Salmonid Restoration Conference Bridging the Gaps in Restoration

The restoration field has been bridging gaps for decades — the gaps between citizen science and academia, addressing legacy issues through innovative practices, and the ever-growing gap between landscape-scale restoration planning and available resources. These gaps are not just filled by best science and comprehensive data sets (or even state propositions). In the real world, we bridge the gaps between what we think is viable and how to get there with collaborative processes that engage diverse stakeholders over many years. Is it often excruciating? Yes. Is it sometimes rewarding? Usually. For those of us in the long-game of restoration and restoring wild salmon, it is the interactions that and what fuels us to keep doing this work.