Discussing DNR water reservation reviews

The leaves on the trees in and around my yard have almost all fallen to the ground. Moose season is over, and I never got out once. My plans to fish the local lake never materialized because of various appointments which happened every day for a week. Now, the gates on the road to access the lake’s boat launch are locked. Everything is being readied for the upcoming winter season.

All is not lost, however. There are other lakes I can access for fishing and small game hunting to be done. I have some work to do in reorganizing my storage building and moving trailers to their winter parking spots. Now that the monsoons have at least slowed somewhat, I can burn some of the paper garbage that seems to grow in our house.

Another situation which has begun again for the upcoming season is the resumption of monthly meetings for the Matanuska Susitna Borough Fish and Wildlife Commission (MSBFWC). Our first meeting was last Thursday at the Borough building in Palmer. I was glad to be back in person for the meeting. Between Covid and my surgeries, I had attended most of the last cycle’s meetings via an Internet connection.

One of the main topics of this last meeting was a discussion of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) water reservation reviews happening in the Mat-Su Borough. I missed the special meeting the MSBFWC had with the DNR folks, and others, this past June. I had read the minutes from that meeting and got the impression that things were not as good as they could be. So, I asked what other commission members thought of how the meeting had gone.

Commission members said that some valuable information came out of the meeting, but, generally, they still had concerns about the process. First, there is only one person doing reservation reviews for the entire state and they are literally hundreds of systems behind in the review process. State law mandates that each system with a water reservation be reviewed every ten years. Instead of being able to do a couple of dozen reviews a year, they are currently only managing a handful, which causes the backlog to just keep growing.

Another concern was that the public usually only has two weeks to comment on a water reservation review. By the time the public even finds out a system is being reviewed, the public comment period is already over. To learn which systems are scheduled to be reviewed and most of the particulars about the proposed review, a public information document request must be submitted. Another problem with the process is that the volume of water being reserved can only be maintained or reduced. No additional water flow can be added through the reservation process.

The commission had developed a series of questions to ask during the June special meeting. At this regular meeting last week, the commission voted to send a public information request to DNR to obtain a complete listing of all systems in the borough that will be coming up for review, along with specific information about each of these systems. Having knowledge of upcoming reviews would allow the public a chance to comment during the short, two-week comment period standard to this process.

The main purpose of a water reservation in a particular drainage is to provide enough water for fish movement, spawning, development of the fish from eggs to fry over the winter, and out-migration of the fish from the system. Fish and Game participates in the process as the requester of water reservation amounts in many of the systems, but they don’t make the final decision.

Most folks are not even aware that this process is on-going, albeit slowly, let alone the impact a reduction of water flow volume could have on fish stocks in a specific system. Nature in a vibrant and ever-changing entity. Specific years may see low flow from lack of rainfall and warmer waters due to dry and sunny periods or rainy and high flow years scouring fish reds. Sufficient water flow needs to be maintained to protect these fish resources.

If you are concerned about the future of our Valley salmon and native fish stocks, you need to participate and be informed in this process. Contact the DNR water reservation program folks to ask questions and request information and timelines. As the borough commission receives information from DNR, that information will be posted on the commission’s borough website.