Salmon show us how ocean, rivers, forests, communities, economies, and cultures are connected—and why our work must happen at the scale of whole places.
Salmon are a keystone species and a living signal of bioregional health. They move from headwaters to ocean and back again, linking forests, farms, rivers, estuaries, and coastal waters into one system. Because salmon depend on the whole system to survive, they make something unmistakably clear: you cannot restore a bioregion in pieces.
Healthy salmon runs depend on clean cold water, functioning habitat, resilient food webs, and stewardship across entire watersheds.
Salmon are tied to food, livelihoods, cultural continuity, local identity, and relationships that cross sectors and worldviews.
The boundaries of our work follow the traditional extent of migratory Pacific salmon rather than political borders. This geography links California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Alaska, and interior watersheds through the rivers and ocean systems salmon have traveled for millennia.
Salmon Nation is a place of remarkable abundance, shaped by the movement of water, salmon, people, and ideas. Its lands, waters, cultures, and economies are deeply connected, forming a living system unlike any other.
A vast living edge where forests, rivers, communities, and the Pacific Ocean meet.
Ecotrust, 2018We are a region of major cities, small towns, rural communities, and Indigenous Nations connected by place.
Pacific Coast CollaborativeThis bioregion would rank as the 5th largest economy in the world.
Pacific Coast CollaborativeYukon River salmon can travel almost 1,800 miles without feeding to reach spawning grounds.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife ServiceRepresenting over 70% of all remaining coastal temperate rainforest in the world. Surpassing the Amazon in carbon storage density per acre.
The Nature ConservancyThe waterways of this bioregion are the circulatory system for all the natural and human systems that have evolved here.
Ecotrust, 2018We are beginning where relationships are deep and where there is an opportunity to demonstrate what bioregional-scale economic transformation can look like. Each landscape is distinct. Together, they are a portfolio of learning across forests, food systems, salmon recovery, stewardship, water, and community wealth.
A globally significant rainforest coastline where old-growth forests, rivers, and nearshore waters function as one living system. As First Nations regain stewardship authority and land rights, we support governance, stewardship capacity, and long-term finance pathways that can shift the regional economy from extraction toward regeneration.
A consequential interior watershed where water governance, agriculture, hydropower, climate impacts, and salmon recovery converge. We are linking regenerative agriculture, watershed management, salmon restoration, and cultural revitalization into a whole-watershed finance approach.
A region at a historic turning point. Following the removal of four Klamath River dams, Tribal Nations and local communities are shaping a new era of river reconnection, sovereignty, and economic renewal. We support shared infrastructure, enterprises, and workforce pathways that pair ecological recovery with durable local prosperity.
A watershed where climate stress, land-use pressure, and water scarcity meet deep local innovation. We work across diverse community actors to strengthen shared governance and stewardship capacity, aligning capital around measurable long-term watershed health and resilience.
Salmon teach us to follow relationships across boundaries. Bioregional finance does the same—organizing capital around the living systems, communities, and shared infrastructure that allow a place to thrive.
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