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Cook Inletkeeper
Lower Kenai
Peninsula
Salmon Stream
Monitoring Program
BACKGROUND
Alaska’s Cook Inlet watershed
boasts world-class wild salmon streams, including the streams of
the lower Kenai Peninsula which support healthy sport and
commercial fisheries, and provide important subsistence
resources for Alaska Natives and other groups. Land use has
changed dramatically over the last ten years in these watersheds
as logging, road building, gravel extraction and ATV use has
increased. The spruce bark beetle infestation has severely
altered forested lands and, in 2002, major floods reshaped
salmon stream channels and riparian habitat. Long-term
monitoring is essential to maintain stream health and to protect
these watersheds that support important public resources,
particularly during a time of rapid landscape and climate
changes.
INLETKEEPER STRATEGIES
In 1998, in partnership with the
Homer Soil and Water Conservation District, Cook Inletkeeper
began an in-depth water quality study to better understand the
ecological effects of land-use activities and climate change on
the area’s economically, socially, and culturally valuable
salmon streams: Ninilchik River, Deep Creek, Stariski Creek, and
Anchor River. Using EPA-approved or Standard Methods,
Inletkeeper’s Stream Ecologist monitors twelve sites for
discharge, temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity,
nitrate-nitrogen, ammonia-nitrogen, orthophosphate, total
phosphorus, apparent color, turbidity, settleable solids, total
suspended solids and bacteria. Monitoring goals are to 1)
inventory baseline water quality in lower Kenai Peninsula’s
salmon streams, 2) compare data with state water quality
standards, and 3) inform citizens and natural resource managers
about concerns related to salmon stream protection.
The Salmon Stream Monitoring
Program was developed under the direction of a Technical
Advisory Committee (TAC) of scientists from federal and state
agencies. The TAC chose sampling sites, determined the sampling
frequency, and reviewed the chosen methods to best address
concerns related to salmon stream health. Sampling and analysis
methods were chosen so that data could be compared with data
from other professional-level studies both in Alaska and around
the United States. All quality assurance methods are described
in the Project’s Quality Assurance Project Plan.
Data collected during this time
have shown increasing temperature trends, where summer
temperatures consistently exceed Alaska’s water quality
standards for fish protection, and warmer temperatures are
occurring earlier and for more days each year. In addition to a
disturbing warming trend, Inletkeeper’s data suggests increasing
amounts of sediment entering stream channels, high phosphorus
levels, and sharp declines in macroinvertebrate communities.
Due to limited water quality
and habitat monitoring and research in Alaska, it is difficult
to know if these same conditions and trends are occurring in
other significant salmon watersheds. Despite the
disproportionate effects of global warming in Alaska – and the
well-known association between warming water temperatures and
reduced salmonid survivorship - there is little or no
consistent, long-term temperature data for salmon streams.
Equally important, there is no consistent and reliable way to
distinguish temperature changes wrought by landscape change from
those caused by climate change.
FUTURE WORK
With
these recent signs of temperature and biological stress, Cook
Inletkeeper is taking its scientific work to a new level, to:
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Develop a
practical and cost-effective template for understanding and
responding to the impacts of climate change and land-use
development on wild salmon and salmon habitat.
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Assess
landscape change by performing an impervious surface
analysis on the watersheds of the lower Kenai Peninsula to
see if water quality concerns can be correlated to
increasing urbanization.
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Promote
and support the expanded use of community-based science on a
watershed and regional geographic scale.
-
Build
local grassroots support to address the most immediate
threats facing the abundance and diversity of wild salmon
and salmon habitat in Alaska and beyond.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES & LINKS (links open in new window)
Homer Soil
and Water Conservation District
Salmon
Stream Monitoring Program’s Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP)
2004 QAPP Additions
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