Salmon, Logging, Mining & More: Waterside Chat with Tim Bristol of SalmonState

Tim Bristol joined host Tom Sadler and the Marine Fish Conservation Network for an online Waterside Chat on March 4, 2025.

Tim is SalmonState’s executive director, and he has had a long career in environment conservation, having worked for Trout Unlimited in Alaska, the Alaska Coalition, the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, and the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition. He is a recipient of the Alaska Conservation Foundation’s Olas Murie Award for outstanding professional contributions to conservation.

Tim and Waterside Chat host Tom Sadler talked about Tim’s conservation journey, his work with SalmonState, the campaigns SalmonState has going on, and what the next few years with a new congress and administration may entail. They covered:

• Why fishing with his father — and a childhood close to infamous Superfund site Love Canal — directed Tim towards conservation
• How recognition of the recreational value of forests helps us move away from logging-first and towards a mix of uses, including tourism, water quality, Native Alaskan subsistence AND logging
• How SalmonState, as a group of communicators, connectors and conveners, brings together abroad swath of communities, salmon markters, indigenous communities, commercial fishermen and more
• The importance of illustrating stories in a way that’s evocative — “The showing rather than telling is critical”
• Why bycatch is a massive threat to Alaska salmon, and why restraining it is not an easy problem to solve
• The importance of the Tongass, America’s “salmon forest”, whose economic value for fishing far outstrips the value that would be realized from logging or road-building
• Updates on mining activity that threatens Alaska salmon runs, including new uncertainty under the current administration

And of course, much much more!

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The Marine Fish Conservation Network’s Waterside Chat series connects people who depend on healthy oceans and fisheries with the issues that directly affect them and their communities. Each episode the Network’s Deputy Director Tom Sadler talks with different guests about ocean policy and fisheries management topics. He engages them in genuine and thoughtful conversations about what policy decisions mean for people’s livelihoods, communities, recreation, and coastal ways of life.

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