After two pandemic years off, the Alaska Bald Eagle Festival will return Nov. 9 with eagle counts up but visitor registration down.
“There’s a lot of positivity for the fest. This year’s definitely a better year. We’ve had a better salmon run, which means lots more eagles,” said Derek Poinsette, executive director of Takshanuk Watershed Council. Though bird numbers are still low compared to historical data, they have bounced back from a steep decline in 2020. “We’ve counted more than 700 so far,” said Poinsette. That’s up from 626 in 2021.
In 2020 Takshanuk Watershed Council science director Stacie Evans counted only 279 bald eagles, the fewest in Haines since 1986, according to recent ground survey data. Ground survey numbers topped 1,000 birds in 2019 and more than 2,000 two decades ago.
As of Wednesday, 30 people had registered for the festival, not including locals, which could spell a downturn of visitors compared to previous years when hundreds of people from around the world flocked to take part in the event.
In an attempt to attract more attendees, Sidney Campbell, the American Bald Eagle Foundation raptor program manager, said the foundation “is imagining ways to adapt the festival this year if the eagle counts stay low.”
The 25th annual event runs from Wednesday, Nov. 9 through Saturday, Nov. 12. It begins at 5 p.m. Wednesday with a meet and greet at the brewery and local organization fair at the eagle foundation. A local artists fair will be held 5 p.m. Thursday at the foundation, followed by “Bird Talk,” an evening of stories, poetry and music. A guided walk at the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve will take place 1 p.m. Friday. The festival concludes with a banquet Saturday at Harriet Hall. Discounted prices are offered to locals.
Two rehabilitated eagles will be released back into the wild at the eagle preserve Nov. 12 at 1 p.m. The birds were sent to Haines from the Anchorage Bird Treatment and Learning Center. “It will be exciting to watch. We’ve had the opportunity to release them in previous years, but it’s not a regular thing,” eagle foundation education manager Ali Gustavson said.
The bald eagle festival commemorates the winter migration of eagles to the Chilkat Valley. They come to feed on a late chum salmon run up the Chilkat River, congregating most densely from 19 Mile Haines Highway to Klukwan. The area provides a unique spawning ground for chum, a rare winter food source for the eagles, due to an upsurge of groundwater that keeps the Chilkat from freezing where the Tsirku and Klehini rivers merge with it.
“After not holding the event the last two years we hope people are excited to come be a part of it again. We didn’t really set any goals; we’re just hoping to see a lot of people there,” Gustavson said.