Launching a new initiative to map salmon habitat across the Kenai Peninsula Borough
September 5, 2025Above: KWF staff use a backpack electrofisher to survey fish habitat in Turnagain Pass, Alaska
Since the early days of Kenai Watershed Forum, we have worked to improve maps of local fish habitat. Good maps are a critical tool for responsible habitat management – we can only hope to have wild fish around for the future if we know where they live today.
Our work has focused on the Anadromous Waters Catalog, which is the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s inventory of documented waterbodies used by migratory freshwater fish species. Salmon are the most well-known of local “anadromous” fish (i.e., they migrate between freshwater and the ocean), but other important species such as lamprey, steelhead, and others also rely on free-flowing routes between the ocean and their spawning and rearing habitats.
In the Kenai Peninsula Borough, over 4800 miles of streams and rivers are listed as anadromous habitat as of year 2025. Documenting these habitats is a critical conservation and management tool, as documented anadromous habitats can trigger decisions that help maintain healthy habitat to support wild fish populations (such as installing fish-friendly culverts). However when these habitats remain undocumented, they risk oversight and potential damage as communities grow and develop.
In the Kenai region as well as statewide, the challenge of mapping and documenting anadromous habitat is enormous. Staff with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and other organizations typically identify hundreds of new miles of undocumented habitat each year throughout the state (read more about these efforts here, here, and here). From 2021 – 2024, efforts by Kenai Watershed Forum in partnership with volunteers from the Kenai Peninsula Chapter of Trout Unlimited documented dozens of miles of local streams and lakes right under our noses. While these additions are achievements both for agencies and volunteer efforts, we estimate that still less than 40% of likely anadromous waters throughout the Kenai Peninsula Borough are currently inventoried. The work ahead remains enormous, and without better maps, large swaths of wild fish habitat remain in some senses “invisible”.
But what if there was another way? It turns out, there might be.
While sunny days outdoors working to discover previously-unseen wild fish habitat in our backyards is a great joy for a biologist, replicating that work at the scale of the entire Kenai Peninsula Borough would require countless trips by boat, helicopter, plane, and vehicle, just to arrive at the start of more all-day bushwhacks to survey for anadromous fish. Even then, it’s likely that much habitat would remain unmapped, as our eyes are not always the best judge of the many surprising nooks and crannies where fish can be found across the landscape.
After years of trudging through hip-deep swamps and slogging up mountainsides to look for fish, we started looking in to how researchers in other parts of the country have tackled this kind of challenge. We stumbled across work in progress by the Hoonah Native Forest Partnership in southeast Alaska. There, scientists and community members are working together to develop maps that predict where wild fish habitat is yet to be documented. Using a combination of fieldwork, aerial imagery, and cutting-edge research, they have produced maps that predict fish presence/absence with >98% accuracy within an average of ± 200ft. (Read more about fish habitat mapping in southeast Alaska here).
While scientists have previously used predictive maps to help understand the extent of freshwater fish habitat in Alaska, typically the goal of these efforts is simply to assist in guiding fieldwork efforts. These maps are generally much less accurate than the approach developed by the Hoonah Native Forest Partnership, as they are based on remotely-sensed features of the landscape (such as waterfalls or steep rapids) that may or may not reliably predict fish presence/absence.
With the possibility of reliable predictive maps, the goal advances beyond simply prioritizing fieldwork: we can begin to understand and manage aquatic habitat at the scale of whole landscapes, rather than simply what we’re able to access on foot or see with our eyes.
In spring 2025, Kenai Watershed Forum was awarded a federal grant from the National Coastal Resilience Fund to explore if these habitat modeling approaches proven successful in southeast Alaska can be adapted to southcentral Alaska. We are excited to add a host of new partners in addition to all those already mentioned: consultants Romey Riverscape Sciences and Terrainworks, consultants who are providing the technical expertise to help draft these maps and much more. Also, we are privileged to be a part of local nonprofit Cook Inletkeeper’s Local Solutions program, which is bringing community members into the fold for hands-on opportunities to be a part of this work.
Will it be possible to predict presence/absence of anadromous fish with high accuracy for the Kenai Peninsula Borough region? We don’t know yet. We’re just beginning the research process this year and can’t wait to know more. There will always be a trade-off between a map’s accuracy and the expense it took to produce it. The more high-quality data we have, the better our maps will be, and the better opportunity managers will have to balance the needs of fish habitat and developing communities.
We’re off to the races in new and interesting frontiers of science and community collaboration. Subscribe to our newsletter and Cook Inletkeeper’s newsletter to stay informed about volunteer opportunities and more!
In addition to our new support from the National Coastal Resilience Fund, this work would not possible without previous financial support from the Alaska Sustainable Salmon Fund project #54014, Trout Unlimited’s Embrace-a-Stream grant program, the Kenai Peninsula Chapter of Trout Unlimited, and the Kenai Community Foundation. Thank you!
Click Here for Further Reading: Kenai Watershed Forum Works with Volunteers to Document 22.4 miles of Local Salmon Habitat
— Benjamin Meyer, Research Coordinator
Sam Trussell (Summer 2025)
September 4, 2025By the time I landed in Kenai, I still didn’t really know what I was getting myself into out here. I had applied for the internship simply because I thought 3 months in Alaska sounded awesome, (which it is) not really considering the scope and impact of my position with the KWF. All I had hoped was that the job would be exciting, and that standard was exceeded immediately. Before I knew it I was chest-deep in glacial rivers building fencing, learning to drive ATVs and trailers, and spotting black bears on the Russian river.
As much fun as I had at work, my favorite moments this summer were on my personal time, mostly because of the vehicles the KWF provided. All the staff know I was getting out adventuring all the time, including my 4 attempts to finish the Harding Icefield hike in the Kenai Fjords in early summer. My project for the summer was to get up to the top as soon as possible. My first time the snow was way too deep and I lost the trail very quickly. On the second attempt weather and visibility became an issue towards the end, and I once again turned around. On my 3rd attempt all was going well until I saw a rock slide coming down the slope next to me. It went off at an angle that didn’t get to me, but that shook me enough to call it a day. But I was determined to finish this, so I went back one July evening and finally pushed all the way through. Standing above that icefield I felt as though I was on another planet, it was unlike anything I’d ever experienced.
Through my countless other adventures this summer on and off duty I’ve constantly encountered the feeling of otherworldliness, and I dare anybody with the opportunity to come here to do whatever it takes to get out here, it really is beyond the scope of the rest of the world.
Lola Schwinghamer (Summer 2025)
September 4, 2025In my summer as an intern at KWF, I have learned so much-not only about the environments around us but also about myself. When I first arrived, I didn’t have a clear idea of what I was doing; I just knew it was going to be mad cool. And honestly, it exceeded all my expectations. The people at KWF are amazing, they genuinely care about you beyond the role of the intern, which makes all the difference.
I had the privilege of working with Ben for most of the summer on various fish habitat projects. The work ranged from setting out minnow traps to wading in water with electrofishing gear. I quickly learned that a healthy habitat for fish is way more complicated than just clear water. It’s about the right temperature, flow, pH levels, and many more aspects. I also spent some time working on invasive plant surveys and treatments with Homer Soil and Water Conservation District. Lots of bird vetch and orange hawkweed to pull and deadhead. My contempt for those plants spread almost as fast as they did. By the end of the summer, I had grown a deep appreciation for just how much effort goes into maintaining a balanced and healthy ecosystem.
I am truly grateful that I was a part of this dedicated and motivated team. They made work not feel like ”work” and were always willing to put up with any strange question I asked. This internship will always be one of my favorite memories to share. Thank you KWF for everything.
Spring 2025 Kenai River Water Quality Monitoring – Preliminary Results Available
June 20, 2025Kenai Watershed Forum has received all laboratory results from it’s Spring 2025 Baseline Water Quality Monitoring. The results are currently being prepared for upload to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Water Quality Exchange, a public data repository for water quality data.
Once the data is prepared, it will be integrated into an in-progress comprehensive summary report, similar to our previous such report published in 2016.
The results are preliminary and have not yet been subject to QA/QC checks or analyzed against water quality standards; this work is in progress.
We worked with two laboratories in Spring 2025:
1.) Soldotna Wastewater Treatment Plant – SWWTP provided analyses of Total Suspended Solids and Fecal Coliform:
Download Spring 2025 Total Suspended Solids results
Download Spring 2025 Fecal Coliform results
2.) SGS Laboratories, Anchorage – SGS provided analyses of all other substances monitored in Spring 2025, including nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen, and metals like zinc, copper, lead, and others:
Download Spring 2025 Metals and Nutrients results
We are extremely grateful to both the City of Soldotna for and SGS Laboratories for providing in-kind services that support this important work!
For questions about 2025 water quality results, contact Benjamin Meyer, Water Quality Coordinator. Thank you again to all the participants and volunteers who made this event happen!
To learn more about this project, visit our website section.
Save the Dates – 2025 Kenai River Baseline Water Quality Monitoring Volunteer Opportunities
January 30, 2025Find Out More About 2025 Volunteer Opportunities Here!
Since the year 2000, Kenai Watershed Forum has helped coordinate the efforts of over a dozen agencies and organizations to help understand water quality trends in the Kenai River and its tributaries. Learn more about this project on the Kenai River Baseline Water Quality Monitoring section of our website.
In 2025, we will be conducting fieldwork on April 30th and July 23rd. If you are interested in volunteering on this project, click the link above or contact Water Quality Coordinator Benjamin Meyer at ben@kenaiwatershed.org.
See you out on the river!
US Geological Survey Collaborates with Kenai Watershed Forum to study the Future of Beaver Creek
January 26, 2025Beaver Creek is one of the Kenai River’s most important tributaries, flowing south from the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge under the Kenai Spur Highway, to where it meets the main stem at river mile 10. In addition to being a highly productive salmon stream, groundwater from near Beaver Creek supplies the City of Kenai’s municipal wells. Given the unique importance of Beaver Creek for people, fish, and wildlife, we wanted to understand how changing climate conditions could alter this landscape in the future.
From 2022 – 2024, KWF worked with scientists from the US Geological Survey to assess future “Hydro-Climate” scenarios for Beaver Creek. The final report published this month is a deep trove of fascinating results. To highlight just a few:
- Summer streamflow of Beaver Creek is 64% groundwater
- Total streamflow in Beaver Creek was 60% higher in 2022 – 2024 compared to 1968 – 1978
- Water temperatures are warming and will continue to warm in the future, but groundwater inputs are essential to helping keep temperatures cooler
Example figure from Leaf et. al 2024, highlighting hydro-climate models for Beaver Creek, Alaska.
The full report is available for download on the USGS website. We look forward to hearing from the community to discuss further details of this work, and what it means for management and conservation.
Thanks to everyone who made this work possible, and a special shout out to USGS’s Meg Haserodt, former KWF intern-turned-staff (2009, 2011 – 2012), for reaching out to make this project happen! To see what a day of fieldwork on this project is like, check out this short YouTube video from 2024 KWF intern Row Dirks!
— Benjamin Meyer
How Should We Manage the Kenai River Watershed? An Artificial Intelligence’s Perspective
January 15, 2025Great work starts with a great plan. For the Kenai River area, we’re lucky to have had many brilliant minds over the years put their heads together on how to best steward our watershed for future generations of healthy fish, wildlife, and communities. These documents represent our highest long-term intentions from some of our most engaged and experienced community members.
In fact, so many great local planning documents have been written that it can be a challenge to know where to start using them. Further, sometimes the various agencies and organizations that publish these plans are not fully aware of each other’s mutual goals, like ships passing in the night. But we can do better. The more we know about how we already want to work together, the more we can accomplish, sooner.
Thus was the inspiration for an informal project Kenai Watershed Forum began in 2021. We reviewed and summarized a handful of local plans with natural resource management goals, which are listed at the end of this post. The majority of these plans, some of which are hundreds of pages, were assessed in 2021 by KWF staff Jack Buban, and organized into the spreadsheet linked here. The document is an achievement, but is still somewhat an overwhelming avalanche of information. How should we use these plans, where do we start?
With the advent of widely-available artificial intelligence chatbots like ChatGPT, we wanted to see what they could do to help. We provided ChatGPT with the summary spreadsheet linked above along with a few other documents, and tested prompts to help identify where mutual goals and priorities exist. You can see the specific back-and-forth conversation here.
The resulting output is shared at the end of this post, and is striking in several ways:
- None of the recommendations are unfamiliar ideas. The ChatGPT analysis highlights fundamental shared goals like habitat protection zoning, wetlands mapping and assessment, and addressing aquatic invasive species.
- An “overlap matrix” produced by ChatGPT is a useful visual, although the first version it suggested was highly incomplete.
- Knowing that similar goals are described in multiple, independent, page-referenced planning documents provides a powerful tool for future grant writing.
Artificial intelligence is of course just that – artificial. Like artificial flavoring, it can’t really ever capture the collective wisdom and detail of the original documents. We can’t control everything that is happening behind the scenes with this kind of AI-aided analysis, thus we should by no means consider the results complete. Some results may even be total hallucinations. But, we can see that AI can be a powerful tool for getting a foothold on what might otherwise be a difficult mountain of information.
The kind of exercise described here is a reminder for us to regularly check back in on KWF’s fundamentals. We look forward to hearing from you about what you think, and hope you’ll join us!
See the ChatGPT conversation prompts here. Final response posted below.
*** All content below here was produced by ChatGPT ***
Kenai Peninsula Borough Management Plans Analyzed
- Kenai River Review, 1978
- Kenai River Comprehensive Management Plan (KRSMA), 1997
- Kenai Peninsula Borough Comprehensive Plan (KPB), 2005 & 2019
- Kenai Peninsula Fish Habitat Strategic Plan (KPFHP), 2010
- Kenai National Wildlife Refuge Comprehensive Plan (KNWR), 2010
- City of Soldotna Comprehensive Plan, 2011
- City of Kenai Comprehensive Plan, 2016
- Kenai Peninsula Fish Habitat Partnership Conservation Action Plan, 2022
- Kenai Peninsula Fish Habitat Partnership Climate Change Supplement, 2022
Detailed Breakdown of Overlapping Goals in Kenai Peninsula Borough Management Plans
Key Overlapping Priorities
- Nonpoint Source Pollution – Use sustainable design in public development to manage stormwater, retain native vegetation, and reduce impervious surfaces.
- Wetlands – Mapping, understanding, and protecting wetlands through funding, assessments, and conservation strategies.
- Invasive Aquatic Organisms – Monitoring, controlling, and eradicating invasive species like pike and elodea to protect native fish habitats.
- Habitat Protection Zoning – Zoning policies to direct public access and prevent habitat damage while promoting sustainable development.
- Bank Protection and Erosion – Establish erosion control measures and bank protection zones along sensitive river areas.
- Water Quantity – Prohibit new dams/diversions that reduce essential stream flows and protect fish habitats.
- Fish Passage – Prioritize the replacement of culverts and bridges to restore normal stream function and fish passage.
- Setback Measures – Review and improve riparian setback measures to enhance water quality and habitat protection.
- General Water Quality Practices – Protect riparian areas, wetlands, and streams to enhance water quality through conservation.
Priority Area Summaries
- Nonpoint Source Pollution
- Present in: KRSMA (Page 45), KPB (Page 67, 2019 Plan), City of Soldotna (Page 32, 2011 Plan), 2022 Conservation Action Plan (Page 28), KNWR (Section 3.25)
- Focus: Sustainable design, stormwater management, native vegetation retention
- Education and Outreach: Increase public awareness on nonpoint source pollution and encourage sustainable practices (KPB, Page 70), (2022 Climate Change Supplement, Page 15)
- Wetlands
- Present in: KRSMA (Page 53), KPFHP (Page 22, 2010 Plan), KPB (Page 58, 2005 Plan), City of Soldotna (Page 29, 2011 Plan), City of Kenai (Page 41, 2016 Plan), 2022 Conservation Action Plan (Page 18), KNWR (Section 3.10), Kenai River Review (Page 17)
- Focus: Wetland mapping, funding, ecological assessments, conservation planning
- Education and Outreach: Provide workshops and materials on wetland protection (KPFHP, Page 24), (2022 Conservation Action Plan, Page 30)
- Invasive Aquatic Organisms
- Present in: 2022 Conservation Action Plan (Page 14), KNWR (Section 3.7), KPB (Page 71, 2019 Plan)
- Focus: Monitoring and eradicating elodea, pike, and other invasive species threatening aquatic habitats.
- Education and Outreach: Public education campaigns to prevent the spread of invasive species (2022 Conservation Action Plan, Page 16)
- Habitat Protection Zoning
- Present in: KRSMA (Page 66), KPB (Page 70, 2019 Plan), City of Kenai (Page 55, 2016 Plan), 2022 Conservation Action Plan (Page 25), Kenai River Review (Page 19)
- Focus: Zoning policies to minimize habitat damage, guide public access, and protect riparian areas
- Education and Outreach: Engage communities to promote habitat zoning (KPB, Page 72), (2022 Climate Change Supplement, Page 20)
Changes Facing Salmon Ecosystems Poster
January 2, 2025Rivers along the Gulf of Alaska (which includes the Kenai River) produce one-third of the world’s wild salmon, and overall salmon production here is near historic highs, despite many struggling populations of species like Chinook and coho salmon. Wild salmon face risks from a rapidly changing climate, landscape change, and ocean acidification – among other threats, but may also benefit from warming temperatures and glacial retreat under some circumstances. Management decisions will influence whether Alaskan salmon ecosystems and fishing communities continue to thrive for future generations. Understanding how we can best steward wild salmon for future generations requires that we are humble and always strive to place our understanding in the “the big picture” of a complex ecosystem.
The poster above highlights some of our challenges and opportunities. It is available free for download. For more details and references, see the journal manuscript where it is published (Schoen et al. 2017), or check out the Powerpoint presentation available for download from Dr. Erik Schoen at University of Alaska Fairbanks. Kenai Watershed Forum staff Benjamin Meyer is a co-author of this work. Inspiration credit for the poster also goes to the Alaska Climate Science Center, who produced another excellent poster focused on similar themes in southeast Alaska.
Kenai Watershed Forum Works with Volunteers to Document 22.4 miles of Local Salmon Habitat
November 4, 2024Sometimes the best treasures are already right under our feet, just waiting for us to notice them. Such is the story with the thousands of rivers, streams, and lakes that are home to Alaska’s wild salmon.
In summers 2021-2024, Kenai Watershed Forum (KWF) and Kenai Peninsula Chapter of Trout Unlimited (KPTU) worked together to find and document local salmon habitat in the Kenai Peninsula area. Working with over thirty volunteers who contributed over three hundred hours time, we nominated 22.4 miles of stream and 173 lake acres to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Anadromous Waters Catalog. If all nominations are confirmed these waters will be subject to state habitat protections and permitting requirements under Alaska Statute 16.05.871, and may also be adopted by the Kenai Peninsula Borough under borough ordinance 21.18 (links for 21.18 maps, and 21.18 regulations), which specifies protections including a fifty-foot riparian buffer zone.
Remarkably, nearly all the habitat we identified laid only a thirty minute drive from Kenai Watershed Forum’s office in Soldotna. The habitats we documented are the humbler headwaters of well-known local watersheds such as Soldotna Creek, Beaver Creek, and Moose River. These are our “backyard” salmon habitats that have been here all along.
Most local salmon habitat remains undocumented, and much work remains to be accomplished. In summer 2025 KWF and KPTU will continue collaborating, and will apply innovative predictive habitat modeling to help us target fieldwork efforts with help from Romey Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.
For more questions about this project and to hear about opportunities to be involved, contact Kenai Watershed Forum at hydrology@kenaiwatershed.org, or (907) 260-5449. Check out the two links below for a project map and project report, as well as a public lecture shared at Kenai Peninsula Brewing as part of Kenai Watershed Forum’s Fireside Chat series. We look forward to hearing from you!
Project Map (updated 11/4/2024)
Project Report (updated 11/4/2024)
KDLL Radio Kenai Conversation – Mapping Anadromous Waters (November 15, 2023)
Project Presentation on YouTube (9/19/2024)
Further reading on mapping Alaska’s Anadromous Waters
This work is funded by Alaska Sustainable Salmon Fund project #54014, Trout Unlimited’s Embrace-a-Stream grant program, Kenai Peninsula Chapter of Trout Unlimited, and the Kenai Community Foundation. Thank you!
Summer 2024 Kenai River Water Quality Sampling Results Available
September 26, 2024Kenai Watershed Forum has received all laboratory results from it’s Summer 2024 Baseline Water Quality Monitoring. The results are currently being prepared for upload to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Water Quality Exchange, a pubic data repository for water quality data.
Once the data is prepared, it will be integrated into an in-progress comprehensive summary report, similar to our previous such report published in 2016.
The results are preliminary have not yet been subject to QA/QC checks or analyzed against water quality standards; we expect to complete this by Winter 2024.
We worked with two laboratories in Summer 2024:
1.) Soldotna Wastewater Treatment Plant – SWWTP provided analyses of Total Suspended Solids and Fecal Coliform:
Download Summer 2024 Total Suspended Solids results
Download Summer 2024 Fecal Coliform results
2.) SGS Laboratories, Anchorage – SGS provided analyses of all other substances monitored in Summer 2024, including nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen, and metals like zinc, copper, lead, and others:
Download Summer 2024 Metals and Nutrients results
For questions about 2024 water quality results, contact Benjamin Meyer, Water Quality Coordinator. Thank you again to all the participants and volunteers who made this event happen!
