“The Heartbeat of Our People”: Identifying and Measuring How Salmon Influences Quinault Tribal Well-Being

ABSTRACT

Incorporating human well-being metrics into natural resource management (NRM) is a critical component to maintaining social-ecological systems, especially with tribal nations that are deeply connected to natural resources. The Quinault Indian Nation’s well-being, for example, relies on blueback sockeye salmon populations, and is thus an important factor in determining appropriate salmon restoration strategies. Based on 18 interviews with key informants, we identified six domains of well-being related to salmon (Psychological, Social, Cultural, Physical, Governance, and Economic) and 23 interrelated attributes that could be measured to explore and monitor restoration options to provide the most culturally, economically, and biologically sound restoration decision. We demonstrate that salmon is directly tied to QIN subjective definitions of well-being in ways that include yet transcend material benefits. The multitude and magnitude of values associated with salmon furthers the importance of restoring salmon populations and provides additional benchmarks against which to make decisions and measure success.

KEYWORDS:

• Blueback sockeye salmon
• cultural ecosystem services
• human well-being
• natural resource management
• Quinault Indian Nation

Acknowledgments

The authors thank QIN members and The Nature Conservancy Washington field staff for their participation throughout the process.