Partnership promotes sustainable wild salmon

MAT-SU—The northern pike floating in a small aquarium didn't look so menacing to 2-year-old Robert Morgan. But in a Southcentral Alaska lake the pike can gobble up entire populations of coho and rainbow trout.

The pike was on display at a Celebration of Wild Salmon event in the MAT-SU today (Tuesday). While the pike is native to waters north of the Alaska Range, it's a voracious predator here, likely introduced by someone with good intentions some 50 years ago. Reducing such threats to wild salmon is a goal of the group putting on the event: the Matanuska-Susitna Basin Salmon Conservation Partnership.

The MAT-SU Borough is a member, so are ConocoPhillips Alaska, The Nature Conservancy, the Alaska Dept. of Fish & Game, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the Chickaloon Village Traditional council, among others. The group is made up of more than 30 members including local communities, landowners, agencies, businesses, and non-profits that share a vision for healthy growing communities and thriving fish and wildlife in the MAT-SU.

This summer the Borough and U.S. Fish & Wildlife teamed up to restore four salmon crossings beneath roads. Three new fish friendly culverts will all soon be in along Surrey Road south of Fairview Loop, and a bridge replaced a culvert along Lower Road, south of the Palmer-Wasilla Highway.

MAT-SU Borough Deputy Mayor Lynne Woods welcomed a crowd of 60 or more at the event at Bradley-Kepler Lakes State Park.

"I'm delighted that we're addressing the habitat needs of our Borough's wild salmon," Woods said. "When I think of all the obstacles to salmon survival: the growth, the roads, I'm really excited about the efforts of folks like the Chickaloon Village who restored habitat, and Palmer Soil & Water, which worked with ATV crossings, and the Borough with its culvert replacement projects. All will increase the numbers of salmon that survive, lay eggs, and start the cycle again, so we can fish and enjoy them."

Sockeye was indeed on the plates of residents and partnership members who attended. ConocoPhillips hosted the free public event. The company has donated $385,000 to projects so far. Ken Donajkowski with ConocoPhillips said the partnership is a great testimony to what can happen. "We can actually see salmon where salmon haven't been for a long time," he said, referring to the habitat restoration of Moose Creek near Chickaloon last year.

Angie Wade with the Chickaloon Village Traditional Council told the crowd that elders were so excited to see fish back in the creek. "The community support for the project has been astounding." Her dad, Tribal Chairman Doug Wade, sparked the restoration project with a question. What are you going to do about the fish? What fish? Her grandfather had told stories about a miner friend who used to get reds out of Moose Creek. That was in the early 1900s, before railroad construction had diverted the creek, causing salmon populations to dwindle.

In 2005 and 2006, the Council and its partners worked to restore the creek. In May, work with an excavator continued to enhance Moose Creek's fish habitat, said Jessica Dryden, a biologist with Chickaloon Village. A logjam was created off the main channel to create slower moving water for young fish and a preventive measure for floods, Dryden said.

The Salmon partnership is a pilot project getting significant notice because of its tangible results, said Randy Hagenstein, Alaska Director of The Nature Conservancy. The MAT-SU Basin Salmon Partnership is one of only five national demonstration programs to protect and enhance fish habitat.

"It's really remarkable that we live in a place that has the kind of habitat where fish replenish themselves and replenish our freezers," Hagenstein said.

The MAT-SU Basin Salmon Conservation Partnership can be found on the Web at nature.org/Alaska. For more information call Corinne Smith with The Nature Conservancy at (907) 276-3133, ext. 121 or Natalie M. Knox with ConocoPhillips Alaska at (907) 263-4153 or Frankie Barker at the Borough 746-7439.