Last month, a small crowd at Cook Inletkeeper's Community Action Studio in Soldotna voted on salmon conservation plans that were pitched by community members.
It’s part of the environmental group’s “Local Solution” series, which has previously led to small-scale solar and composting projects on the Kenai Peninsula. It’s now looking to protect juvenile salmon.
“I think, especially here in the central peninsula, so much of what we are involved with as a community centers around salmon,” said David Knight, Cook Inletkeeper’s community engagement coordinator. He says he’s seen diminishing salmon returns in recent years.
“It’s personal, because growing up here and having that resource right out your back door is something that I would never want to see lost,” Knight said.
One of the approved salmon projects is to expand the Kenai Watershed Forum’s mapping of local salmon habitat. The environmental nonprofit’s goal is to increase the number of streams and rivers protected by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
“Right now, our laws are set up so that we presume waters are not salmon habitat unless somebody goes and demonstrates otherwise," said Ben Meyer, an environmental scientist with the Kenai Watershed Forum. "There are good reasons for that, but it also means that there's a lot of work to do if we want to recognize where all these places are.”
Meyer's pitch tied with one to put educational signs in known salmon habitat areas around the peninsula. Each sign would have a QR code leading to a webpage or video explaining the site’s importance and restoration history.
Mitch Michaud is that initiative's brainchild. He says it’ll be a scavenger hunt, like Pokemon Go or geocaching.
“I think people have an intrinsic need to learn, even though they'll say, 'I don't really need to know this,' but once they get a taste of knowing about the biology and the culture of an area, it increases their appetite for more stuff,” Michaud said.
Because of the tie vote, the nonprofit plans to combine both into one larger project. Knight, Inletkeeper’s community engagement coordinator, says the two ideas go hand-in-hand.
“You know, anything we can do to protect what we have remaining and enhance what we have, I think is important to do for the sake of the future of salmon in this area, which our whole lives revolve around,” Knight said.
Proposals that were considered but did not pass include an invasive species citizen survey group and a salmon habitat protection education campaign. Elements of both will be incorporated into the new initiative.
Cook Inletkeeper support staff and community members will meet at the Soldotna studio on April 29 to plan out how to make the "Local Solution" happen within a two-year timeframe.
