COLUMN: If it's August, it's Salmonfest in Ninilchik

Everything salmon will be on display Aug. 4-6 in Ninilchik at the Kenai Peninsula Fairgrounds for the 12th annual Salmonfest.

And I simply cannot wait to get down there.

The guys in my life – the Handsome Scotsman and the Manchild – and I are loading up a camper and heading down there to celebrate all that is fantastic about Alaska salmon and music and hopefully some sunshine.

Salmonfest has turned what began as a protest against the possibility of a large mining operation being plunked down in the middle of the one of the world’s most productive salmon fisheries – Bristol Bay – into an event that attracts not only locals and people from across the 49th State but also plenty of folks from the Lower 48 and across the globe.

We’ve never gone to Salmonfest. We are being told we are in for a super treat – that this is an event every Alaskan should experience at least once.

Being super curious about the atmosphere at an event with as many bands as this one generates, I took the opportunity to speak with Jim Stearns, the festival director.

I was curious if this was Alaska’s version of Woodstock.

“No way,” he told me.

This is indeed an uber family-friendly event.

For starters, there are plenty of kid activities completely oriented around salmon education.

The event has a zero tolerance for drugs and any other illegal substances.

The festival has security at every gate.

Children are issued wrist bands upon which guardian or parental cell phone numbers can be written and children are never allowed to pass the gate security without adult supervision.

This level of safety combined with the promise of 65 bands spread across four stages and an arts and crafts and a plethora of healthy food choices on scene has got me ready to travel the Seward Highway and take a right just before Tern Lake.

Pardon the pun, but seriously, rock on!

One of my partners, Melinda Munson, nearly turned in to a giddy teenager with the news that Homer-legend, Jewel, will be back in Alaska headlining the event. If there is a press conference, you can bet I will be there, lol. Trouble is, so will everybody else in the media. Stearns tells me that the calls keep pouring in from around the country and the world with interest in this event.

Alright man! Seriously rock on!

I am not a liberal or a tree-hugger. Actually, I am pretty downright conservative. So it might be a surprise to hear I was not a supporter of the Pebble Mine project – a proposal now gone the wayside but was the catalyst for the origins of Salmonfest. Not that my opinion really mattered in the scheme of state agencies making permitting decisions or not. I just thought there was no point in even possibly creating any level of threat to that fishery. Go mine elsewhere.

Point is, wild salmon are a precious resource and Alaska is one of the few places left in the world with a relative abundance of them.

Yep, as I write this, I am wearing a pink t-shirt with the words, “Women Are Like Salmon,” in black lettering with the words, “They’re Best When They’re Wild And From Alaska,” written in white. Picked it up last March from the Chugiak-Eagle River Chamber of Commerce and I enjoy its dual meaning.

Alaskans ought to celebrate all that is salmon.

The Institute of Social and Economic Research at the University of Alaska-Anchorage estimates the Bristol Bay fishery created $1.5 billion in economic impact nationwide once the multiplier effect of indirect jobs created is calculated. In 2010, 29 million sockeye salmon valued at $165 million were harvested. It represents 31 percent of the total Alaskan salmon harvest and is greater than the fish harvest in 41 other states.

That is darn significant.

And that is only one fishery.

When one thinks of the other fisheries or streams across the state, we intuitively know the tremendous impact salmon has on Alaska even if we cannot quote all the numbers to back it up.

The fun-to-watch scene of the personal use dipnet fishery in July on the Kenai River reminds us of the importance salmon have to us individually and as families. The many times I have watched the men in my life land a salmon and the not so many times I have been the one with “fish on” aren’t just cool memories etched in my mind; they represent opportunity to double up on family-oriented goals: put some healthy-to-eat fish in the freezer and have a good time while doing so.

As folks are enjoying the tunes the first weekend in August, I am grateful that education regarding this essential Alaskan resource is the harmony and melody of this festival.

Amy Armstrong is a Co-Conspirator with Alaskafamilyfun.com. Reach her at amy@tripodcommunications.com.