YVC’s 2018-19 Biology Lecture Series Continues with Alex Conley

Yakima, WA- Yakima Valley College, in collaboration with the Cowiche Canyon Conservancy, presents the Winter Biology Lecture Series. Admission is free and open to the community.

Bringing Back Salmon and Steelhead in Cowiche Canyon

Presenter: Alex Conley, Executive Director of the Yakima Basin Fish and Wildlife Recovery Board

February 26, 2019 • 7:00pm • YVC’s Glenn Anthon Hall, Building 4, Room 215

Like many streams in the Yakima Basin, salmon and steelhead runs in Cowiche Creek disappeared when development blocked fish passage and diverted stream flows. In this talk, Alex Conley will describe the partnerships that were built and the projects that have been completed to return salmon and steelhead to Cowiche Creek. It’s a success story about restoring a creek and continuing to sustain the farms it runs through. He will also touch on the restoration work happening now in the watershed and how climate change may affect streams like Cowiche Creek.

Conley is Executive Director of the Yakima Basin Fish and Wildlife Recovery Board. He spent his early years wandering the woods and backwaters of New England, and then got lost in Senegal in West Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer and trainer doing agroforestry work. He has a bachelor’s degree in biology and environmental studies from Williams College and a master’s from the University of Arizona in renewable natural resource management, where his research work focused on collaborative approaches to managing forest and grazing lands. For the last 16 years, he has run small locally-based organizations focused on watershed management and salmon habitat restoration in eastern Oregon and Washington.

For more information: 509.574.4869.

Press Release Contacts:
Jay Frank / 509.574.6870 / jfrank@yvcc.edu
Stefanie Menard / 509.574.4646 / smenard@yvcc.edu