We would like to express our appreciation for the web page designed for our salmon and steelhead restoration group by the students involved with the Humboldt Institute for Technological Studies (HITS). The Eel River Salmon Restoration Project was initiated in order to address the declining salmon and steelhead runs within the Eel River watershed. These fish are an indicator of ecosystem health as well as a valuable resource for our local economy.
A healthy fishery is an asset to the local community by supplying jobs for our commercial and sports fishery as well as supporting local businesses such as restaurants and motels during the winter time. Without this fishery the winter is a slow time for our tourist based service business community. Bringing back the fishery to the level that will support a commercial and sports harvest of salmon and steelhead means more jobs for our local community, which directly translates into a more stable community structure as a result of lower unenployment levels.
On the web page that HITS has produced for our local nonprofit fisheries restoration group we will be able to share techniques that we have developed and used to help restore our salmon and steelhead fishery, monitor the success of our programs and educate others about our programs. We are also able to get feedback from other groups on the usefulness of our techniques to their fisheries restoration efforts as well as allowing them to give us ideas on how to be more effective in our own efforts.
In a very real sense the web page developed for our project will ultimately be responsible for a more timely and coordinated effort in restoring our west coast salmon and steelhead fishery. Beyond our own shores we have recently been contacted and will be sharing, via this web page, information with Atlantic Salmon restoration groups located in Ireland. In this light this web page will allow us to take part in actively restoring the health of salmon fisheries on a global scale.
Sincerely,Harry Vaughn
Project Co-director
