Dozens of new and returning volunteers gathered in Cooper Landing last weekend for a daylong orientation about how to become a Stream Watch volunteer. The program sends people into popular fishing areas to help educate people about the importance of a healthy watershed.
It was only 10 a.m. on a recent Saturday morning, but a conference room at the Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge in Cooper Landing is bustling with activity. Some people filled out paperwork, while others chatted amongst themselves. Many sported hats or outerwear emblazoned with the Stream Watch logo: three bright red sockeye salmon swimming through turquoise water.
They were there for the Kenai Watershed Forum’s annual program orientation for new and existing volunteers. It’s an all-in-one explanation of how to be an effective volunteer. The agenda included a history of the Stream Watch program and an overview of where volunteers patrol the rivers. Attendees also learned about bear safety and how to communicate effectively with anglers.
Chris Haberbush is an environmental scientist and coordinates Stream Watch for the Kenai Watershed Forum. He said the volunteers’ work is manifold, and includes, “Helping Kenai Watershed Forum, U.S. Forest Service, educate folks on the river about best practices, and more importantly, the ‘why’ of those best practices, as well as performing other stewardship activities, such as trash cleanups, river restoration, that sort of thing.”
Stream Watch was started in the mid-1990s by a group of fishermen intent on protecting the Kenai Peninsula’s salmon habitats. The program is jointly run by the Kenai Watershed Forum and the U.S. Forest Service and has an overarching goal of promoting watershed stewardship.
Saturday’s orientation comes less than a week before almost 15 miles of river between Kenai and Skilak lakes open to sport fishing for all fish species except king salmon. It’s a sort-of free-for-all when anglers pack the riverbanks, sometimes shoulder-to-shoulder in a scene oft-dubbed “combat fishing.”
“There's also huge impact associated with that level of use at these sites, and that's essentially what Stream Watch was founded to try to make an impact towards, is helping to people, helping people to understand what they can personally do to mitigate those impacts, and then also doing what we can, as those with the time and the privilege to be out there,” Haberbush said.
Haberbush is relatively new to Alaska, having moved to the state about a year ago. He said the mission is about pride in place, and that a day on the river is never a day wasted.
“We are lucky enough to live in Alaska, this place that people travel all over the world to come and see, and we have an opportunity to make an impact in maintaining this place,” he said.
That’s the case for Diane Taylor and Dan Skipwith, both of Clam Gulch, who sat in the audience during the orientation. They’ve been volunteering with Stream Watch for years. Taylor said the program mission aligns with her values of stewardship.
“This is an amazing place and we need to take care of it,” she said. “It’s about that simple. I love Alaska.”
Skipwith said he’s been picking up beach trash long before becoming involved with Stream Watch. The mission has only become more important, he says, particularly in his neck of the woods, where fishing on the Kasilof has really picked up over the years. He sums up the trend as: “More people, more trash, more bank degradation.”
“I’ve been here for 50 years and so I’ve watched the transition from what it was to what it is,” he said. “So this is a good program to try to regain some of what has been lost through funneling people into one place.”
When Stream Watch volunteers venture to beaches and riverbanks, they’re usually armed with supplies from a network of caches stashed around the Kenai Peninsula – things like trash bags and gloves. But they’re also recording data – like how many cigarette buts or yards of fishing line they pick up.
Since the program started, volunteers have logged more than 30,000 hours, picked up more than 45,000 pounds of trash and spoke to almost 90,000 people about the importance of protecting the watershed. That’s according to the program’s 2024 season summary.
Longtime volunteer Gene Hornung helped standardize the program's use of large, L-shaped tubes stationed around fishing areas that act like mini trashcans. He said he’s noticed a difference in trash over the 14 years he’s been volunteering.
“The first time I think I ever walked down the walkway on the Russian River, you get about three or four or five bags of garbage, and like two or three years after that, hardly anything,” he said. “It’s just amazing how we put the line holders up, and that people would put stuff in them.”
Haberbush, the program coordinator, said it’s never too late for people to get involved with Stream Watch. Orientation materials and other information is available on the program website. The Kenai Watershed Forum also hosts a variety of public outreach events during the summer.
In the meantime, Stream Watch volunteers have already installed mesh fencing along riverbanks to prevent erosion. And on a table at the front of the Cooper Landing conference room was a pile of crisp khaki vests, ready for a new wave of volunteers preparing to head to rivers this summer.
