Healthy Salmon for Future Generations
Alaskans live among wild salmon as they move through our freshwaters and along our coasts.
Salmon are an integral part of subsistence culture, food security, as well as personal, sport, and commercial fisheries across the watershed. Salmon habitat is a vital strand in the ecological fabric that supports our families, our communities, and our economies.
Our Salmon Habitat program is a multi-faceted approach to protecting and celebrating this vital resource. We focus on protecting salmon habitat from the impacts of large mines, promoting good behavior on our salmon landscape, infusing salmon science into decision-making, and celebrating Alaskans’ connection to salmon. See upcoming events in our community.
Protecting Salmon Habitat from Large Mines
We motivate citizens to advocate for protecting important salmon habitat, hold government and industry accountable for enforcing and complying with environmental laws, and pressure legislators to reform and strengthen mining laws. With proposed mega-projects like Pebble and Donlin mines – and with the threat of increasing mining to meet the demand for rare metals – this work is more crucial than ever.
Promoting Good Behavior
With the gift of living on a salmon landscape, comes great responsibility. As demand for electronics increases, we continue to expand our annual Electronics Recycling events to prevent toxic waste in our landfills and reduce the need for new mining. In addition, while actively supporting local agriculture, we want to ensure that our growing economy is not at odds with healthy salmon habitat by building broad-based adoption of best practices for farming on a salmon landscape.
Salmon Science
For over two decades, we have been monitoring salmon stream temperatures – and building capacity across the state – to increase our understanding of the rate of rising water temperatures due to climate change. In recent years, we have focused on identifying “thermal refugia,” which include springs and upwellings that provide salmon with the cold-water stepping stones needed to make their way up and down otherwise warming streams.
Electronics Recycling
Inletkeeper believes becoming conscious of our waste cycles and taking measures to expand the life cycle of what we use is a key component to responsible stewardship. With this in mind, Inletkeeper has spearheaded electronic recycling events on the Kenai Peninsula for nearly two decades. From lessening the demand for mineral mining to avoiding pollution, recycling these old devices is a meaningful, conscious consumer action.
Celebrating Our Connection With Salmon
We value Alaskans’ connection to salmon and believe that by fostering a connection to the watershed, people can develop a deep love and appreciation for salmon and their habitat. The first weekend in August, you’ll find us making each Salmonfest – an annual music and art festival – a little more saturated in salmon love and advocacy than the last, and celebrating salmon love throughout the year with Salmonfest Radio.
Also, we host the Mouth to Mouth Wild Run & Ride on Memorial Day weekend, where racers connect to place between the mouths of the Kenai (Kahtnuh Kaq’) and Kasilof (Ggasila Hdakaq’) rivers.
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