Thanks to a dam removal project, the Eklutna River near Anchorage will be free-flowing again by this month, which is great news for migrating salmon and char that enter it from Cook Inlet. (ALEX TROUTMAN/
ALASKA BEAT
BLACKFISH MEDIA)
TWEET OF THE MONTH
NEW PATHS FOR SALMON
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ood news for Alaska salmon over the past month, particularly word of the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to reinstate federal protections for Bristol Bay amid the Pebble Mine saga (see page 16). But two other projects will also be beneficial to the Last Frontier’s anadromous fish. Trout Unlimited’s Alaska chapter announced that in late September the Anchorage area’s 11.8-mile Eklutna River was scheduled to have water flowing from its headwaters to its mouth on upper Cook Inlet’s Knik Arm after a successful dam removal project that was completed in 2018. “We have waited a long time to see this day,” said Aaron Leggett, chief of the Native Village of Eklutna, which helped kickstart the project. “It’s finally happening, and it feels so good. We had gotten so used to just a trickle of mud running through our village that we forgot how beautiful the river is. Since the dam came down in 2018, the river has once again been running clear. We notice, the salmon notice, and the bears notice.” Down in Southeast Alaska, Sitka’s Peterson Creek, home to coho and pinks, plus Dolly Varden, was the recipient of a new culvert, a passageway placed under a road or similar obstruction, providing the fish with improved access for their upstream journey to spawning grounds. “If there’s one thing that Alaskans can rally around, it’s salmon,” said Andy Stevens, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service fisheries biologist. “These projects are a win-win for both salmon and infrastructure stability in communities.” The fish will certainly take these wins.
NOTABLE NUMBER
207 MILLION The estimated number of salmon that will be harvested in Alaska in 2021, according to an Anchorage Daily News estimate by Forrest Bowers, Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s deputy director of its Commercial Fisheries Division
“I AM SO HAPPY that EPA and Biden administration are restoring protections to Bristol Bay Alaska. Over ½ the world's salmon spawns there yearly and countless species of fish. Tons of animals and local natives live off the land. We can't eat gold.” #WeCantEatGold -@MsGoddessMaria, Sept. 10
HUNTING DANGERS FROM HUMAN AND CREATURE ALIKE
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wo recent incidents magnify how careful Alaska hunters must be, and the dangers can be human-related as well as from the natural environment. First, on Sept. 8, 39-year-old Eagle River resident Jason Long was hunting Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve when he was mauled by a bear. “The hunter was alone when a sow with two cubs mauled him, causing lacerations and puncture wounds,” the National Park Service reported, adding that Long was recovering from his injuries. More disturbing was the Sept. 11 fatal shooting of 74-year-old Michael Easley of Wasilla, who died during a moose hunt off the Taylor Highway near the community of Chicken. An Alaska State Troopers investigation was still ongoing. Stay safe, sportsmen and -women.
aksportingjournal.com | OCTOBER 2021
ALASKA SPORTING JOURNAL
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