John Kominoski, Fulbright Canada Research Chair
September 17, 2025
Salmon are iconic species that are rapidly declining despite fisheries regulations. Holistic efforts to understand watershed-scale environmental conditions that support salmon conservation are needed.
Enter John Kominoski, who has arrived as UVic’s 2025 Fulbright Canada Research Chair to work with First Nations communities on Vancouver Island. His project, “Improving environmental conditions for salmon in coastal watersheds through co-production,” aims to identify riparian and in-stream restoration strategies to enhance habitat for salmon in salinizing and warming coastal streams.
“This collaboration,” says Kominoski, a biological sciences professor at Florida International University, “will expand upon and support existing collaborations that co-produce sustainable restoration approaches to benefit threatened salmon populations important to the First Nations communities of coastal BC.”
While he’s at UVic from September to December this year, he’ll be hosted by the Faculty of Science and plans to use UVic’s Strengthening Connections program to establish a dialogue and plan with the First Nations partners. He intends that the research will benefit academic and cultural goals of both universities and the Nanwakolas Council that aim to improve community and environmental resilience.
“These collaborations,” he says, “are subject to co-creating projects and research objectives that are mutually beneficial and of interest to all parties. This project will also help to inform developing partnerships in the Florida Everglades, where the cultures and perspectives of the Seminole and Miccosukee Tribes are beginning to influence the way that restoration science and policy are shaping the Everglades.
“UVic is internationally recognized as an institution committed to improving the environment and integrating traditional knowledge with Western science,” he says. “I foresee my Fulbright project helping to establish an example partnership that will be successful beyond the project.”
Rachel Goldsworthy