If you would have told me that I would be spending time in graduate school investigating how to connect people interested in salmon recovery through internet tools like Twitter and blogging, I would have turned my nose up at you. In fact, I couldn’t even figure out how to post to this blog until today. You might be thinking that things aren’t really looking good for me considering I don’t even have a Facebook account and this is my first blog entry EVER (note the year). But alas, here I am wondering how to share information, tools, and ideas across regions, groups and cultures in order to build more a collaborative and cohesive strategy to restore wild salmon.

Needless to say, this seems like a daunting task and I am often wondering if it is even possible to bring such diverse interest groups together through something as abstract as the internet. This is definitely the road less traveled. However, the more I talk about it with people, the more momentum the idea gains and the more connections I make. Two months ago, I crossed paths with a woman who implements Kitsap County’s salmon restoration program and is a strong champion for strengthening the dialogue among salmon recovery participants. Just yesterday I was talking with one of the regulars at the coffee shop in which I work. She has been coming in before I started working there nine months ago, but never had I known what she did for a living. Turns out she works with social media to bring together communities around ideas or businesses and is interested in helping me get started using WordPress, anyone familiar?

So the lesson this week is a reiteration of the importance of community, whether it is on the internet or in the corner coffee shop. Often our best resources are right in front of us. I find comfort in the thought that even if my idea for an online dialogue centered on salmon restoration flops, I have built invaluable relationships with people I may never have otherwise.

More on the history of salmon restoration next time…