Pinniped Culling, Salmon Recovery, and the Case for Causal Discovery
Recently-introduced federal legislation would allow killing pinnipeds in the Pacific Northwest to protect salmon. I assert that before we commit to killing animals, whether through the currently proposed bill or through experiments some scientists have proposed, there's a lower-cost step we should take first: testing the causal story itself against the data we already have.
The Causal Promise of Decision Intelligence for Wildlife Management
Every wildlife agency runs on decisions, and it rarely makes just one. Should we allow more or fewer deer to be killed this season? Should we expand a habitat corridor? Should we adjust a fishing quota? These repeat year after year, which makes wildlife management one of the best proving grounds for decision intelligence.
Making Smarter Decisions Under Scarcity: Decision Intelligence and Water Management in the Yakima River Basin
The Yakima River basin is a snapshot of the water crisis facing the American West. It supports a $4.5 billion agricultural economy, nearly 400,000 residents, and some of the most important salmon and trout habitat remaining in the Pacific Northwest. If you’ve eaten a really good apple, had a great microbrew with hops-forward flavor, or eaten red cherries in the recent past, chances are these products were grown in the Yakima River valley. All of this depends on a river system that is structurally over-committed and increasingly stressed by drought and a changing climate.