this earlier genetics work to launch her dream project: a comprehensive genetic map of wild Chinook across the North Pacific Rim to western Kamchatka.

Thanks to her Polsky Fellowship, Dr. Thompson is now launching her dream project: a comprehensive genetic map of wild Chinook across the North Pacific Rim to western Kamchatka.

“I’ve been thinking about a Chinook genomic map for about five years, and talking with Matt about it from the beginning,” Dr. Thompson says. “The data will help us develop tools to pinpoint exactly where juveniles from different runs are rearing, accurately survey and monitor life history diversity, and develop smarter climate models, among other innovations.”

Chinook salmon, she says, may just be the start point for this ambitious, first-of-its-kind project. With the DNA sequencing now complete for the species, Dr. Thompson and our science team are pivoting to analysis—while also launching a new whole-genome mapping project for steelhead, a species with even greater run timing diversity than Chinook.

In the next year, she says, the WSC Science Team aims to publish its initial Chinook findings and make this data publicly available to all researchers. 

“Our goal is to open up this resource for everyone,” Dr. Thompson says. “There are so many discoveries ahead of us. For example, we’re just starting to understand how finely-tuned these genetic mechanisms are, dictating the difference not only between spring and fall Chinook, but also between earlier or later-returning fish in the same spring run.”

“There are potentially endless conservation projects that this data could enable,” she adds.

In the quest to better understand and protect wild salmon, we’re honored to call Dr. Thompson a colleague. We’re excited to see where this fascinating genetic journey leads next.

“Our goal is to open up this resource for everyone. There are potentially endless conservation projects that this data could enable.”

WSC Polsky Science Fellow Dr. Tasha Thompson

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For 12 straight days this summer, Melaney Dunne woke up at daybreak, pulled on her waders, leapt out of her tent, and started fishing the still-frosty rivers of Mongolia’s Amur Basin before breakfast.

“It was so exciting to get back out into the field,” says Dunne, a Salmon Watershed Scientist with Wild Salmon Center. “My previous salmon experience has all been in Oregon, so a new continent, a new culture, it was thrilling.”

Mother Nature further raised the stakes, as thunderstorms rolled across the steppe, blowing out the river and complicating Dunne’s efforts to collect tissue samples of lenok and Arctic grayling: the primary food sources for the Amur Basin’s cherished Siberian taimen.

As the newest member of WSC’s Science team, Dunne is helping expand our innovative International Taimen Initiative with partner Mongolia River Outfitters. This first-of-its-kind project aims to fill data gaps on the understudied megafish, the largest species in the salmonid family, with a range covering one-eight of the world’s land mass. But that’s just part of the fresh capacity that Dunne adds to our growing science program.

“We’re thrilled to have Melaney on board,” says WSC Science Director Dr. Matt Sloat. “Melaney’s strong experience in both quantitative field work and program management will help us scale up our research and accelerate WSC’s conservation policy work across the North Pacific.” 

“Melaney’s strong experience in both quantitative field work and program management will help us scale up our research and accelerate WSC’s conservation policy work across the North Pacific.” 

WSC Science Director Dr. Matt Sloat

Following her academic training  in freshwater ecology and conservation science at Loyola University and the University of Minnesota, the Chicago native moved to the Pacific Northwest, lured by the region’s relatively thriving freshwater systems.

In previous roles with the Coquille Watershed Association and The Nature Conservancy, Dunne applied her skills to help guide Oregon Coast coho recovery on Oregon’s South Coast, as well as help guide strategic planning for TNC projects across multiple continents.

Now, at Wild Salmon Center, she’s eager to dive deeper into the research that drives our salmon conservation policy work across the Pacific Rim, while also working closely with WSC’s Science Advisory Board to develop ambitious new international projects to protect wild Pacific salmon across their range.

“Like a lot of people, I’m incredibly inspired by the journey of salmon,” she says. “My passion stems from my fascination with aquatic ecosystems and how salmon fuel them, bringing nutrients from hundreds of miles away.”

In WSC, Dunne saw the opportunity to marry that passion with a proven team: one that she’d previously worked alongside on the Oregon Coast. 

“I knew that WSC was super effective at facilitating direct on-the-ground actions for Oregon Coast coho recovery,” Dunne says. “And I also saw that WSC followed through on that planning with funding and high-functioning local partnerships to get the work done.”

According to Dunne, WSC’s professional practices felt aligned with her personal values, particularly when it came to empowering the local communities critical to conservation work. 

“WSC knows that no one will protect a river more than the people who know it and love it already,” she says.

Now, Dunne’s own personal connection to salmon conservation, like our mission, literally spans the Pacific Rim. While soaking up the beauty of Mongolia’s Amur Basin this past summer, Dunne also deployed data loggers into the water column to record air and water temperatures and collected samples spanning the full taimen food web, from grayling and lenok to algae and aquatic invertebrates.

That’s field work that she’ll continue next summer, as our taimen project gains steam across the Western Pacific. In the meantime, she’s also helping to expand and accelerate our research efforts to support WSC programs and partners from Alaska to Oregon.

“It’s exciting to realize I’m on the other side of the table now,” she says. “In the past, I was the local partner working with WSC. Now, I’m on the team responsible for building those super effective salmon conservation policies and partnerships. I’m ready for the challenge.”

“In the past, I was the local partner working with WSC. Now, I’m on the team responsible for building those super effective salmon conservation policies and partnerships. I’m ready for the challenge.”

WSC Salmon Conservation Scientist Melaney Dunne

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