| Aja
DeCoteau Named CRITFC’s Watershed Department Manager
Portland, Oregon
- Aja K. DeCoteau,
a member of the Yakama Nation, is joining the Columbia River Inter-Tribal
Fish Commission (CRITFC) on March 8 as the new manager for CRITFC’s
watershed department. DeCoteau, 29, has been serving as the program
manager for the Yakama Nation’s Environmental Management Program
in Toppenish WA for the past two years.
“I am very excited to be joining CRITFC,” said DeCoteau.
“I am looking forward to working with all of CRITFC’s
member tribes and tribal staffs and eager to implement the tribal
restoration plan Wy-Kan-Ush-Mi Wa-Kish-Wit in a period were we face
numerous challenges like climate change and competition for water
resources.”
DeCoteau comes to CRITFC with a strong background in regional water
and air quality issues, environmental review and environmental health
issues. She will oversee restoration and protection of fish habitat
projects under the tribes’ salmon restoration plan while providing
technical and funding support to CRITFC’s member tribes. DeCoteau
will take a leadership role in the implementation of the Northwest
Power and Planning Council’s Fish and Wildlife Program and will
be essential to CRITFC’s implementation of the Columbia Basin
Fish Accords.
“These are momentous times for treaty-based fisheries management,”
said Paul Lumley, CRITFC’s executive director. “Aja’s
experience and ties to the tribal community will be essential to helping
the tribes’ meet their goals and moving CRITFC’s watershed
department into the future.”
DeCoteau has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Native American Studies
and Environmental Studies from Dartmouth College and a Master of Environmental
Management from Yale University. Laura Gephart has been acting as
CRITFC’s watershed manager for the past year.
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About CRITFC
The Portland-based Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission is
the technical support and coordinating agency for fishery management
policies of the Columbia River Basin's four treaty tribes: the Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes
of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, the Confederated Tribes
and Bands of the Yakama Nation and the Nez Perce Tribe.
CRITFC, formed in 1977, employs biologists, other scientists, public
information specialists, policy analysts and administrators who work
in fisheries research and analyses, advocacy, planning and coordination,
harvest control and law enforcement. |
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