Policy News
By Thomas Bigford By definition, water is a vital factor in maintaining an aquatic ecosystem, especially one with abundant fish. But that simplistic statement obscures the complicated realities of a healthy water body. Each species needs its predetermined blend of water quantity, quality, and chemistry. When aquatic systems are compromised by human intervention or natural... Read More
Every four to eight years (more often eight), an opportunity arises for a change in the U.S. presidential administration. This “changing of the guard” is not only a fantastic display of American democracy in action but is also a great opportunity to either capitalize on the progress that has been made within the previous administration... Read More
If walls and fish could talk, I suspect they’d have a strained conversation. Unfortunately, neither fish nor walls were interviewed for this column, so the following is based on 40 years of my personal observations. There has been much talk in recent years about living shorelines, which trend toward using natural materials and native species... Read More
The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference recently concluded in Paris, and developed countries are now charged with implementing an environmental agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions. That’s a perfect setting for us to ponder how well positioned “we” might be for change that might be reflected in U.S. fish programs. With a clearer vision... Read More
AFS Policy Letter 2014 on Pebble Mine and Failure of Mount Polley Dam – Comments to USEPA Region X AFS Policy Statement on Mining and Fossil Fuel Extraction Revised 2016 Read More
I was one of perhaps 25 AFS members who attended the 23rd biennial Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation (CERF) meeting in November 2015. The general theme of “Grand Challenges in Coastal and Estuarine Science: Securing Our Future” included a series of presentations on new and lingering threats to fish habitat. The conference theme was coastal... Read More
Kevin Bogardus, E&E reporter Published: Wednesday, January 13, 2016 U.S. EPA’s internal watchdog has cleared the agency of harboring any bias when conducting its controversial assessment of potential large-scale mining in Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed. The report, approved by EPA Inspector General Arthur Elkins and released today, said the agency went by the book, following the... Read More
This column coalesced around four actions last October. First, as a frequent partner with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the American Fisheries Society (AFS) was invited to a presentation on the agency’s river restoration efforts, land-use planning, and regional mitigation strategies in the Arctic. Second, President Obama announced plans to pursue two new... Read More
This month’s column is about the intersection of human and biological diversity with history. According to McGinley (2014), “[s]pecies diversity is a measure of the diversity within an ecological community that incorporates both species richness (the number of species in a community) and the evenness of species’ abundances.” Beyond biology, and bridging the social and... Read More
The Obama administration announced on September 22, 2015, that it would not list the greater sage grouse under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). That decision, anchored in the vast western sagebrush ecosystem from Washington to New Mexico, has major implications for fish everywhere. Along with the Oregon Chub Oregonichthys crameri recovery, we now have... Read More
