Heather Hardcastle2020Heather Hardcastle was born and raised in Juneau, Alaska, in the heart of Lingit Aani. She grew up commercial salmon fishing with her family along the Taku River, and with wild salmon at the center of family life. After completing a master’s degree in conservation biology at Duke University in 2001, Heather returned to Alaska and she and her family co-founded Taku River Reds to market the high quality catch of Taku fishermen across the U.S., and to build a company committed to conservation and community. In 2010, Heather began work with Trout Unlimited Alaska to permanently protect the Tongass National Forest’s most productive, intact salmon watersheds.  A few years later, Heather and other Alaskans co-founded the Salmon Beyond Borders (SBB) campaign to defend and sustain the iconic Alaska-British Columbia (B.C.) “transboundary” salmon rivers like the Taku that are threatened by dozens of proposed Canadian hard rock mines. While Heather served as director, thousands of Americans and Canadians joined this international campaign; Heather and her team built invaluable relationships with decision makers in both countries. After transitioning from director to advisor at the SBB campaign, Heather and her family migrated from Alaska to northern California in 2018 to spend school years at the southern edge of the “Salmon Coast,” and summers near the Taku. Much of Heather’s current passion centers on supporting and uplifting the Indigenous-led transboundary alliance that premiered a powerful video, When the Salmon Spoke, in May 2020, and that strives to use Indigenous stories as tools for connection and change. All bios are from the year the award was presented.