The Pacific Northwest Salmon Center is honored to announce Frederick Olney as being among six finalist nominees to be considered for induction into the Wild Salmon Hall of Fame. Frederick has retired from an impressive 35 year career. Both professionally and personally he dedicated himself to protecting, restoring and enhancing Wild Salmon recovery efforts while employed as a fisheries biologist and senior staff scientist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Fisheries Program in Portland, Oregon.

Some of the highlights of his dedication are apparent in his past involvement with the Tribes, such as serving as a technical advisor and providing advice on scientific matters helping to resolve conflicts during the Boldt Decision; a landmark ruling that changed the fisheries management practices in the Pacific Northwest as it relates to the allocation of fishery resources between the Tribes and non-Indian fishers. He has also worked extensively on the Columbia River establishing a "normative" spill for the river as opposed to barging juvenile salmon downstream. This is considered by many as a more natural function and thereby has helped to restore the Pacific salmon fishery. Though controversial the spill is still practiced today and is considered a cornerstone of operations on the Columbia River.

Other areas Frederick worked on was advocating for a dam breaching on the Lower Snake River's four federal dams (Lower Monumental, Little Goose, Lower Granite and Ice Harbor) in 1999. The purpose was to improve salmon migration in the Snake River, presumably providing significant benefits to the native fish and wildlife resources on the Columbia Basin. Frederick had a major role in establishing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service position and ensuring that the recommendation was based on scientific information. Although the breaching never occurred, the U.S Fish and Wildlife Services position has never changed. When it comes to Wild Salmon, Mr. Olney has kept the pulse of salmon recovery efforts close to his heart.