Developing a Restoration Plan for Endemic Landlocked Atlantic Salmon in a Heavily Regulated River System in Norway and Sweden

The River Klarälven /Trysilelva/Femundselva is home to the endemic, landlocked and iteroparous Atlantic salmon, which historically migrated up to 400 km between Lake Vänern in Sweden and spawning and nursery areas in Sweden and Norway. Fragmentation and loss of longitudinal connectivity caused by the development of 11 run-of-river power plants over the past 100 years terminated the Norwegian populations. Efforts to restore a wild salmon population on the Swedish side of the border are providing positive results. The balance between maintaining long-range migration patterns of fish, and society’s demand for renewable energy is a considerable challenge in developing sustainable utilization and management of both ecological and energetic resources in large rivers. The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) represents a recent development on the legislative basis for management of water resources both in Norway and Sweden. Re-establishment of longitudinal and lateral connectivity for fish in fragmented rivers is considered crucial to achieve WFD’s environmental goals. As a consequence, a cooperative restoration project between Norway and Sweden was initiated by the Ministers of the Environment in the two countries in 2011. Conservation and restoration of migratory salmonid populations require a brod understanding of their ecology at multiple temporal and spatial scales in order to conserve remnant populations and expand the home range of existing populations. Several studies also underline the importance of clarified social and political components to succeed in challenging restoration projects. It will involve professional interests, but also affect public concerns, commencing a range of attitudes and preferences.  For restoration to be successful in regulated rivers the social and political factors involved in hydroelectric production, fisheries, and resource utilization must be mutually adapted to a set of partly contrasting goals (e.g. EU Renewable Directive). The aim of this paper is to present and assess the upcoming restoration plan on River Klarälven/ Trysilelva/ Femundselva, Scandinavia’s largest river system. The project is interdisciplinary including ecological research to identify bottlenecks for eco-functionality, and appoint potential restoration sites, methodical approaches, and hindrances in combination with efforts to establish a multinational consensus platform and build public support for increased emphasize on ecological restoration. This study is highly relevant for large fragmented rivers throughout Europe and will seek input also from large-scale restoration projects elsewhere