RECOVERY EFFORTS
The Aquaculture Program is Essential for Restoring River Health
In 1989, the Kootenai Tribe, with funding from the Bonneville Power Administration, initiated a conservation aquaculture program to prevent the extinction of Kootenai River white sturgeon. The Tribe, in coordination with Tribal, First Nations, state, provincial, and federal agencies, has been integrally involved in the recovery effort as a co-manager of the Kootenai River System.
Project Overview
The Tribe honors the connection between all aspects of the natural world. Future generations depend on the preservation of complex ecosystems and protecting resources in a holistic manner.
Other aquaculture projects include identifying factors that are limiting native resident fish and wildlife populations and addressing these through ecosystem-based restoration actions.
Because settler activity has altered the ecosystem for decades, much has been lost; however, the Tribe looks to the future when self-sustaining populations of native fish and wildlife may once again inhabit the Kootenai watershed in abundance.
