The Coast Coho Partnership

The Coast Coho Partnership is a team of public and private partners that convened in 2015 to accelerate the recovery of Oregon’s two coast coho runs. Managed by the Wild Salmon Center, the Partnership provides technical and financial support to coastal stakeholders implementing federal and state coast coho recovery plans.

The Coast Coho Partnership assists local restoration partners in:

  1. prioritizing the restoration strategies and on-the-ground projects required to achieve the state and federal recovery goals stated for each coho population; and
  2. leveraging funding to support locally led, voluntary implementation of high priority projects.

The Partnership works with locally-convened teams to prioritize watershed restoration activities aimed at the complementary goals of rebuilding the state’s 28 independent coast coho populations while increasing the resilience of coastal watersheds to climate change. The prioritization process combines cutting-edge habitat and climate modelling with the expertise of local scientists, managers, landowners, and other stakeholders to generate a “Strategic Action Plan” (SAP). Each SAP lays out a long-term, spatially-explicit strategy to restore the watershed processes that create and maintain critical coho habitats. A five year workplan helps local partners coordinate projects and leverage implementation funding in the near term.

Once a plan is complete, the Partnership leverages funds to implement it. To date, the Coast Coho Partnership has raised more than $10 million to put these plans into action. Coupled with improving land use, restoration can recover coho populations on the Oregon Coast, so coastal communities and Indigenous populations can reclaim the cultural, economic, and spiritual values once spawned by this iconic species.

The Coastal Conveners

Coastal partners seeking to develop a comprehensive restoration strategy for their particular watershed request support from the Coast Coho Partnership to work collaboratively on the development of a “Strategic Action Plan”, or SAP. To initiate the planning process, a local leader pulls together a team of regional partners who collaborate on the plan’s development and implementation. The following partners serve as the “coastal conveners” in areas where SAPs have been developed or are currently underway.

Tribal Partners

The Coast Coho Partnership recognizes the traditional Indigenous peoples who have been stewards of the land and waterways in which we work for thousands of years. We value the opportunities to partner with coastal Oregon tribes and to work alongside them. These opportunities call us to commit to continuously learning how to be better stewards of these lands.

The following Tribes have been active participants in both the development and implementation of the SAPs. The Coast Coho Partnership encourages our partners to learn more about conservation efforts being led by these and other coastal Tribes.

  • Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians
  • Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians
  • Coquille Indian Tribe
  • Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians