Habitat money granted

MAT-SU -- The Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has awarded grants totaling $96,900 for fisheries habitat restoration in the Valley through the NOAA Restoration Center's community-based restoration program. The projects it funds will provide unimpeded fish access to rearing and spawning habitats in the Mat-Su.

Chuck Kaucic, project manager for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough's Fish Passage Program, wrote the grant and will oversee the work.

"The NOAA money is well received," Kaucic said. "We wouldn't have had the financial ability to serve some of these areas without it."

The money will fund a number of projects this summer, including:

A culvert between Crooked Lake and Kingfisher Lake

An outflow culvert at Kingfisher Lake

Culverts at Meadow Creek and Meadow Creek Loop

Culverts at Sitze Road and the Schrock Road Bridge

Culverts at Swiftwater Creek

Culverts at Cardiff Lane and Lupine Lane

Streambed restoration at Settlement Avenue, where a culvert was replaced last year.

Replacing these undersized and fallen culverts will improve stream hydrology at several public road crossings and help restore freshwater fish habitats in the Valley. According to a NOAA press release, access to suitable rearing habitat is crucial to the survival of juvenile salmonids. Once the culverts are replaced, community volunteers and local organizations will plant native vegetation and do follow-up monitoring.

Additional project partners include the Wasilla Soil and Water Conservation District, Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Alaska Department of Natural Resources and the Boy Scouts of America.

The borough has conducted a number of culvert-replacement projects in past years.

"We are dedicated to removing fish passage blockage from our road system," Kaucic said.

Contact Jen Ransom at jen.ransom@frontiersman.com.