NEW Freshwater Temperature Action Plan
The new Action Plan identifies the highest priority actions for the next 10 years that will lead to greater protection of Alaska’s fish and wild salmon habitat from the impacts of thermal change. The keys to success will be continued collaboration and coordination among data collectors and to engage resource managers, who need to understand changing thermal patterns and the implications for freshwater resources to address our fisheries crisis.
Inletkeeper's Sue Mauger during a recent training in Fairbanks.

In 2012, Inletkeeper developed a statewide Stream Temperature Action Plan identifying the highest priority actions for the next decade that would lead to greater protection of Alaska’s wild salmon habitat as thermal change continues. We put together a progress report to capture all the impressive work that has been achieved collectively since then. Check out the highlights in this recent blog: https://inletkeeper.org/logging-progress-as-thermal-change-continues/

Continuing with this collaborative approach, Inletkeeper helped convene a workshop in 2024 to crowdsource ideas, and then a small working group developed a new plan to guide future strategic actions.

Our 2024 Stream and Lake Temperature Workshop brought together many in the temperature monitoring community.

Now, we are excited to share the results: the new Freshwater Temperature Action Plan!

Through regional collaboration and coordinated discussions, we hope to achieve the following goals:

  1.    improve our understanding of Alaska’s freshwater thermal regimes;
  2.   increase value and availability of freshwater temperature data for management decisions and fishery and ecosystem research; and
  3.   maintain regional and watershed-scale thermal heterogeneity. 

Curious what the next steps are? The timeline below outlines the next 25 steps to protect Alaska’s fish and wild salmon habitat from the impacts of thermal change. Time to get busy!

Table 1. Recommended timeframe for the 25 priority actions, which are numbered based on which goal and objective they relate to within the plan.

Timeframe Action Description
Ongoing: Needs continual attention 1.3a Encourage colleagues through consistent outreach to maintain data collection efforts, meet minimum standards to facilitate data sharing and commit to upload temperature data regularly into AKTEMP.
2.2a Secure dedicated funding for ongoing data collection and data management to support high priority management applications.
2.3a Continue to assess water temperature thresholds that are physiologically and behaviorally relevant for Alaska’s salmonid species during freshwater life stages and determine if thresholds vary across populations.
3.2b Restore and enhance riparian vegetation in freshwater systems experiencing thermal stress and increase shade in critical habitats, like spawning areas.

Short-term: Accomplish over the next 18 months (2025 – 2026)

 

1.1a Re-establish a statewide water temperature working group to update protocols with deployment recommendations, particularly for large rivers and lakes.
1.1c Provide data managers with workflow templates to improve quality control measures and facilitate generation of summary metrics.
1.2a Implement monitoring networks where regional data gaps still exist across the state.
1.2b Expand regional monitoring network designs to include large river and lake sampling sites, where appropriate.
1.1b Produce and update guidance documents with sampling design recommendations to meet common monitoring objectives, including facilitating studies on how freshwater thermal conditions affect migration, productivity, and survival of Alaska’s cold-water fishes and for developing spatial statistical network models.
1.3b Develop an online visualization tool that integrates AKTEMP and agency-specific data portals to allow for comparisons of temperature monitoring data across the state.
2.1a Convene a series of meetings between data collectors, modelers, fisheries biologists and managers to understand how freshwater temperature data could be more valuable for management decisions, and produce a whitepaper or peer-reviewed published manuscript describing management applications of Alaska’s freshwater temperature data and modeling output.

Medium-term: Accomplish over the next 5 years (2025 – 2029)

 

1.2c Complete and publish regional assessments when 5-year data collection goals are met in Bristol Bay, Kodiak Archipelago, Southeast Alaska, and Copper River, Kuskokwim River and Yukon River watersheds.
1.3c Generate watershed-scale stream temperature scenarios of future thermal conditions as downscaled climate models and landcover change projections improve over time.
1.3d Explore the utility of including Yukon Territory and British Columbia data for transboundary rivers into AKTEMP and act accordingly.
1.4a Work with vendors to improve real-time sensor accuracy and reduce maintenance challenges.
1.4b Develop guidance for establishing and maintaining real-time temperature sites and online data access.
2.1b Convene meetings between data collectors and modelers to discuss if additional in-situ data collection could improve models, how sampling designs could be improved to facilitate modeling and what types of modeling products are on the horizon.
2.2c Facilitate cooperation among agencies to establish the U.S. Geological Survey’s 3D HP hydrographic dataset as the state’s common base hydrography layer, and work to attribute the new layer with stream temperature information and other fish habitat data.
3.1a Convene a series of meetings with public and private land managers to prioritize where thermal imagery should be acquired, identify existing land management tools that can be implemented to protect groundwater-surface water connections, identify gaps and limitations to these existing tools and produce a whitepaper or peer-reviewed published manuscript describing tools and future actions needed to increase protection opportunities.
3.1b Confer with remote sensing professionals about using drones and other emerging technologies for identifying thermal refugia.
Long-term: Accomplish over next 10 years (2025- 2034) 1.2d Complete and publish statewide water temperature analyses, including predictions for unmonitored locations and times, and projections of future thermal conditions.
2.2b Develop and fund a strategic sampling plan of real-time water temperature monitoring sites to support in-season fishery management decisions.
2.3b Expand our understanding of thermal thresholds beyond salmonids, including other native fish, macroinvertebrates and aquatic plants, to more fully assess current and future ecosystem health.
3.1c Acquire thermal imagery for high-priority waters and implement land management tools to protect groundwater-surface water connections which provide persistent, thermally-beneficial conditions.
3.2a Convene a series of meetings with habitat permitters, hydrologists, road and mining engineers to identify habitat protection strategies that minimize thermal impacts from development and other land use activities. Produce a whitepaper or peer-reviewed published manuscript on best management practices to reduce or avoid thermal impacts to freshwater habitats during construction or reclamation activities.

 

Only with member support could Inletkeeper play a leadership role in fostering progress and cultivating the next generation of Alaskans working to protect our wild salmon habitat from the impacts of thermal change. Thank you for this critical support!