HNRS 355: The Ecology and Economics of Salmon Recovery

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HNRS 355 The Ecology and Economics of Salmon
Recovery

• Hart Hodges
• Dept. of Economics
• David Hooper
• Dept. of Biology
• NOTE ROOM CHANGE ON FRIDAYS
• MW 2-3, ES 345
• F 2-5, CF 231

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Please write the following

• Name
• Major, year
• Email (but better yet, send me yours)
• Why are you in this class?
• What drives your interest in salmon?
• What is your interest and background in ecology?
• What is your interest and background in economics?

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Syllabus Important pointsGoals of this course

• 1) give you a firm understanding of the concepts
  underlying both economic and ecological analyses
  
• 2) illustrate how such analyses can be used to
  better understand issues in sustainable
  management of natural resources in this case,
  salmon
• 3) improve your abilities to participate in
  discussion of scientific literature, including
  developing skills in critical thinking
• 4) actively engage you in analyzing current
  issues in salmon and watershed management
• 5) enhance your understanding of how human
  society is altering ecosystems, some of the
  problems that entails, and some of the solutions
  that might be possible.

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Syllabus Important pointsB. Tests, etc.

• 2 midterms
• 1 final exam
• 2 role-playing discussion groups
• Independent research project and poster

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II. Independent Project and Poster

• Overview see handouts and examples
• Groups of 2
• Integrate ecological and economic analyses based
  on local issues in watershed planning
• Put together poster of results
• Class poster session last day of classes

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Independent Project and Poster

• Examples of potential projects (we will have a
  more complete list next week, or you can choose
  your own)
• WRIA 1 Watershed Plan includes endangered
  spring Chinook recovery for Nooksack River basin.
• Fish passage on Middle Fork Nooksack and Lake
  Whatcom Kokanee.

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Independent Project and Poster

• Schedule
• 4/7 Bruce Roll, potential projects
• 4/14 Topics due
• 5/15 Outlines due
• 6/2 Poster session

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III. Course format A. The 4 Hs affecting salmon
sustainability

• Harvest
• Habitat
• Hydropower (dams)
• Hatcheries

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1. The 4 Hs - Lectures

• - Case studies to investigate biology and
  economics of salmon decline and potential for
  recovery.
• - Specific issues related to salmon, AND salmon
  as a window to general concepts of ecology and
  economics.
• - Economic question and analysis first, then
  ecological information and analysis, then
  questions generated by comparing the two
  approaches.
• - This isnt a course about answering all those
  questions its as much about figuring out the
  right questions to ask as it is about finding the
  final answers.

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2. Fridays Discussions, Field Trips, etc.

• Discussion book D. Montgomery (2003) The King of
  Fish the 1000 year run of salmon
• Field trips come dressed for the weather.
• Role playing integrating ecological and
  economic analyses for specific situations.

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B. Major themes of the course

• Ecosystem services how ecological processes
  benefit human society
• Ecological and economic tradeoffs costs and
  benefits of different strategies
• Ecological and economic constraints what are
  the boundaries of reality (or at least realism)?

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IV. Overview of the salmon problemA. An
ecological perspective

• Whats ecology?
• The study of the factors influencing the
  distribution and abundance of species, including
• How species interact with the abiotic environment
• How species interact with each other (the biotic
  environment)

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2. Ecological scales

• Time over what periods do species populations
  vary days, seasons, years, decades, centuries,
  evolutionary time (thousands to millions of
  years)?
• Space over what areas do species populations
  vary a reach of a stream, a whole stream, a
  watershed, a collection of watersheds or region,
  the entire species range?
• Complexity what and how many factors influence
  survival, growth and reproduction of organisms
  for a single individual, a whole population of
  individuals, a whole community of species, an
  ecological community and the abiotic environment?

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Ecology a hierarchy of complexity
Physiological ecology adaptations for resource
acquisition and dealing with environmental
stresses
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Ecology a hierarchy of complexity
Population ecology - population growth,
distribution, and regulation for a certain species
Physiological ecology
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Ecology a hierarchy of complexity
Community ecology - interactions among multiple
species
Population ecology
Physiological ecology
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Ecology a hierarchy of complexity
Ecosystem ecology - fluxes of energy and
matter through the ecological community and the
abiotic environment
Community ecology
Population ecology
Physiological ecology
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B. The Salmon Problem - Abundance
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The Salmon Problem - distribution
Distribution of Chinook salmon
Augerot 2005
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The Salmon Problem - distribution
Risk of extinction of Chinook stocks
Augerot 2005
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What has caused the decline of salmon?

• A. Harvest

How many individuals can be harvested
sustainably? How does this differ for different
stocks? Can we predict and manage stock sizes?
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2. Habitat

• Streams and rivers spawning and rearing
• Surrounding watersheds affect stream quality
• Estuaries necessary for ocean acclimation
• Open ocean feeding, growth

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Riparian zone
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Over 90 of riparian habitat in the Western U.S.
has been lost or greatly modified by human
activities
Photos courtesy of NSEA
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3. Hydropower (dams)
John Day Dam, Columbia R.
http//www.nwd.usace.army.mil/ps/images/jd.jpg
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4. Hatcheries
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Hatcheries

• Tried to replace caring for habitat (salmon
  without rivers)
• Reduce genetic diversity
• Leave the impression of abundant populations
  despite declining wild fish (do wild fish or wild
  hatchery fish count in determining endangered
  status?)
• May increase competition of wild fish with
  hatchery fish.

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5. History the fifth H

• The decline of salmon is not new.
• Two other well-documented cases of salmon
  extirpation Atlantic salmon in
• Europe - formerly found throughout, now just in
  Norway, Ireland, Iceland, and Scotland
• New England and Eastern Canada (mostly gone by
  late 1800s)

"In a sense, it is arguably easier to predict the
status of salmon in 2100 than it is in 2010."
Robert Lackey Fisheries Biologist
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The ecological perspective We know quite well
what is causing the decline of salmon. Lets just
fix it.

• What does it say for the long-term prospects of
  endangered species around the world if one of the
  most prosperous regions of the richest country on
  Earth cannot accommodate its own icon species?
• David Montgomery (2003)

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• Take it away, Hart.

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Fixing It The Economic Perspective

• What else could we do with the resources?
  Opportunity Cost
• Whose habitat or salmon is it? The Public Goods
  problem.

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Tradeoffs

• Economics is the study of decisions and social
  events or the study of tradeoffs
• There are no rules and answers just a framework
• Economics does not say what to do with respect to
  salmon it just provides a way to think about the
  choices

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Economics and Ecology Together

• You cant analyze decisions (doing economics, so
  to speak) about things related to salmon with
  understanding ecology
• At the same time, habitat restoration and
  management requires a good understanding of
  economics