Stepping up to protect my Alaska way of life

Throughout my career as a chef, which has ranged from cooking for the George H. W. Bush family in Maine to Wildflower Café in Talkeetna, I have always relied upon the freshest foods. Here in Talkeetna, I know that eating fresh-caught wild salmon from the Susitna connects us in a beautiful and powerful way with our home; to Alaska.

Every summer we anticipate the annual return of salmon so that we can fill our bellies and our freezers full of wild salmon. Recently, I took part in the Key Ingredients Festival hosted by the Northern Susitna Institute in Talkeetna. This celebration of local food included a salmon tasting and potluck foods celebration. The Key Ingredients Festival is a traveling Smithsonian exhibit that inspires the gathering, celebration, and preservation of the finest of local food in rural America. It should come as no surprise that our key ingredient was wild salmon.

This weekend was about gathering together and celebrating the food and wild salmon of the Susitna Valley with our community. Our celebration was also about being mindful of threats to our salmon and community. Right now, that threat is the outdated and expensive Susitna dam, proposed by the State of Alaska.

This project comes with a $5.2 billion price tag and while providing some hydroelectric power for Railbelt communities, it will leave most of rural Alaska in the cold, and still footing the bill. Not only is this project not fiscally sound, but it’s not based in science, and it’s risking our most important natural resource: wild salmon. This is in direct conflict with our state salmon policy.

While Alaska Energy Authority continues to tout that the dam will not negatively impact salmon populations, their arguments are flawed at best. First, they mischaracterize the number of fish above the proposed dam site. Second, their focus on upstream impacts obscures downstream threats. Any scientist worth their salt knows that major impacts for salmon also exist downstream from the dam. Third, one just has to take a quick trip up the river to see that AEA is not being rigorous in their scientific studies. The state doesn’t have our best interest at heart, and I for one, will not stand for it.

In Alaska, we shouldn’t have to choose between clean, affordable energy and strong wild salmon runs. Mega dams are a relic idea that has no place in Alaska’s salmon rivers. Just take a look to the south and see what damming rivers will do to wild salmon populations and fisheries. After cooking for President Bush I’m no stranger to politics, including those associated with food.

Hope for the future lies in our hands. Protecting Alaskan wild salmon is the most important issue for our food security. It is up to us. It is time for all of us to step up and take responsibility for what happens in our state, on our rivers, and on our plates. Alaskans all play a key role; from feeding families on fresh salmon they’ve caught together, to commercial fishermen, and chefs and restaurateurs like me. The choices we make today will decide what our world looks like tomorrow.

If we don’t have the vision and the courage to protect our own homes, communities, and our wild salmon, then who will? I’m not willing to leave that up to chance.

I will not stand for a future without wild salmon. I will not stand for a Susitna River without wild salmon. And I will not stand for risky projects like the Susitna dam that put all of that at risk. My livelihood, and the livelihoods of Alaskans depend upon how we care for our natural resources, most especially wild salmon.

This is my home, this is my river, and this is my way of life. I’m stepping up to protect it. Who’s with me?

Jerome Longo, was born in Connecticut and raised in Maine. After working up and down the East Coast as a chef, including cooking for President George H.W. Bush, he moved to Alaska seeking that Alaska experience. He ran 5 Iditarod races between 1997-2001. In 2004, he opened the Wildflower Café in Talkeetna, where he lives with his wife and daughter.