Our blueprint for cost effective action to save at-risk species including salmon in the Fraser River Estuary

Working in collaboration with Tara Martin and the Conservation Decisions Lab at UBC, and numerous partners from First Nations, provincial and federal government and eNGOs, our study assessed potential management actions that could ensure the persistence of at-risk bird, fish, amphibian, plant and marine mammal species in the Fraser River Estuary. The first study led by post-doc Laura Kehoe, examined the cost, feasibility and benefits of the potential actions and developed a cost-effective set of priorities for the conservation of all at-risk species in the estuary. The resulting paper ‘Conservation in heavily urbanized biodiverse regions requires urgent management action and attention to governance’ was published in Conservation in Practice in November 2020, and received media coverage. Following this large scale study, PhD student Lia Chalifour, focused in on the salmon populations in the estuary and used priority threat management (PTM) to prioritize conservation investments and to identify management strategies that could support thriving populations over 25 years. This research was published in the Journal of Applied Ecology in July 2022 followed by media coverage (below). Also check out the blog Lia wrote covering the research or what the Martin Lab had to say about it.