Guest editorial: Pitching in to keep salmon moving

A single road crossing with a bad culvert can prevent fish from reaching miles of habitat.

Small tributaries provide a path to salmon nurseries, and juvenile salmon, particularly coho, migrate up streams.

Studies have shown that juvenile salmon that successfully migrate up and down small streams survive better in the ocean. It is important to keep these migration routes free of barriers.

Damaged, poorly designed or poorly maintained culverts all create a significant impasse to fish migration. Addressing the needs of fish passage is one of the primary focuses of the Kenai Watershed Forum’s efforts on the Kenai Peninsula.

A large culvert restoration project has recently been completed by the Kenai Watershed Forum. A culvert at Daniel’s Creek in Nikiski had been so badly crushed that parts of it were sticking up through the road surface. And the culvert was too narrow compared to the normal width of the stream. To avoid the jagged culvert in the road, drivers were illegally trudging through the salmon stream, destroying habitat for spawning and rearing.

The crushed culvert was located along a shared right-of-way and pipeline crossing. A single-lane, 16-foot span bridge was installed during the replacement of the crushed culvert, allowing unabated movement of anadromous fish. The bridge allows for the most natural conditions possible while still allowing recreation and heavy equipment access along the right-of-way.

Tesoro Alaska stepped in as a financial partner in the restoration project, and the Tesoro Alaska refinery provided 15 volunteers for a day’s effort toward the bank revegetation and stabilization. The banks were repaired with willows and coir logs. This restoration project opened over one mile of stream habitat in addition to a large lake.

The Daniel’s Creek project was completed during the spring and summer of 2008, with a total project cost of approximately $75,000. In addition to Tesoro Alaska, the Kenai Watershed Forum partnered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to complete this project supporting fish habitat in our Kenai Peninsula watershed.

Looking ahead, the 2009 spring and summer construction season will be a busy one for the Kenai Watershed Forum’s culvert restoration staff. At this time, nine culvert replacement projects are planned within the Kenai Peninsula.

To find out more about culvert restoration projects, how culverts are assessed or a map of the highest-priority culvert projects on the peninsula, check out the restoration link on the Kenai Watershed Forum’s Web site at kenaiwatershed.org.

Rhonda Orth is the accounting and office manager for the Kenai Watershed Forum.

Guest column: Following a murky trail

Storm water may lead to pollutants muddying up Kenai creeks

The Kenai Watershed Forum has discovered that in the past several years, No Name Creek and another unnamed creek in Kenai have shown a trend of elevated turbidity levels. Turbidity is a way of measuring the cloudiness of water and can be caused by natural sources, like glaciers, or human sources, such as storm drains. Extremely high turbidity levels can kill salmon, and elevated levels can make it difficult for salmon to find food or migrate.

So where exactly is all the turbidity coming from? To answer that question, KWF employees spent last summer walking the streets of Kenai to establish where water travels during a rainy day before it enters creeks. As one astute observer pointed out, water flows downhill. Indeed, Kenai does not have any pumping stations, so all storm water travels by gravity to the outlets. However, Kenai’s storm-water system was implemented in pieces as the city grew, so storm water sometimes follows more of an illogical pattern, depending on the construction of roads rather than natural topography.

To find out the path of storm water and the pollutants it can carry, KWF used a Global Positioning System unit to determine the coordinates of culverts, manhole covers and storm-drain inlets and outlets.

A construction level and observations on rainy days were utilized to clarify which direction storm water travels through ditches and gutters that eventually drain into No Name Creek and the unnamed creek.

Once the series of storm drains and gutters were mapped out, this data was used to build a drainage network in a Geographic Information System. This digital drainage network provides a better understanding of how the different areas of Kenai are linked to No Name Creek and the unnamed creek. In a few weeks, monitoring equipment will be placed where the storm water connects to the stream and water samples will also be collected. Using the GIS, monitoring equipment and water-quality collection in unison will help narrow down potential sources of water pollution that are being flushed into two of Kenai’s creeks and harming salmon habitat.

Jennifer McCard is a watershed scientist at the Kenai Watershed Forum.

Guest editorial:Habitat partnership puts focuses on fish

Kenai Peninsula Fish Habitat Partnership is a conservation partnership developing on the Kenai Peninsula. This partnership is working with the National Fish Habitat Action Plan to protect, restore and enhance our area’s fish and aquatic communities.

KPFHP is one of several partnerships developed concurrently with the National Fish Habitat Plan, designed to raise awareness of fish initiatives, assign priorities and generate annual congressional support to improve aquatic habitat. National Fish Habitat Action Plan is all about locally driven efforts that build private and public partnerships to improve fish habitat. Fish Habitat Action Plan partnerships are self-identified, self-organized and self-directed communities of interest formed around geographic areas, keystone species or system types.

These partnerships are nonregulatory and voluntary; locally and regionally based; driven by grassroots partners; focused on protection, restoration and enhancement in key watersheds; science-based; linked nationally; sustainable and accountable; and nonallocative.

The KPFHP began with a letter from the National Fish Habitat Action Plan Board accepting our request to be considered a regional partner. Since that time, an ad hoc committee representing various interests has come together to begin working on a strategic plan addressing the needs of fish habitat across a “region.” The group has conducted several public outreach meetings across the Kenai Peninsula and will continue to seek input throughout the development of the strategic plan. Developing this plan under the guidance provided by the National Fish Habitat Action Plan is our first step in being accepted as a regional partner. We anticipate this process continuing through May of 2009 and will be updated regularly under the strategic plan section of the Web site, http://office.kenaiwatershed.org/KPFHP.

Working to protect fish habitat on the Kenai Peninsula should be a goal all interests could and should support.

Guest editorial: Many hands made light work of Crooked Creek project

With over 61 miles of direct stream and riparian habitat, Crooked Creek, in Kasilof, is one of the longest anadromous streams on the Kenai Peninsula.

It is a major tributary of the Kasilof River, and supports spawning and rearing for substantial runs of chinook and coho salmon and one of the northernmost steelhead runs, as well as migratory bird habitat.

During a flood in 2002, a road crossing the creek near the Crooked Creek facility washed out. For several years following the flood, the area was left with very steep, unstable and unvegetated loose gravel stream banks. This is a very popular community use area because it is one of the few public access areas for viewing spawning chinook salmon on the Kenai Peninsula. This site is also listed in several publications encouraging visitors to view fish in the creek. Community members and travelers are seen in significant numbers. After Aug. 1, it’s heavily used for fishing.

As the need for a restoration project grew, so did the interest of community members, various agencies and local elementary students. The Tustumena Elementary School sixth-grade Adopt-a-Stream program had been active in research work at Crooked Creek for 10 years. Students visited the creek monthly and were interested in partnering with the community and other groups to take on this project.

The Kenai Watershed Forum was granted funds from several agencies to attend to the needs of Crooked Creek. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and ConocoPhilips all contributed money to accomplish the project goals of stabilizing the stream bank, creating a study/monitoring area for students, protecting habitat and improving fishermen and visitor access.

The KWF was to serve as the facilitator to bring all the parties together to work for these common goals. A coalition was organized, including KWF, Tustumena students and parents, Crooked Creek landowners, Kasilof area residents and business owners, local government leaders and staff, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Alaska Department of Natural Resources and the Alaska Department of Transportation.

The first matter of business was to bring the community and agencies with a stake in the restoration together. A community planning meeting was held at the Tustumena school in fall 2007, and a site visit was organized with all parties and agencies.

An older student from the area was looking for an Eagle Scout project and approached the watershed forum about adopting the Crooked Creek viewing platform portion of the project. Keith Clancy applied for and received all the appropriate permits. He was instrumental in securing the final design, and put a work crew together for the installation of a new, elevated study platform.

Throughout the planning and restoration stage of work, the students at Tustumena helped support the program. Classroom education continued with testing the waters of Crooked Creek through the Adopt-a-Stream program. Students organized and executed a creek cleanup day, and researched platforms, walkways and habitat restoration techniques. They designed and installed signs to educate the community and visitors about Crooked Creek, explaining how to help protect the area, respect wildlife and “leave no trace.”

Other agencies stepped in with time and materials to help make this project a success. Adjacent trails were improved by Fish and Game, improving visitor fishing and view access. DOT peeled back the original road and a visitor parking area with guardrails was established.

From the beginning, one of the focuses of the project was to bring the community together with various agencies to provide a successful restoration project that would enhance the Tustumena area and Crooked Creek. With the driving force of the Adopt-a-Stream students — known as Tustumena Streamkeepers — and their parents, the project moved forward and involved all the necessary parties.

Although huge steps have been made in making this former flood washout a desirable place to view spawning salmon and other wildlife, there is still more work to come.
KWF looks to complete the project during summer 2009 with installation of permanent viewing signs, further improvements to trails and another viewing platform. And Marathon Oil has come on board with a financial donation to the project. Our streambeds, creeks and watersheds are valuable assets to our communities. We are fortunate to have an abundance of support from the schools, residents, merchants, government agencies and private corporations to protect these critical habitat areas.

Rhonda Orth is the accounting and office manager at the Kenai Watershed Forum.

Guest editorial: Kenai Watershed Forum teaching love of the outdoors

Here in Alaska, we are blessed with a wealth of natural resources from oil to salmon, lumber to gold. Often, different groups of users have different ideas of what should be done with those resources. Many Alaskans stood proudly chanting “drill, baby, drill” as we watched our governor on a national stage calling for the development of Alaska’s oil fields, while many other Alaskans proudly display their “No Pebble Mine” stickers on their cars, trucks, bikes and mandolin cases. The views on how to make the best use of these resources are about as varied as the resources themselves.

The Kenai Watershed Forum is dedicated to protecting the many wonderful resources on the Kenai Peninsula and helping with responsible development and use of them. The Kenai Watershed Forum is also working on developing the most important resource in all of Alaska: its youth.

Through its education programs, the Kenai Watershed Forum is creating informed decision makers who will inherit the results of decisions made by adults today. Every school year, Kenai Watershed Forum staff works with local schools in the classroom and in the field to increase students’ understanding and appreciation of the places they live.

This year, the Kenai Watershed Forum is working on a monthly basis with 11 classes in six different schools through its Adopt-A-Stream program. These students are learning about water quality and watersheds in the classroom and in the field, traveling to streams for monthly water quality monitoring. By providing hands-on, field-based science opportunities, students are not only given the chance to explore their environment, but also to practice scientific procedure and application. Other classes have been involved in KWF educational programming on the subjects of watersheds, ecology, cold-weather safety and wetlands.

While the lessons taught by Kenai Watershed Forum staff strive to increase students’ awareness of their surroundings, the goal of the lessons isn’t to turn everyone into “tree-hugging dirt worshipers.” Instead, the educational programming is designed to offer a chance for students to increase their knowledge of what it takes to keep our watersheds healthy, and to foster an appreciation for their environment. In his book, “Beyond Ecophobia,” author David Sobel suggests, “If we want children to flourish, to become truly empowered, then let us allow them to love the earth before we ask them to save it.”

That is what the Kenai Watershed Forum strives to do, not only in the classrooms, but in the community, as well: to create an appreciation for the wonderful place in which we live, and to encourage exploration that leads to a better understanding of who we are and how we fit into the plan for our environment’s future.

Dan Pascucci is the education coordinator for the Kenai Watershed Forum.

Muddy waters: Slikok project mired — Choice to drill garners question of water safety

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Plan B for getting a water pipe across Slikok Creek is making lemonade from lemons that shouldn’t have grown in the first place, according to Robert Ruffner, executive director of the Kenai Watershed Forum.

A project to extend city of Soldotna water service along Kalifornsky Beach Road and out to the Kenai River Campus of Kenai Peninsula College has been on hold since early September, when the first attempt to get the pipe past Slikok Creek ended up threatening the health of the creek.

The project originally called for doing a 100-yard underground bore and running the pipe under the creek, which is a productive spawning ground for salmon and trout. The boring process involves injecting mud into the hole to help move the pipe along. But something went awry and the mud started surfacing in the creek.

The mud was water-based and not a pollutant in a chemical sense, but it raised the turbidity level in the creek, said Rick Wood, head of the water department for the city of Soldotna.

Turbidity refers to the amount of particles, such as mud and silt, in water. If there’s enough of it, it can settle in gravel among salmon eggs and suffocate them, or ruin otherwise healthy spawning habitat. When it’s suspended in water it can clog up fishes’ gills so they can’t get enough oxygen, and it can eventually make it so juvenile fish can’t see to eat.

Drilling was stopped as soon as the mud was discovered in the creek.

“We didn’t want to have anything like that with our name on it.” Wood said.

The problem was caught early and the amount the turbidity level was raised wasn’t any more significant than a natural event, like a beaver dam breaking, Ruffner said. The Kenai Watershed Forum and Fish and Game were notified immediately and monitored the creek to ensure no significant damage was done.

“It got caught right away and the contractor’s a pretty first-class guy,” Ruffner said. “They did exactly what should have been done.”

But he questions why it was done in the first place.

“What I don’t know is how we got to this point, that would be really nice to know, because now that we’ve got a pipeline laid in both directions, with a gap where the creek is, it’s the wrong time to really look for a good solution,” Ruffner said. “So this is really going to be one of those cases of, ‘Let’s make some lemonade out of the lemons we’ve got there.’”

Wood said underground boring is a fairly new procedure in Alaska. It was thought to be safe for the creek, he said.

“Where they’re doing it you do mostly short runs. We were trying to do six to seven hundred feet,” Wood said. “We were led on by one of the contractors that was doing the drilling before we even put it out to bid, he thought it wouldn’t be a bit of a problem. The general contractor and city of Soldotna agreed. But, hey, enough is enough. We don’t want to risk any environmental damage.”

Now the plan is to wait until February or March when the water level in the creek is lowest, divert the creek, dig a trench, lay the pipe, backfill the trench and return the creek to its natural route. The city expects to hear whether it will get the permits required for the project in January, Wood said.

It’s a fine plan, as far as it goes, Ruffner said.

“There are always things that can go wrong, but doing it in the dead of winter when water levels are as low as they can get and working when the ground is frozen minimizes risks. They’re doing everything they can to make sure the lemonade is as sweet as possible,” Ruffner said.

Sweetening the deal even more is an opportunity to actually help the creek. There’s a section of it about 100 feet away from the drilling location that was damaged in the past when it was used as an ATV corridor, Ruffner said. The crew could put the pipe through there and repair the damage to the creek when they redivert it.

“So there’s the lemonade part of the story,” he said.

The sourness comes from Ruffner’s contention that pipes shouldn’t be run under creeks in the first place.

“At some point they’re going to fail and have to be tore up. At some point you’re going to have to go in there and dig these things out. So there’s no way to avoid impacts,” Ruffner said.

A better alternative would be to run the pipe along College Road, about a half-mile away, and cross the creek at the bridge, Ruffner said. He thought that was the plan, since there was a water main already put in place across the creek when College Road was torn up last year so the culvert Slikok Creek passes through underneath the road could be replaced.

Wood said water and sewer lines were installed at the creek crossing when the culvert was replaced. Since the road was already being dug up for the culvert, the idea was to install the water and sewer lines in case a bridge is ever built across the Kenai River off Poppy Lane, Wood said. The city considered using the water line for this project, but it wasn’t feasible because that route wouldn’t maintain the pressure required for firefighting purposes, he said.

Wood said there has to be a certain level of water flow maintained for fire hydrants. Using the water main at the culvert would add 5,000 feet of pipe to the project, which would result in lower water pressure and volume, he said.

“It wouldn’t serve a purpose. They’d (KPC) have to have another water source even if we did go along the College Road,” Wood said.

It also would be more expensive. With engineering and construction costs, pipe in this project costs $130 a lineal foot, Wood said.

“Times 5,000, it starts adding up,” he said.

At $265,000, the underground bore already was more expensive than if they’d diverted the creek in the first place, Wood said. But now the college, which is footing the bill for the project, has to pay for the failed bore and the creek trench project.

“They’re paying for all of it to get water from K-Beach to the college. We’re going to do it like we would for the city, we’re going to look for the cheapest route to do it for them,” Wood said.

Ruffner said money shouldn’t trump the importance of minimizing impacts to the creek.
“If it costs more, then whoever is paying for it just needs to raise more money to do that,” he said.

Better yet, everyone involved should learn a lesson from this scenario and avoid plans to lay pipes under sensitive creeks.

“I would be happy with the proposed solution if we learned a lesson and changed our behavior in the future,” Ruffner said. “It’s a palatable solution, for sure.”

“When we heard directional drilling under the creek we didn’t think much about it. In the future, we probably learned our lesson, that we ought to think about those things, and if there’s an alternative route, take it. Even better than that would be a policy saying, ‘These are the corridors that you can provide utilities through.”

Wood said the original plan was to have pipe laid by Oct. 15. Now the project could take until June.

Guest editorial — Mowing down reed canary grass

Why attack?

Reed canary grass is a non-native species that was intentionally planted on the Kenai Peninsula to control erosion. Unfortunately, the grass grows so well, even in the middle of rivers and streams, that it can cause the channel to narrow or dam up completely.

When this happens in salmon streams, loss of fish habitat can occur, along with the creation of barriers to spawning and migration.

Plan of attack

Since the reed canary grass that Kenai Watershed Forum is going after is located near salmon streams, spraying herbicide is not our first choice for getting rid of the grass.

Instead, black tarps will cover the grass to block out sunlight for several summers. In cases where the grass is growing in the channel of the river, the plant will be repeatedly mowed down below the water level in an effort to drown it.

Did we win?

While the grass is not yet waving a white flag, KWF made significant progress this summer at Jim’s Landing, Beaver Creek and Bing’s Landing. Still, there are over 250 known infestations of reed canary grass on the Kenai Peninsula, but most of them are less than an acre, making this an ideal time for control measures. If all goes well, next year’s battlegrounds will include Boat Launch Road and Slikok Creek.

Josselyn O’Connor is the membership coordinator and office manager with the Kenai Watershed Forum.

Guest editorial — Research, restoration, education are Kenai Watershed Forum’s mission

What is, who is, where is the Kenai Watershed Forum? As a new employee of the Kenai Watershed Forum, commonly known as KWF, I have heard the aforementioned questions a lot in the past six months. Most people have heard of KWF, but don’t know much about who we are and what we do.

KWF is a nonprofit organization formed in 1997 by a group of people looking to ensure the wellness of our community’s greatest resource, the Kenai River. Headed up by Executive Director Robert Ruffner, KWF has expanded its original vision to encompass the current mission statement, “to work together for healthy watersheds on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska.” The Kenai Watershed Forum seeks to accomplish this mission by focusing on three main components: research, restoration and education.

Research programs in our community have made a definite impact. In prior years, the hydrocarbon levels on the Kenai River were so high the river was placed on federal notice. As a result, limiting the use of two-stroke motors has shown significant improvement to the river’s hydrocarbon levels. The Kenai River and its tributaries are monitored year-round for flow and temperature as well as turbidity, dissolved oxygen, conductivity and pH, providing valuable information to public and governmental agencies.

Restoration projects have had a positive effect in our community through damaged culvert replacements, which make miles and miles of streams available to salmon for spawning. Restoring fish passage not only helps adult and juvenile salmon access the habitat they need, it also provides a safer passage on roads and trails for cars and people.

You may have seen some of our staff and community volunteers along roadsides this summer on weed pulls. Invasive weeds are not just a nuisance to deal with, they are potentially damaging to our wildlife stock. These weeds take over and choke out the naturally sustaining plants that moose and other wildlife use for food, leaving our wildlife searching other places for meals.

Education is equally important. In order for our research and restoration efforts to improve the quality and health of the watersheds on the peninsula, the public needs to be aware of the issues and what they can do to help in the pursuit of a quality watershed.

Adult education is served through summer and winter speaker series, offering community experts the opportunity to share their knowledge and concerns. Yearly teacher workshops increase the influence of living in a healthy environment to our young people.

The program you might already be familiar with, Adopt-A-Stream, has perhaps the greatest impact. Last school year, nine different classes at four different schools participated in water quality monitoring, data collection and instruction at nearby streams. This school year 11 classrooms have signed on for the program. Bringing tomorrow’s leaders alongside us as we work to inform and educate has been a highlight for KWF.

Often, KWF serves the mission statement by sponsoring community programs open to the public. Last spring the annual Kenai Birding Festival included a children’s juried art show, drawing hundreds of submissions from young budding artists with a focus on our winged wildlife. The Kenai River Festival, held annually in June, celebrates our famous river with food, music, Alaska arts and crafts, and many educational and creative booths for children. A special appearance by Shluka, KWF’s 20-foot-long salmon (modeled after a Chinese dragon) is always a crowd pleaser.

We value our supporter base, as well as the volunteers that turn out to help with each event we sponsor. We also hold high the relationships that have developed between KWF and governmental agencies, community groups and local merchants. Working together is the only way to improve the health of watersheds on the Kenai Peninsula, and we are proud to be part of that process.

Rhonda Orth is the accounting and office manager at the Kenai Watershed Forum.