InSeason Management Teleconference Summaries - 2008 Salmon Bycatch Update Newsletter - Fall 2008

By the late 1980's, pushed further and further from decision-making processes and competing for a rapidly diminishing resource, community-based fishers found themselves in conflict with each other. In December, 1990, fishing leaders from the entire length of the river and its main tributaries gathered in the village of Galena to address the causes of that summer's disastrous salmon returns: offshore interception, habitat loss, and stifling federal and state regulations.

YRDFA was formed to provide an institution through which fishers throughout the watershed could resolve their conflicts by sharing information and perspectives, and represent their interests-and the value of a sustainable salmon run-at decision-making forums. Since 1990 YRDFA has developed unique communications projects linking fishers and fishery managers. YRDFA has also become an important policy center. In addition, YRDFA has adopted a hands-on approach to eduction, assistance to fishing villages, and conservation and restoration projects.

Guided by a board of directors from Yukon River and tributary fishing communities, and working with a wide range of partners, YRDFA works in five program areas: Policy Advocacy, Conservation & Restoration, Cultural Preservation, Economic Opportunity, and Information Sharing.

In fulfilling these functions, YRDFA is responding to the uniquely modern challenges to natural resource management. YRDFA is demonstrating that, properly organized, the users of a resource can play a major role in protecting and managing the resource, and defending the communities that depend on it. In coming years, YRDFA will work to increase the capacity of communities to restore habitat, improve management, and increase direct returns to fishers.