Chinook Salmon (also known as King salmon) are important to many Alaskans. Some Alaskans experience the thrill of pulling in a few Chinook for dinner, others rely on the resource to meet their subsistence needs. These fish are a lifeline for animals and people alike throughout the state.
Chinook are anadromous fish (fish that migrate up rivers from the sea to spawn). As juveniles, they spend one to two years in our local Chena River watershed. The Chena River hosts the second-largest annual run of king salmon of the Yukon River. Under Alaska Statue 16.05.871(a) much of the important rearing habitat for juvenile Chinook Salmon is not identified.
During summer our volunteers and field technicians have been working to identify tributaries (smaller creeks and branches off of the Chena) that provide important habitat for juvenile Chinook Salmon in order to add them to the Anadromous Water Catalog (AWC). The Anadromous Water Catalog keeps track of all of the waterways that have anadromous fish in them. This is an important step in helping study and plan future ways to keep fish healthy and returning to Alaska.
Streams are evaluated first by looking at maps and determining if the stream is currently in the Catalog. Once a stream is picked for sampling, our field technicians and volunteers travel by vehicle, boat, or ATV to trail head locations. Then they hike along streams looking for salmon habitat where they attempt to confirm presence or absence of Chinook by trapping them with minnow traps or dip netting. Any fish captured are measured and released unharmed in the location where they were captured. The qualities of the riparian zone and water quality is documented at each site that is sampled for Chinook Salmon. All the data recorded is documented and contributed to the Anadromous Waters Catalog.
2021 was a very successful season with the inclusion of an additional field technician, Lauren Schour. Little Chena River, Stiles Creek, and Monument Creek tributaries were sampled. Little Chena River and Monument Creek had no existing AWC nominations. Chinook Salmon captured in Stiles Creek were within AWC designated waters because of inadvertent trap placement. We were unable to nominate Stiles Creek, however, due to a large debris clog on the lower part of the stream.
The 2021 Report can be found here.
Minnow Trapping Juvenile Chinook Salmon
This program is paid in part through a grant from the US Fish and Wildlife service.