The Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve Advisory Council voted this week to devise a method of assessing impacts on fish habitat from commercial permittees in the preserve.
Thirteen commercial operators are permitted this summer in Haines Borough’s state parks and likely all will operate in the preserve, said Alaska State Parks southeast area superintendent Preston Kroes. Currently no formal system exists to assess the impacts of the operators’ use on fish spawning and rearing grounds.
“We don’t have the manpower to really be able to investigate or monitor use per day,” Kroes said. “The permits come across my desk before they get their final approval. I go through them and try to weed out if there’s going to be any conflicts or impact.”
Kroes said in the past the state has required operators to modify plans due to heavy usage in some areas.
Council member Kip Kermoian made the motion to establish a formal process for assessing impacts on fish habitat.
“It seems like we should come up with some means of assessing what these impacts are – bank stabilization, erosion and just impacts by dispersing and displacing fish,” Kermoian said. “Are there spawning or rearing areas that we need to be concerned with in the preserve, so we’re not hammering these places, essentially removing viable habitat for fish in particular?”
The impact assessment would focus only on commercial tour operators, not individual recreationists, fishermen or hunters. Nearly all thirteen of the permitted operators are adventure, hunting or fishing guide companies.
Council member Bill Thomas seconded the motion. “I’ve been fishing since 1969 and we went from 106 boats to 45. What does that tell you? That there are no fish,” Thomas said. “I agree with Kip that they should look and see what happened to the stocks of that river system.”
In other news, Sue Libenson of Alaska Trails presented on the upcoming Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan — “a guide for public outdoor recreation in urban and rural neighborhoods, cities, and regions” — which must be updated every five years for the state to be eligible for federal outdoor recreation funding.
It’s intended to be broad and to be used as an advocacy tool to help agencies secure funding. Alaska Trails is working with Alaska State Parks to draft the plan.
Libenson, in her presentation, mentioned 10 projects in the Chilkat Valley that could be included in the plan. They ranged from public use cabins at Walker Lake, Battery Point and Chilkoot to improvements across the borough’s trail system to better signage and parking in the eagle preserve.
A draft plan will go out for public comment on Aug. 7.
With regards to staffing in the borough’s parks, Kroes told the council that State Parks continues to work on a plan to hire a new ranger and natural resource technician for Haines’ parks. He also said there has been a lack of applicants for the Alaska Conservation Corps positions in the borough but that the division has done well finding volunteers. The borough’s ranger position has been vacant since November.
The preserve advisory council meets twice a year — once each in spring and fall.