Each summer a group of Kenai Peninsula locals volunteer with Stream Watch to conduct education and stewardship activities at the region’s most-visited recreational fishing areas. 2020 was no exception. Safely navigating the challenges of COVID-19, 77 volunteers spent 846 hours on the river, fenced off two miles of fragile riverbank habitat, and provided educational messages to 2,258 members of the public. They also removed 4,747 pounds of trash and recycled 100 pounds of fishing line.
“Volunteering with the Stream Watch program has been a wonderful way of giving back to the community” says Kathy Heindl, a local electrical engineer and volunteer with Stream Watch.
Stream Watch began in 1994 when local anglers joined together to take care of high traffic fishing sites on the Russian and Kenai Rivers. Driven by the dedication and generosity of volunteers, the program’s positive impact grew, earning support from Chugach National Forest and Kenai Watershed Forum who now jointly administer Stream Watch. New volunteer coordinators started at both organizations for the 2020 season, Amber Kraxberger-Linson and Galen Hecht, who supported volunteers through the season.
Heindl, who became a Stream Watch Ambassador over 10 years ago, comments that the program is valuable “for both the present and future generations with numerous opportunities to educate patrons, protect the environment and fish habitat, recycle fishing line and meet new people.”
Volunteers participate in Stream Watch during single day stewardship events or by becoming Ambassadors. Ambassadors receive orientation training and are issued uniforms that they sport while on duty. Stream Watch volunteers work the Russian River Campground and Ferry, Bing’s Landing, Moose Range Meadows, Centennial Park, Kenai and Kasilof Rivermouths, the Anchor River, and Deep Creek. Due to COVID-19, Stream Watch hosted fewer stewardship events in 2020. However overall, Ambassador hours increased by 21% across these sites this year compared to 2019. Locals and seasonal workers enthusiastically stepped up to care for salmon habitat as record numbers of visitors flocked to public lands to fish and recreate.
“Our Stream Watch Ambassadors are the heart of the program,” said Marion Glaser, interagency coordinator for the USFS, “Some of the COVID-19 mitigations we put in place, such as replacing the traditional indoor 8-hour volunteer orientation with individual 1-hr on-river orientations, actually made it easier for more people to participate in the program and led to overall higher numbers. By allowing the program to adapt to face the global pandemic, we actually ended up stronger than before.”
“This program never ceases to amaze,” says Branden Bornemann, Executive Director of Kenai Watershed Forum. “As Covid set in, we were concerned that we might not be able to have our usual presence on the river, but the volunteers proved us wrong. They were out there as soon as they could be, taking all the safety precautions and making a difference.”
Stream Watch is a national award-winning volunteer program that provides education and stewardship to benefit the health of rivers on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. Volunteers interested in joining Stream Watch can call (907) 398-4304 or visit Kenaiwatershed.org.
