Balancing Indigenous and Western Fisheries Management and Science for Salmon Recovery in a Trans-boundary Columbia River system

The Columbia system is governed by  interrelated treaties, e.g., 1909 Tran-boundary Waters Treaty,  Columbia River Treaty, and Pacific Salmon Treaty. These facilitate economic objectives such as hydro-electric production, water storage and flood control, or harvest management. The Okanagan Nation Alliance Fisheries Department has been guided by Traditional knowledge and focused on salmon recovery including the reintroduction into the Okanagan basin and above Chief Joseph Dam and Grand Coulee.  The primary method of recovery has been multi-jurisdictional cooperation amongst all levels of fisheries authorities in Canada and the United States. This has led to establishing tri-partite technical committees in Canada to resolve resident and anadromous management issues associated with species re-introduction and sub-basin water management.  Significant progress has been made to facilitate this objective in conjunction with Colville Confederated Tribes located in Washington State.  The use of cooperative management has resulted in the successful re-introduction of sockeye into upper lake systems of the Okanagan basin. This has led to increased returns to the Columbia River of Okanagan Sockeye in excess of 500,000 in 2014 versus the 10,000 of the mid-1990’s.  We discuss approaches on balancing indigenous science and western science showcasing the success in the Okanagan basin.