Kevin Scribner wears a baseball cap and a near-constant grin as he talks about how market access and food systems can inspire better water quality for the “iconic” salmon of the Pacific Northwest and the ecosystems they live in.

Scribner grew up on Puget Sound and in Walla Walla, Washington. “I have embedded in me the love for the maritime environment and the arid, interior, agricultural environment,” he said. He worked for 20 years as a commercial fisherman and now helps people harness the market for products and practices that sustain salmon. 

Scribner works with Salmon-Safe, which works with farmers, developers, timber companies, and local industry to keep salmon populations healthy. By creating “salmon safe,” certification — Scribner hopes to protect ecosystems and create market demand.

“We play a fascinating role within the agricultural landscape of the Pacific Northwest,” Scribner said. As a “volunteer, incentivized program,” if growers meet standards for practices that promote water quality and habitat health, third-party assessors certify the products as Salmon-Safe.

“Then your product can be labeled as Salmon-Safe in the marketplace,” Scribner said. “That’s our value proposition. That requires a lot of hanging out with farmers.” 

In his home in the Pacific Northwest, the Columbia River Basin was once home to the largest Chinook salmon runs in the world. For millennia, these runs sustained Indigenous people. For many, salmon define the Pacific Northwest.

Today, despite conservation efforts, half of the 28 Pacific salmon populations are threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Kevin saw quickly how his skillset could aid salmon habitat. 

Scribner has seen changing conservation practices to restore the Columbia River. Years of effort resulted in the passage of the Columbia Basin Restoration Act, which received $79 million in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021.

From the Environmental Protection Agency, Salmon-Safe has received three federal grants to expand their work, the most recent of which is $1.9 million to help fund partner organizations throughout the Columbia River Basin. Previous grants include $190,000 to fund Salmon-Safe practices on 30,000 acres and $342,000 to expand a similar Trout-Safe program to inland watersheds.

Salmon-Safe utilized federal grant funding to expand its Columbia River Pledge that asks farmers, contractors, and others to commit to specific steps to improve water quality – and thus salmon habitat. The pledge is a flexible program that recognizes good conservation practices without the commitment of full certification.

A farmer might pledge to plant cover crops, reduce tillage, or update irrigation systems or get involved in a watershed council. These practices reduce runoff of soil, pesticides, and nutrients. Salmon-Safe includes certification programs for vineyards, parks, infrastructure, and golf courses. It has certified about 95,000 acres of land in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.

“Where we’ve had great success is in the crop sectors that have labels, with wine and beer,” Scribner said. After vineyards began adopting Salmon-Safe certification, Scribner worked with hop growers in the Yakima Valley to adopt conservation practices, utilizing a Sustainable Agricultural Grant from the EPA.