Salmon, notes David Montgomery, a professor of geomorphology
at the University of Washington, are like a natural bank account. Generations
of Native Americans and Scots lived off of the interest from their accounts,
wrote Montgomery, in “King of Fish,” his popular history of 1,000 years of
salmon on Earth. “Keeping our salmon account solvent over the long run,” wrote
Montgomery, “will require returning to the proven practice of only withdrawing
the interest.”
Montgomery is on the agenda on the evening of Dec. 3 to
address participants at the start of the three-day Southwest Alaska Salmon Science
Workshop, at the University of Alaska Anchorage recital hall in Anchorage.
Montgomery will also participate in a panel discussion at
the workshop at the Anchorage Hilton on Dec. 4, on whether state and federal
water quality standards sufficiently protect Bristol Bay salmon. The discussion
will be preceded by the presentation of papers about whether current water
quality standards for copper and other metals are likely to be protective of
salmon, and if not, how best to determine an appropriate standard that will
protect salmon.
Anthropologist Alan Borass, a professor of anthropology at
Kenai Peninsula College, will address the workshop Dec. 5, also at the
Anchorage Hilton, on gathering and using traditional ecological knowledge to
inform the Environmental Protection Agency’s Bristol Bay watershed assessment.
More information about the workshop and how to register to
attend can be found at www.southwestsalmon.org/symposium
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