Kootenay-Columbia Green Party candidate Bill Green received a conservation award Monday in Portland from the American Fisheries Society.
Green accepted the William E. Ricker Resource Conservation Award on behalf of the Ktunaxa and Secwepemc (Shuswap) Nations, joint recipients with the Okanagan Nation Alliance and 15 American tribes.
The Ricker award recognizes singular accomplishments or long-term contributions that advance aquatic resource conservation at a national or international level.
Green is the founding executive director of the Canadian Columbia River Inter-tribal Fisheries Commission, established by the Ktunaxa and Secwepemc Nations to protect and restore aquatic ecosystems and return salmon to their historic range in the Columbia and Kootenay River systems.
“It has been an incredible honor and learning experience over the past 20 years to work with the Ktunaxa and Secwepemc communities,” Green, a fisheries biologist, said. “Bringing back the salmon is of profound cultural importance to them, and will produce ecological and economic benefits for all people.”