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Protecting Alaska's Cook Inlet watershed and the life it sustains since 1995.
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Study Area

The Ninilchik River, Deep Creek, Stariski Creek, and Anchor River watersheds lie in the southern part of the Kenai Peninsula.

Stream Temperature Monitoring Network study area.The Ninilchik River, Deep Creek, Stariski Creek, and Anchor River watersheds lie in the southern part of the Kenai Peninsula.  The region is bounded on the west by Cook Inlet and on the east by the Caribou Hills.  The topography is gently rolling, with wide river valleys and extensive wetlands.  Elevations range from sea level to around 2800 feet.

Temperatures in Homer, just south of the study area, range from an average temperature of -5.2 °C/22.7 °F in January to 11.9 °C/53.4 °F in July.  Temperatures are generally colder in the central and northern parts of the study area than in the southern portion.  Average annual precipitation is 24.84 inches in Homer.  Most of the rain falls during August, September, October, and November.  High stream flows also occur in April and May when air temperatures increase, resulting in snowmelt and ice breakup.

The four watersheds are home to many species of wildlife.  A wide variety of seabirds, shorebirds, raptors, waterfowl, and songbirds live in the watersheds.  Moose, black and brown bear, fox, lynx, coyote, and many small mammals are found here.  Finally, the streams host chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, coho salmon O. kisutch, pink salmon O. gorbuscha, Dolly Varden char Salvelinus malma, and steelhead (anadromous) and rainbow (resident) trout O. mykiss.

Land use has changed dramatically over the last ten years in the study area with increased road building, logging, and gravel mining.  Prior to 1990, much of the study area was relatively undeveloped with access into the backcountry provided only by trails along seismic lines.  In 1990, logging began in the four watersheds, and accelerated rapidly due to downed or standing beetle-killed trees. In the Ninilchik River watershed, for example, less than one percent of the watershed was slated for timber sales in 1990.  By 1999, 37% of the watershed had been harvested.

In October and November 2002, the lower Kenai Peninsula experienced flood events not seen in the last 50-100 years.  Channel scour, bank erosion and major habitat alteration reshaped salmon stream channels and riparian habitat.  Poorly-placed and inadequately-sized culverts on private, Borough and State roads failed resulting in pulses of debris torrents, which caused extensive damage to roads, bridges and property downstream.