Salmon-Safe Farms: Promoting salmon-friendly agricultural practices and inspiring consumer power
Streaming Media
Presentation Abstract
Stewardship Partners recognizes the crucial role farmers play in the protection of our watersheds and salmon populations, leading us to implement the Salmon-Safe program in Washington in 2004 to support landowners who are promoting and practicing sustainable land management to combat environmental degradation. To date, we have added more than 100 different Washington State farms and vineyards to the program — ensuring the restoration and maintenance of watershed health across tens of thousands of agricultural acres. Since the major salmon streams in the Puget Sound basin flow through the most productive agricultural valleys, conservation efforts aimed at protecting salmon and improving watershed health must engage farmers to encourage conservation and restoration practices as part of overall sustainable farming efforts. However, farmers face severe difficulties due to the decline of farming infrastructure, competition from consolidated agribusiness, increasing regulatory control, flooding and urban growth pressures forcing the sale of prime farmland. These struggles often make it difficult and unappealing for farmers to participate in conservation even when they are ideologically inclined to. For this reason, incentive-based programs that promote both farming and conservation are necessary. Salmon-Safe advances the conservation efforts of private landowners by providing market-based incentives to establish healthy watershed farming practices as a means to promote local sustainable agriculture, increase marketing opportunities, and develop collaborative partnerships between farmers, organizations, and agencies involved in salmon recovery efforts. This presentation will highlight the overall Salmon-Safe program and its strategies, while highlighting examples of the farms we work with, the strategies they have adopted as part of their Salmon-Safe certification (i.e riparian habitat restoration) and how Stewardship Partners is able to leverage partnerships to promote sustainable agriculture and local businesses.
Session Title
Session 1.3A: A Salmon-Safe Salish Sea: Transboundary partnerships to advance salmon-friendly urban development and agricultural practices in the Pacific Northwest
Conference Track
Salmon Biology & Management
Conference Name
Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference (2020 : Online)
Document Type
Event
SSEC Identifier
2020_abstractID_4836
Start Date
21-4-2020 2:30 PM
End Date
21-4-2020 4:00 PM
Genre/Form
conference proceedings; presentations (communicative events)
Subjects – Topical (LCSH)
Salmon--Conservation; Sustainable agriculture; Watershed restoration--Monitoring; Agriculture--Environmental aspects
Geographic Coverage
Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.)
Rights
Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author's written permission.
Type
Text
Language
English
Format
application/pdf
Salmon-Safe Farms: Promoting salmon-friendly agricultural practices and inspiring consumer power
Stewardship Partners recognizes the crucial role farmers play in the protection of our watersheds and salmon populations, leading us to implement the Salmon-Safe program in Washington in 2004 to support landowners who are promoting and practicing sustainable land management to combat environmental degradation. To date, we have added more than 100 different Washington State farms and vineyards to the program — ensuring the restoration and maintenance of watershed health across tens of thousands of agricultural acres. Since the major salmon streams in the Puget Sound basin flow through the most productive agricultural valleys, conservation efforts aimed at protecting salmon and improving watershed health must engage farmers to encourage conservation and restoration practices as part of overall sustainable farming efforts. However, farmers face severe difficulties due to the decline of farming infrastructure, competition from consolidated agribusiness, increasing regulatory control, flooding and urban growth pressures forcing the sale of prime farmland. These struggles often make it difficult and unappealing for farmers to participate in conservation even when they are ideologically inclined to. For this reason, incentive-based programs that promote both farming and conservation are necessary. Salmon-Safe advances the conservation efforts of private landowners by providing market-based incentives to establish healthy watershed farming practices as a means to promote local sustainable agriculture, increase marketing opportunities, and develop collaborative partnerships between farmers, organizations, and agencies involved in salmon recovery efforts. This presentation will highlight the overall Salmon-Safe program and its strategies, while highlighting examples of the farms we work with, the strategies they have adopted as part of their Salmon-Safe certification (i.e riparian habitat restoration) and how Stewardship Partners is able to leverage partnerships to promote sustainable agriculture and local businesses.
