WWU assistant professor James Helfield is conducting research on reversing the environmental damage to fish habitats caused by years of intensive logging in Sweden. Helfield began working on the project on the Vindel and Pite rivers in Northern Sweden in 2002 as a postdoctoral researcher. He left Sweden in June 2005 to join the faculty at WWU’s Huxley College of the Environment, but has continued to crunch the data obtained by more than two years of field work. He will return to Sweden in September 2008 to continue the project.

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The project, funded by the European Union and carried out by Sweden’s Umea University in conjunction with a number of local watershed groups, aims to restore the stream channels to their native state and improve habitat, and in doing so boost the fish populations to levels that would support a more viable commercial and recreational fishery.

Helfield said the habitat-restoration work he has done in Sweden has many parallels to restoration projects in the Pacific Northwest, both in terms of goals and results.

A gallery of photos from Helfield’s research project in Sweden is available in the FAST Online Image Gallery.