Keith Parker
Senior Fisheries Biologist for Yurok Tribe and Professor at Cal Poly Humboldt
Klamath River Basin, CA
September 29th, 2025
For the past several years, after working in the finance world, Keith Parker is dedicating his time, energy, and anger about the state and treatment of the river and salmon towards making a difference. As the Senior Fisheries Biologist for the Yurok tribal fishery and a registered member of the Yurok Tribe, Keith says that most of his time is spent acting as translator between worlds. “As a tribal scientist, I live at the intersection of traditional ecological knowledge, TEK, and Western science.”
Keith converts traditional terms and knowledge into scientific terms and goes back and forth between the tribal council and committees and the US Fish and Wildlife or Bureau of Reclamation California trying to help facilitate a conversation between these contrasting worlds. This is by no means a small task, and on top of that, Keith also teaches part time at Cal Poly Humboldt in the Native American Studies department and Environmental Science and Management department. Not to mention the fish scale research he is also conducting for the tribal fishery. Keith is a force to be reckoned with but also an incredible force to collaborate with to make productive, collective change in partnership with one another as well as the Earth.
For Keith, these rivers and lands and the beings within them are worth protecting and fighting for. It is “not just a job, it’s our community.” Part of being a good steward of the land is paying attention to its rhythms and knowing when to step back when something is threatened or struggling. In 2017 and 2023, the Yurok tribe intentionally closed its fishery for an entire season and chose not to harvest any fish to help promote the return of salmon to spawning grounds so there would still be salmon in the Klamath left to harvest by future generations.
Salmon are a traditional first food of the Yurok people and heavily ingrained in their place-based identity, so the destruction of this species is not just environmental but social and cultural. Keith is attempting to foster hope in his efforts of salmon research, and, with any luck, these efforts will prove successful for generations to come. Since the removal of the Klamath River dams only one year ago, they have already begun to see improvements in the quality of the river and health of the fish. We can only imagine what the future may bring, but with people like Keith Parker and Hunter Matz, another member of the Yurok tribe and young apprentice to Keith at the fishery, there is still hope to be found in the world.
by Allee Garver