In the coming months, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources must decide whether to reserve water in the Middle Fork of the Chuitna River to protect wild salmon, or allow the water, and wild salmon, to be removed by a coal company to extract coal for export to Asia.
The Chuitna River watershed lies 45 miles west of Anchorage, and it supports all five species of wild Pacific salmon. To protect this renewable resource, a group of local Alaskans filed an application to keep enough water in the stream for wild salmon to spawn, rear and migrate.
But the coal company -- PacRim Coal -- filed competing claims for the same water, so it can de-water the stream and mine 300 feet down through salmon habitat to get at the underlying coal. The coal company insists it can remove the salmon stream -- and rip up all the underlying hydrology and geology -- then successfully put it all back together again as a wild salmon stream with surface and groundwater systems fully functional once strip mining is done.
It sounds good, but it's never been done before, and scientific experts say it cannot be done now. (See testimony to the Alaska Legislature by Dr. Margaret Palmer, a University of Maryland and National Science Foundation stream restoration expert.)
I'm an optimist. I want to believe that Alaskans can develop our natural resources and not trade one resource for another. As commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game for eight years and Director of the ADF&G Habitat Division for seven years, I worked hard with generally good cooperation from developers to maintain the health of the state's wild salmon resources. That meant working with industry and state and local governments to make sure our roads were built to pass fish and cars; that timber harvest protected riparian habitat; that oil and gas were developed while maintaining fish and wildlife, and that streams affected by mining were rehabilitated if damaged.
I can tell you from my experience, and the experience of stream restoration efforts throughout the Pacific Northwest, the proposal to remove the Middle Fork of the Chuitna River for 25 years and then put it back together as a wild salmon stream is a pipe dream; it will not work.
If the decision is made to mine the site, we can assume that the mining company's restoration will eventually stabilize the land and the drainage patterns, and maybe leave behind lakes and wetlands with pike and stickleback, but the lost wild salmon productivity of the Middle Fork will be permanent. Is that where Alaska wants to go? To trade 25 years of economic development for a permanent loss of wild salmon in Cook Inlet, and increased pollution from across the Pacific and a warmer climate?
This is a historic moment in salmon management in Alaska. The coal company has suggested, in addition to reestablishing a wild salmon stream, it can build artificial spawning channels to replace any lost wild salmon production. This approach would be a paradigm shift for Alaska. Alaska now uses its very well-regulated hatcheries to enhance, not replace, wild salmon runs. Using artificial propagation to replace wild runs is to follow the lead of the Pacific Northwest, New England, Canada and Europe, where wild salmon runs are either totally gone or a shadow of historic abundance.
This paradigm shift will shape resource decisions across the state for generations to come. It's Alaska's choice: Do we reserve water in our streams to support our wild, sustainable salmon, or do we sacrifice our wild salmon habitat for a one-time use of a non-renewable resource and follow the lead of others who have decimated their wild salmon?
Alaskans have until April 9 to weigh in on the decision between salmon or coal in the Chuitna watershed. Please join me in contacting the Department of Natural Resources and telling them Alaskans choose wild salmon.
Comments can be sent to kimberly.sager@alaska.gov.
Frank Rue served as Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game from 1995 through 2002 and the ADF&G Habitat Director from 1988 until 1995. He is the executive director of the Southeast Alaska Land Trust.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.