Given that Pacific Northwest wild salmon today are at 5 percent of historical numbers, and the region's population is expected to increase from 15 million to 65 million by 2100, what specific policies could be implemented that would offer a high probability of sustaining significant runs of wild salmon?

That was the question posed by Robert Lackey in Portland Wednesday to the 350 participants of the conference -- Salmon 2100: The Future of Wild Pacific Salmon. Lackey, a senior fisheries biologist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, was conference organizer and is the project leader for Salmon 2100.

Salmon 2100 was launched in 2002 when Lackey enlisted a cross-section of scientists, policy analysts and policy advocates to identify and describe practical policy options that, if adopted, could successfully sustain significant runs of wild salmon in California , Oregon , Washington , Idaho and southern British Columbia .

Complete information about Salmon 2100 can be found at http://outreach.forestry.oregonstate.edu/Salmon2100/index.htm

The policy prescriptions will be published this year by the American Fisheries Society in a peer-reviewed book. Descriptions of the 26 chapters can be found at http://outreach.forestry.oregonstate.edu/Salmon2100/book.htm

Wednesday's conference included representative presentations by five of the Salmon 2100 participants, question and answer periods, and panel discussions about the work.

Though the Salmon 2100 authors disagree with each other on many points, nearly all conclude that "current recovery efforts have a low probability of successfully restoring or even sustaining wild salmon runs through 2100 in their southern Pacific habitat."

Among the 33 participants emerged four classes of policy "prescriptions" that might recover and sustain wild salmon runs if implemented:

-- Apply science and technology, especially for hatchery reform and restoration efforts;

-- Set aside and protect the best salmon habitat;

-- Reform institutions;

-- Change individual and collective behaviors.

But beyond certain Salmon 2100 policy prescription, conference participants continually touched upon the overarching theme of collaboration as a way to get from here to there.

That note was struck most forcefully by keynote speaker Willam Ruckelshaus, former administrator of the EPA and now chairman of Washington State's Salmon Recovery Board.

Ruckelshaus described the broad collaborative process used to develop a recovery plan for Puget Sound wild salmon, and suggested that salmon recovery in the Columbia Basin needs that same level of inclusiveness to be successful.

"You can't gain the necessary changes without the endorsement of those affected by those changes," Ruckelshaus said

For a collaborative process to be successful, "all interests must be at the table from the beginning."

In addition, government agencies must be at the table from the start, and science must be an important part of deliberations. "Policymakers have to grasp the science and scientists need to know the policy choices," he said.

An effective collaborative process, Ruckelhaus said, "can transcend special interest politics."