Prioritizing Pacific Salmon Stocks for Conservation

Over 300 native stocks of Pacific salmon, steelhead, and coastal cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus spp.) are at risk of extinction in the Pacific Northwest. With only limited resources available for conservation and recovery, prioritization of these stocks may become necessary if meaningful measures are to be implemented. We propose criteria by which prioritization may be guided. First, we rank stocks for risk of extinction, either by population viability analysis or by a set of surrogate measures. Then we rank stocks for biological consequences of extinction, using sets of questions designed to establish the genetic and evolutionary consequences and the ecological consequences if a stock were to become extinct. Together, these rankings allow stocks to be prioritized for a range of possible actions, with those stocks at highest risk and bearing the greatest biological consequences of extinction receiving attention first. Application of the prioritization process to 20 Pacific anadromous salmonid stocks worked as intended, although data limitations are considerable. The process is most likely to work successfully when applied to many stocks on which data exist, when several experts carry out the prioritization, and when the results are peer reviewed.     

Demand and supply considerations for evaluating a new distance education program in natural resources planning and management in North America

Summary This paper describes the demand and supply information requirements to determine whether a curriculum for a new program, Natural Resources Planning and Management (NRPM), should be developed by Athabasca University (AU). Demand considerations assist in determining forecasted job opportunities and student needs. Supply considerations, including the type and location of existing natural resource programs and their student enrollment levels, assist in determining the enrollment level, the type of degree program, and that the student profile of AU's NRPM graduates will be high, particularly in western Canada. AU has, therefore, been advised to offer an undergraduate bachelor's degree in NRPM. This paper also serves as a model, for organizing demand and supply information for any new university or college program.Fred Curtis, is Professor and Co-ordinator of Regional Systems Engineering, at the University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. His teaching and research areas include environmental and behavioural systems engineering. His recent publications focus on environmental impact assessment procedures, environmental mediation, natural resources planning and management, energy conservation and land use planning and distance education.