The approach, called the stronghold strategy, aims to proactively protect the world’s greatest remaining “strongholds”—a select group of salmon, steelhead, and trout systems that collectively comprise 119 distinct watersheds. According to Wild Salmon Center President & CEO Guido Rahr—lead author of the peer-reviewed study—salmonids center the strategy because they are both iconic and globally recognized as keystone species. For the past 25 years, Wild Salmon Center has deployed the stronghold strategy in rivers across the North Pacific, with impacts that ripple far beyond the rivers that salmon call home. 

“When you protect salmon, you protect the benefits of healthy watersheds,” Rahr says. “The science is clear that salmon rivers can safeguard food security, species biodiversity, and climate resilience. So we built a strategy centered on strongholds—some of the best salmon river systems in the world.”

“The science is clear that salmon rivers can safeguard food security, species biodiversity, and climate resilience.”

Wild Salmon Center President and CEO Guido Rahr

Strongholds are distinguished by their relatively high levels of wild salmon abundance, productivity and diversity, along with habitat quality capable of sustaining wild salmon for decades. They include vast and stunning places like Bristol Bay, Alaska, and the Skeena and Dean watersheds in British Columbia. According to the authors, strongholds can play a key role in advancing the world’s 30 x 30 conservation goals. As some of the planet’s last large, intact landscapes, salmon strongholds sequester 6.1 billion tons of greenhouse gasses—roughly equivalent to 3.5 years of total U.S. emissions.

“Strongholds are already working hard on our behalf,” says study co-author and Wild Salmon Center Science Director Dr. Matthew Sloat. “We can build on their benefits by scaling up our stewardship. But time is a factor. The window is closing in which we can protect these systems from the threats that are breaking so many other salmon rivers.”

“Strongholds are already working hard on our behalf. We can build on their benefits by scaling up our stewardship. But time is a factor.”

Wild Salmon Center Science Director Dr. Matthew Sloat

The authors note that the stronghold strategy aims to complement—rather than replace—different strategies to recover endangered salmon populations in systems degraded by development, harmful resource extraction, and other threats to wild fish. But in action, the stronghold strategy is uniquely proactive. In the decades since the strategy’s conception, Wild Salmon Center and a network of partners have protected 35.7 million acres of overall habitat and prioritized wild fish biodiversity in 89 rivers across the North Pacific.

The study provides multiple case studies on the stronghold strategy’s impact. In Oregon, for example, NOAA Fisheries noted an increase in coho salmon population diversity following the strategic expansion of coastal “wild fish zones.” Another case study tracks the 2006 designation of Russia’s Kol watershed as the first World Heritage Site dedicated to salmon, as led by Wild Salmon Center and a coalition of Russian partners. The Kol’s whole-watershed protections became permanent in 2015, and have inspired the creation of nine additional large-scale protected areas for wild salmon across the Russian Far East.

“The stronghold strategy is already sustaining local fisheries, slowing the pace of biodiversity loss, and helping to mitigate climate change,” Dr. Sloat says. “The long-term protection of strongholds is one of the smartest, most cost-effective investments we can make for the health and wellbeing of future generations.”

“The long-term protection of strongholds is one of the smartest, most cost-effective investments we can make for the health and wellbeing of future generations.”

Wild Salmon Center Science Director Dr. Matthew Sloat

The stronghold strategy aims to ensure that these systems will remain safe for decades, Dr. Sloat notes. For each system, success rests on achieving three pillars of durability: 

1. Layered habitat protection and restoration. Each stronghold needs policies that can protect land and water through shifts in politics and economic pressure. 
   
2. A fisheries management emphasis on wild fish biodiversity. According to Dr. Sloat, the rich genetic and life history diversity of salmon is the species’ superpower, enabling them to survive ice ages, floods, and dramatic climate changes. 
   
3. A culture of local stewardship. The enduring presence of local land and water guardians builds what Rahr calls a human “immune response”—community members who stand ready to defend a stronghold from threats.

“The stronghold strategy is about more than ensuring a future that we can share with these amazing wild fish,” Rahr says. “It’s about a legacy of wild rivers and wild places that we inherited, and that we owe to our children and grandchildren.” 

“The stronghold strategy is about more than these amazing wild fish. It’s about a legacy of wild rivers and wild places that we inherited, and that we owe to our children and grandchildren.” 

Wild Salmon Center President and CEO Guido Rahr

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The Secretary of the Interior today announced full protections for tens of million acres of public lands across Alaska, safeguarding them from extractive industrial development. 

You spoke up and Washington listened!

These rich landscapes, including millions of acres around the Bristol Bay, Yukon and Kuskokwim regions support all five species of Pacific salmon, three of North America’s largest caribou herds, abundant moose populations, and vast numbers of migratory birds. 

Protecting these places from industrial development will help buffer vulnerable fish and wildlife populations from the effects of climate change and provide future food security for Alaska Native Tribes in over 100 communities. On behalf of Alaskan communities, fish, and wildlife: Thank you!

Keeping Critical Landscapes Intact

Since January 2021, we’ve been working with our partners to stop five Public Land Orders prepared by the Secretary of the Interior under the Trump Administration. The orders would have opened up some 28 million acres of public lands and waters to extractive industrial development. (See these 5 maps that help tell the story.) 

The salmon- and wildlife-rich federal lands named in the orders are located in the Bristol Bay, Bering Sea Western Interior, East Alaska, Kobuk Seward, and the Ring of Fire regions.

Known as “D-1” lands, these acres have been considered off-limits to mineral, oil, and gas extraction since the passage of the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). 

Alaska’s BLM-managed D-1 lands (50.1 million acres in total) cover roughly 13 percent of the state. These large swaths of unfragmented habitat represent some of the nation’s largest remaining intact ecosystems, from high alpine tundra to the pristine estuaries and wetlands in places like Bristol Bay, home to the world’s most abundant wild sockeye runs.

These landscapes support migratory birds and roving herds of caribou, while their undisturbed watersheds deliver the cold, clean water that wild fish need to weather accelerating climate impacts. For Alaska Native communities that rely on subsistence fishing and hunting, D-1 lands are critical to supporting food security and maintaining a way of life that has endured for millennia.

These protections are arguably more important than ever, given the pressures of climate change on Alaska’s natural systems, fish and wildlife populations, and human communities.

When Congress enacted ANCSA five decades ago, it expressly withdrew unreserved lands in Alaska to allow the Secretary of the Interior time to determine whether opening these lands to resource extraction served the public interest. 

The Bureau of Land Management’s environmental review process, launched in 2023, brought a chance for communities, hunters, anglers, and conservation groups to make the case that strong D-1 land protections—not resource extraction—best serve the public interest.

Public Support

And make the case, you did. Over 100,000 Americans spoke out in favor of keeping full-fledged protections. That included over half of Alaska Native Tribes and hundreds of businesses.

People across Alaska and the country understood the value of these large landscapes. You understood how this land use decision could impact fish and wildlife habitat, and cultural and subsistence resources for thousands of people.

You understood this campaign was a historic opportunity. Now, we can rest easier, knowing that the future of some of our last, best undisturbed public lands is more secure.

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Campaign update: More than 140,000 Americans joined over half of Alaska Native Tribes, and hundreds of businesses in a groundswell of support for protections across 28 million acres of federal land in Alaska (see press release). Next, the Secretary of the Interior will review public comments, with a final decision expected in summer 2024.

In Alaska, everything is bigger. That’s true right now, of a rare chance to save some of America’s largest intact landscapes.

We have a small window of time to prevent 28 million acres of protected Alaska land (in total, an area larger than West Virginia) from being opened to extractive industrial development. These lands include Bristol Bay, where we spent decades working to stop Pebble Mine.

In the five maps below, we detail exactly why all 28 million public acres—not just Bristol Bay—are too precious to put at risk.

And the clock is ticking. We have until February 14 to tell the Bureau of Land Management to safeguard some of Alaska’s best salmon and trout rivers, along with the world’s best caribou habitat. We’ll never get this chance again. That’s because in Alaska, once land protections are lifted, they’re almost impossible to reinstate. Read on for what it means if we lose these lands forever.

28 Million Acres At Risk

In the last days of the Trump Administration, orders were issued to open tens of millions of acres of protected lands in Alaska to industrial development. These orders are still pending. In the crosshairs: 28 million acres of BLM lands spread across the state: some of the largest intact landscapes left on Earth. Through mid-February 2024, the Biden Administration’s BLM has opened a public comment period on whether to lift these protections. This is our moment to make sure these public lands stay in public hands.

A Threat to 100+ Alaska Native Communities

BLM-managed lands support important subsistence resources and serve as the breadbasket for thousands of Athabaskan, Aleut, Dena’ina, Inupiat, Yup’ik, and Tlingit peoples. More than 100 Alaska Native villages count on these lands for subsistence resources. And for Alaska Native communities living off the road system, more than 80 percent of food is sourced directly from surrounding lands and waters. In October, 78 Alaska Native Tribes wrote to urge Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland to retain these protections.

A Threat to 5,000 Miles of Salmon Rivers—and Counting

Alaska’s BLM lands and its vast network of pristine rivers, lakes, and streams support five species of Pacific salmon. Salmon is an important subsistence resource for Alaska Natives and many other communities throughout Alaska. Even without a complete survey yet from the State of Alaska, we already know that at least 5,000 miles of salmon streams flow through the BLM lands under review.

A Threat to the Largest Caribou Herds on Earth

These BLM lands are home to three of North America’s largest caribou herds. The largest of these, the Western Arctic Caribou Herd, undertakes one of the longest terrestrial mammal migrations in the world. Communities rely on caribou migratory movements for subsistence harvest—a critical resource in northwest Alaska. But encroaching industrial development is already taking a toll on the Western Arctic Caribou Herd, which has shrunk by an estimated 23 percent in the last few years. We can’t risk losing these last unfragmented swaths of wildlife habitat.

A Threat to Your Public Lands

Alaska’s BLM lands represent some of the largest intact landscapes left in the United States. From Bristol Bay to the Yukon-Kuskokwim region, to new and emerging habitat, once glaciated, in East Alaska, these lands support outdoor recreation, hunting and fishing, and habitat connectivity across tens of millions of acres. Like giant puzzle pieces, these BLM lands adjoin the state’s other protected areas: critical parts of a whole and healthy Alaska.

Right now, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to safeguard Alaska’s BLM lands. In doing so, we can help secure a way of life for thousands of Alaska Natives, irreplaceable fish and wildlife habitat, and some of the largest intact landscapes left on Earth.

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As international efforts to reverse climate change gather new urgency, land-based strategies could play a major role. In the United States, improvements in land management could absorb up to a fifth of annual emissions—the equivalent to taking all cars and trucks off the road—according to a 2018 study led by The Nature Conservancy.

Wild Salmon Center is working to harness this tool to protect salmon stronghold ecosystems in two ways: by conserving large natural landscapes that already sequester carbon, and by restoring salmon watersheds in ways that increase their carbon-sequestering abilities.

With our colleagues at Ecotrust, we’re mapping the North Pacific and getting a clearer picture of the strong overlap between salmon ecosystems and priority lands for carbon sequestration. This map is organized into carbon storage categories that represent roughly five equal-sized land distributions. The most important lands for carbon storage—those storing more than 110 tons of carbon per hectare—are marked in deep green.

In Khabarovsk, where WSC’s Russian partners are working to create a network of protected areas for salmon and Siberian taimen, boreal forests and their underlying peatlands represent unusually high carbon storage potential.

Alaska’s Bristol Bay region (anchored by the Nushagak (left) and Kvichak rivers outlined lower left), home to the world’s largest run of sockeye salmon — and the threat of Pebble Mine, is a massive tract of largely undeveloped carbon-absorbing wetlands and peatlands the size of Wisconsin. 

The remaining temperate rainforest rivers in coastal Alaska, British Columbia, Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, and the Oregon Coast also offer globally significant carbon storage.

Our goal is to provide policymakers, the philanthropic community, and the carbon finance sector with hard evidence of the clear climate benefits of keeping salmon strongholds intact and safe from large-scale logging, mining, and other destructive development. And that could accelerate increased protections and restoration across the North Pacific, from the Lower 48 to the Russian Far East.

Protecting important salmon watersheds should be part of a land-based climate strategy.

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But the Skeena watershed’s long-term well-being is at risk. More than $200 billion in oil and natural gas projects have been proposed for the region. The worst proposal would build a liquefied natural gas terminal over Flora Bank, an intertidal area used by 80% of the Skeena’s juvenile salmon as they enter salt water.

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