Salish Sea Survey: Geographic Literacy Enhancing Natural Resource Management

Abstract

The Salish Sea is a biodiverse, transboundary inland sea and marine ecosystem stretching from British Columbia, Canada into Washington State, United States. Home to nearly eight million people and charismatic and keystone species, including three populations of orca, the ecosystem crosses multiple jurisdictions, communities, and watersheds, complicating conservation efforts. Geographic literacy, especially place names, is important for managing Salish Sea recovery and further challenged by the newness of the Salish Sea as an officially recognized place name. We conducted a geographic literacy survey showing that residents are largely unfamiliar with the name Salish Sea. Such low geographic literacy has numerous negative implications for communications, advocacy, outreach and the ability to address natural resource management and recovery of the Salish Sea at the level of the ecosystem. We offer potential implications for geographic literacy and other complementary geographic constructs within the wider field of natural resource management.