Ed Chaney incorporated Chinook Northwest, Inc. in 1978 to provide strategic planning, economics, and licensing and litigation support to private, governmental, and NGO decision makers.

In 1976 he founded the Northwest Resource Information Center, Inc., a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, to influence public natural resource policies, management initiatives and investment strategies. In addition to initiatives on its own behalf, NRIC provides consulting services to non-profit NGOs, and to Native American Indian tribes.

Ed has 40 years of professional experience analyzing ecological and economic interrelationships, and in strategic planning at local, state, tribal, and regional levels.

He has produced numerous local, subregional, and regional natural resource management plans, conflict resolution initiatives, and economic/ecological analyses to impact public policy and investment strategies. He has authored innumerable technical reports, articles and essays.

Ed has served as consultant to agencies of the United States Government, to agencies of state governments, to Governors of states, to Native American Indian tribes, to regional inter-governmental councils and commissions in the Pacific Northwest, to the Western and Central Fisheries Boards of Ireland, and to non-governmental organizations in the United States, Scotland, and France. He has many times provided expert testimony before governmental bodies, including committees of the United States Congress.

Ed's work on economic/ecological issues related to salmon have been featured in innumerable regional and national print and television news reports including 60 Minutes on the CBS television network.

Prior to becoming an independent consultant in 1973, and founding NRIC in 1976, Ed worked on staffs of the following organizations: 

Environmental Defense Fund, Washington, D.C. — Provided technical support to numerous administrative and legal initiatives aimed at environmental policies and actions of the federal government. 

National Wildlife Federation, Washington, D.C. — Information Director and principal analyst on numerous national issues including lead shot effects on waterfowl, mercury contamination of waterways, public land conservation, Atlantic and Pacific salmon conservation, and water and air pollution. Initiated several landmark lawsuits in the federal courts. 

Fish Commission of Oregon, Portland, Oregon. — Information Director and analyst of issues associated with hydroelectric development and with culture and management of anadromous salmon of the Columbia River Basin. 

Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Indianapolis, Indiana. — Information Supervisor.