FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 24, 2016
Contact: Martha Wilson
[email protected]
Dick Dyrland of the U.S. Forest Service received the Presidents’ Fishery Conservation Award at the 2016 American Fisheries Society (AFS) Annual Meeting in Kansas City, Missouri. AFS President Ron Essig presented the award at the meeting’s plenary session. The Presidents’ Fishery Conservation Award is presented in two categories: (1) an AFS individual or unit, and (2) a non-AFS individual or entity. It recognizes a singular accomplishment or long-term contributions that advance aquatic resource conservation at a regional or local level.
Dick Dyrland retired from the U.S. Forest Service after 31 years of outstanding public service working as a hydrologist. Upon retirement, Dick immediately began pursuing his passion for watershed restoration and salmon recovery, focusing on streams and rivers that drain to the lower Columbia River.
He has worked as a consulting hydrologist and head of Fish First, a locally grown assemblage of fishermen and conservationists, on its habitat restoration program. He also started the Friends of the East Fork of the Lewis River, catalyzing and overseeing the organization’s extensive efforts to conserve and restore the river.
Dick has designed and supervised the installation of over 19 habitat and fish passage restoration projects, totaling more than 17 lineal miles of river, and is considered an expert on creating and rehabilitating side channels.
Dick has demonstrated a unique capacity to develop and implement projects and programs to restore ecosystems and habitats that fish and other aquatic organisms need to live and thrive. He has dedicated himself to providing effective, sustainable, on-the-ground solutions to the complex and daunting challenges faced by salmon recovery managers in the western United States.
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Editor’s notes:
Links: (fisheries.org, 2016.fisheries.org)
About AFS: Founded in 1870, the American Fisheries Society (AFS) is the world’s oldest and largest fisheries science society. The mission of AFS is to improve the conservation and sustainability of fishery resources and aquatic ecosystems by advancing fisheries and aquatic science and promoting the development of fisheries professionals. With five journals and numerous books and conferences, AFS is the leading source of fisheries science and management information in North America and around the world.