Please join us Thursday, November 7th from 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm for an evening of information sharing and celebrating the return of salmon to Southeast Alaska and the Tongass National Forest.
There will be a few short presentations from local agencies and short films capturing the habitats of Southeast Alaska and the Tongass National Forest, home to all five species of Pacific salmon.
The National Fish Habitat Partnership and Fish Habitat Section have teamed up to host a film festival for the Reno meeting – Reno-vating Habitat for Fish and Wildlife: A Film Festival Highlighting Collaborative Habitat Conservation and Its Benefits. This festival will take place each day of the conference and include over 80 films shown during 14 showing sessions.
Films will showcase examples where resource practitioners and others come together to protect, restore and enhance freshwater, coastal and terrestrial habitats that support the needs of fish and wildlife. These films share how improving habitat brings other benefits like improved water quality and socio-economic returns to communities. Film categories include habitat conservation projects, on-the-ground restoration examples, and include other films that capture the dynamic landscapes and unique habitats that are home to our fish and wildlife. This festival offers a unique opportunity for meeting attendees to collaborate and learn about successful habitat conservation stories from across the country. Each showing session will include some time at the beginning for available filmers and colleagues to share additional information about their films as well as engage in question and answer dialog towards the end of each showing session.
For Information on the times for specific films, please visit the detailed schedule in front of the room, the registration desk, or visit this page: http://bit.ly/AFSfilmfest.
This April, the Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition and Southeast Alaska Fish Habitat Partnership teamed up to bring together over 70 participants across Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, including state and federal agencies, university researchers, Tribes, and NGOs, for a regional discussion about the state of eDNA research and existing and future applications across Alaska. The agenda, a brief meeting synopsis and the informative and valuable presentations relayed by leading researchers on the subject are available at the partnership’s website at https://seakfhp.org/edna-in-alaska-1-day-workshop-april-1-2019/.
Presentations and discussion touched on topics of interest garnered in early outreach efforts including:
Next steps include exploring capacity to support a statewide Alaska eDNA Working Group, advance opportunities to share data resources especially information about primers that exist for Alaska species, and prioritize monitoring efforts especially for aquatic invasive species detection. For more information contact the SEAKFHP coordinator at: coordinator@sealaskafishhabitat.org
The Implementation Plan for the Southeast Alaska Freshwater Temperature Monitoring Network is now available! The Implementation Plan reviews the need for the network and long-term water temperature data, summarizes existing sites, outlines a strategic sampling plan for the future, and touches on network sustainability, including participant roles and a budget.
You can find the report on Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition website here.
The Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition has recently published the Wrangell Area Watershed Assessment.
The assessment can be downloaded at: http://www.alaskawatershedcoalition.org/2019/02/wrangell-area-watersheds-assessment/
The purpose of the Wrangell Area Watersheds Assessment was to compile a dataset and report outlining key aquatic resources within the City and Borough of Wrangell, including an assessment of the current habitat condition of key aquatic resources, identification of sites that could benefit from restoration treatment, and outlining watershed management challenges and opportunities.
This project was carried out with financial and technical support from the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Coastal Program, in partnership with the Wrangell Cooperative Association, and the US Forest Service, and with financial support from the Charlotte Martin Foundation.
SAWC is greatly appreciative to all of the funders, partners, and stakeholders that helped to make this project possible.
On Wednesday – February 20, 2019 scientists shared the latest on ocean acidification in Alaska including current and future conditions and species response.
Presentations were live streamed on the Alaska Ocean Observing System’s Facebook page and are now available on the Alaska Ocean Acidification Network’s web page at: https://aoos.org/alaska-ocean-acidification-network/
Presenters included:
Bob Foy, Director of NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center, and former director of the NOAA Kodiak Laboratory, speaking to species response to ocean acidification.
Jessica Cross, oceanographer with NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Lab, studies ocean acidification across all three ocean basins in Alaska and will speak to what we know about current conditions and future scenarios.
The 2018 Southeast Alaska Watershed Restoration Workshop “Stepping up to the Plate for Collaborative Restoration” was held in Juneau this past March 5-7. You can find meeting resources and presentations here.
Also check out the great meeting summary shared by Juneau Empire reporter Kevin Gullufsen: Southeast watershed coalition coalesces, talks water restoration: NGOs, nonprofits and agencies meet to talk challenges
Huge thanks to workshop organizers and sponsors:
Many culverts cause big problems for fish. Migratory fish—like salmon and steelhead—need room to move and are particularly hard hit by barriers where roads cross streams.
Designing fish-friendly crossings where roads intersect streams helps ensure a seamless transition for fish passing underneath. Across the nation, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and many partners have come together to improve fish passage under roads: in 2016, the U.S. Forest Service celebrated over 1000 fish passage projects completed nationally.
This effort has been deeply embraced in Alaska across the Tongass
National Forest. Between 1998 and 2015, over 500 crossings not
previously meeting fish passage standards were improved. In spite of this good work, it is estimated that a third of remaining assessed road-stream crossings in the Tongass do not currently meet fish passage standards. To address this need, the U.S. Forest Service, U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service, Trout Unlimited, The Nature Conservancy, and Southeast Alaska Fish Habitat Partnership have teamed up to develop the TONGASS TOP 5. The goal: design fish passage sites to a ‘shovel ready’ state and ultimately develop a plan to restore these remaining high priority sites for improved fish passage.
Your help can make a difference for fish in the Tongass! Make a direct tax-deductible donation for this effort here.
Southeast Alaska Coastal Cutthroat Trout Assessment Workshops – April 24-28, 2017 planned for Juneau, Ketchikan and Sitka
The Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC) and the Coastal Cutthroat Trout Interagency Committee (http://www.coastalcutthroattrout.org/) are conducting an assessment of Coastal Cutthroat Trout (CCT) throughout the subspecies’ geographic range. The assessment includes workshops with knowledgeable local biologists from multiple agencies where we capture data using a GIS-based protocol.
We are conducting workshops focusing on different geographic areas within the state of Alaska. We will be holding three one-day workshops in SE AK the week of April 24-28. Locations and dates are Juneau, April 24; Ketchikan, April 26, and Sitka, April 28th.
The assessment focuses on gathering existing data from agency partners into a single GIS framework. We focus on distribution, habitat quality, population health indicators, and limiting factors. We have developed a protocol that includes professional judgement because CCT are often monitored incidentally. Because of this, we have found that holding workshops with 15-20 experts is a good way to gather an immense amount of information in a short time frame.
Previously, we partnered with ADFG and USFWS to gather data as a foundation for this effort. Data from six state and and four federal sources that were included in that effort are available to view in the final report http://www.westernnativetrout.org/media/2011-funded-projects/final-report—wnti_alaska-cct_2013.pdf.
Please contact assessment coordinator Kitty Griswold for more information about the data already collected or view the interactive map here which displays the data that were geo-referenced: Coastal Cutthroat Trout WebApp
At the workshops we: 1) review and update CCT distribution that we have already collected Coastal Cutthroat Trout WebApp; 2) identify localized threats and conservation opportunities; and 3) conduct a qualitative assessment of habitat condition and CCT population health. Your efforts will help build a range-wide CCT conservation framework that will: 1) identify information needs, 2) develop criteria for identifying conservation units, and 3) identify priority conservation units for enhanced monitoring or rehabilitation.
If you are interested in this effort we are asking you take this 5-minute survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5VGZPNN
This project fills a major gap for an important native fish. Thanks in advance, and call me at 413 230 0405 or email if you have questions.
Sincerely,
Kitty Griswold, griskitt
Are you wondering what the temperature, precipitation and snow pack projections are for Southeast Alaska?
You can find practical notes HERE for using climate projections and an update to climate resources shared in a presentation held March 30, 2017 from Jeremy Littell, USGS/Alaska Climate Science Center.
Thanks Jeremy!
Check out other important presentations shared during the 2016 Southeast Alaska Climate Workshop archived here.
