Habitat tour well done

I’ve recently been looking back at some of the various columns I’ve written over the years. I noticed that, each year as August rolled around, I would usually mention the anniversary of my beginning this column the first week in August of 2001. I haven’t said anything until now because, quite frankly, I forgot to. So here goes. This marks the beginning of my 16th year writing this outdoor column. I’m as surprised as you are that I’m still doing this!

Okay, on to the important stuff!

This past Tuesday, I accompanied a group of people on a tour of various fisheries-related habitat and research projects located on the east side of the Valley. The tour was sponsored by the Matanuska-Susitna Basin Salmon Habitat Partnership. This is the umbrella group for over sixty different federal, state, borough, tribal, and local agencies, and private companies and individuals working in partnership to preserve, maintain, and improve wildlife and fisheries habitats throughout the Valley.

The Partnership sponsored a similar tour last year which looked at fish passage projects, bank restoration work, and fisheries life history research occurring on the Valley’s west side, in the Big Lake area, Shell Lake, and Alexander Lake/Creek. This year involved looking at similar projects and works in and around the Knik River Public Use Area.

Our first stop was at the Jim Lake boat launch. There we received a briefing from Jon Gerken of the US Fish and Wildlife Service about the on-going work being done there. According to Gerken, this project was initiated to improve knowledge of fish distributions and their habitat in this system, especially sockeye and coho salmon, and to increase coverage of waters included in the Anadromous Waters Catalog. Having these waters properly cataloged in the AWC provides certain protections under the Anadromous Fish Act. So far, 24 nominations from these efforts have been made for inclusion in the AWC.

Other work resulting from this project includes mapping the distribution of off-road vehicle trails in the KRPUA. This 2016 season has seen genetic sampling work within the Jim Creek wetland areas to identify the number of individual silver salmon populations which use the wetland area.

The next presenter was David Ianson of the Palmer Soil and Water Conservation District. Ianson explained how about 50 feet of much degraded shoreline along Jim Lake was converted into a single-lane boat launch to minimize damage to salmon spawning beds and restored to prevent further degradation from recreational use. Conserving and restoring critical and important shoreline habitat is one of the priorities of the Mat-Su Salmon Partnership, who provided support for the bank restoration work through the National Fish Habitat Partnership.

Our lunch break was held at the shooting range on KRPUA lands. I had never been at that range and it was impressive in its layout and construction. The folks present while we were there were safe in their shooting activities (I look for these things since I’m a certified range safety officer). The range seems to be a valuable addition to the KRPUA.

We next visited the small launch area leading into Mud Lake. David Mitchell of Great Land Trust and Curtis McQueen of the Alaska Native corporation, Eklutna, Inc., explained some background on a conservation easement completed in late 2014. That easement encompasses 796 acres of Eklutna, Inc. property near Mud Lake. Under that agreement, the land is protected to conserve salmon habitat by restricting development, subdivisions, and inconsistent uses of the property. The land itself remains under the ownership of Eklutna, Inc.

By remaining under Eklutna, Inc. ownership, the subsistence lands in this conservation easement will continue as a place for shareholders to hunt, fish, and berry-pick. This private property can also be used as a place for permitted public access.

Our last stop was along McRoberts Creek to view some streambank restoration and a hardened ATV stream crossing along about 140 feet of the creek. Prior to this restoration project, the banks along this section of the creek had no vegetation remaining because of the motorized vehicle activity. According to our presenter, Ron Benkert of ADF&G’s Habitat Division, McRoberts Creek is cataloged as being important for the spawning, rearing, and migration of anadromous fish, specifically sockeye and coho salmon. The system also supports resident fish species too.

The tour was well done and I learned a lot. My thanks to Jessica Speed of The Nature Conservancy of Alaska, for coordinating the tour and inviting me to tag along.

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. This column is the opinion of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman or its parent company, Wick Communications. You can leave Delo a message by emailing sports@frontiersman.com.