Doctoral Dissertation Resarch: Local Perceptions of Salmon Habitat Restoration: An Ethnographic Study of Science-Based Conservation and Social Conflict in the Pacific Northwest

尽管经过了世纪的保护努力，鲑鱼的数量已经下降了80%，从数十亿到数百万的数量级，每年返回太平洋西北河流，导致1999年根据濒危物种法（ESA），奇努克和银鲑种群受到“威胁”。 为了应对ESA法规并保护其13亿美元的渔业，华盛顿州要求鲑鱼栖息地恢复计划以“最佳可用科学”为基础，法律上定义为自然科学数据，明确从属于文化，历史和政治信息。 这一政策反映了在环境研究、管理和决策中对自然科学和仪器分析的压倒性依赖。 然而，实施这项以科学为基础的政策被证明比政策制定者预测的更具挑战性和争议性。 这项由华盛顿大学环境人类学博士生进行的研究将探讨一种假设，即该州要求将保护计划建立在“现有最佳科学”的基础上，掩盖了更深层次的历史、文化、政治和经济分歧，这些分歧阻碍了华盛顿西北部斯卡吉特山谷鲑鱼栖息地的恢复。 这项研究将采用开放式访谈、参与者观察和调查相结合的方式，旨在了解不同群体，包括农民、部落和非部落渔民、环保主义者、科学家和决策者如何看待鱼类保护问题。该项目将试图通过评估不同的地方感、历史感、科学感的重要性以及每个群体对其他群体的理解来解释感知的差异。通过阐明造成环境问题和争议的社会力量，本研究旨在建立模型并强调替代方案的必要性，在环境研究中采取包容当地和对文化敏感的方法，可能会导致更有效和更公平的环境政策。 此外，该研究旨在通过合作探索所有参与冲突的人所面临的复杂文化意义，为解决斯卡吉特争议做出贡献。 最后，本研究将有助于博士生的培养和环境人类学这一新领域的发展。

Despite a century of protection efforts, salmon populations have declined 80%, from an order of billions to an order of millions of fish returning annually to Pacific Northwest rivers, resulting in the 1999 "threatened" listing of Chinook and Coho stocks under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In its effort to address ESA regulations and protect its $1.3 billion fishery, Washington State requires salmon habitat restoration plans to be based on "Best Available Science," legally defined as natural scientific data, to the explicit subordination of cultural, historical and political information. This policy reflects the overwhelming reliance on the natural sciences and instrumental analyses in environmental research, management and policy-making. Yet implementing this science-based policy is proving to be far more challenging and controversial than policymakers predicted. This study by a doctoral student in environmental anthropology at the University of Washington will explore the hypothesis that the state's requirement to base protection plans on "Best Available Science" obscures deeper historical, cultural, political and economic divisions that are impeding salmon habitat restoration in the Skagit Valley of northwest Washington. Using a combination of open-ended interviews, participant observation and a survey, the study will aim to understand how diverse groups, including farmers, tribal and non-tribal fishers, environmentalists, scientists and policymakers, perceive the problem of fish protection. The project will attempt to explain the variation in perceptions through evaluating the importance of different senses of place, history, science, and each group's understanding of the others.Broader Impacts: By illuminating the social forces contributing to an environmental problem and controversy, this study aims to model and highlight the need for alternative, locally inclusive and culturally sensitive approaches to environmental research that could lead to more effective and equitable environmental policies. In addition, the research aims to contribute to the resolution of the Skagit controversy by collaboratively exploring the complicated cultural meanings at stake for all people involved in the conflict. Finally, this study will contribute to the education of a doctoral student and the development of the new field of environmental anthropology.