The 41st annual meeting of the Alaska Chapter of the American Fisheries Society will be in Juneau at Centennial Hall from October 20-24
The theme of the meeting is:
Bridging disciplines to solve today’s challenges in resource management
The 2014 Alaska Chapter Meeting is a joint meeting between AFS, the American Water Resources Association (http://state.awra.org/alaska/) and the Southeast Alaska Fish Habitat Partnership (https://www.seakfhp.org/).
Online Registration is OPEN – Register NOW!
Join in for a comprehensive 3 Day Workshop that will teach you the essentials of Beginning Shellfish Farming.
The workshop is sponsored by the University of Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program, and cosponsored by the University of Alaska Southeast, and OceansAlaska.
Southeast Alaska Shellfish Farming Workshop
October 9-11, 2014
Robertson Building, Room 115,
600 Steadman St.
University of Alaska Southeast
Ketchikan, Alaska
SEAKFHP is co-hosting a discussion on Southeast Alaska Estuaries in celebration of National Estuaries Week (September 20-27)
.
Please join us during the Alaska Coastal Rainforest Center’s Brown Bag Seminar – this Wednesday, Sept 24th from 12-1pm at the Juneau Forestry Sciences Lab Conference Room (located in their new building next to UAS).
We will have a few brief presentations followed by a group discussion and brain storming session. I will share a brief overview of the Southeast Alaska Fish Habitat Partnership and recent strategy work we are doing for nearshore areas. We will also have folks from Southeast Alaska Land Trust share an update on their recent acquisition of tidal lands in Auke Nu Cove, and others from the Nature Conservancy and NOAA there to share activities they are working on. We encourage other colleagues to join us and share in the discussion.
Wednesday September 24, 12:00 pm
ACRC Brown Bag Seminar
Southeast Alaska Estuaries: why they are important and how we keep them healthy and productive. In celebration of National Estuaries Week.
Discussion
Juneau Forestry Sciences Lab Conference Room
Please visit the ACRC Home page (http://www.uas.alaska.edu/acrc/index.html) and the Events page (http://www.uas.alaska.edu/acrc/acrc_events/index.html) for more information, including talk abstracts and other upcoming events.
POSTPONED until Spring – check back for details
Using Beaver to Restore Streams — the state of the art and science
1-day workshops for practitioners, landowners, land managers and regulators
Confirmed Dates and Venues:
Nov. 20, 2014 – Juneau, AK
Jan. 14, 2015 – Everett, WA
Jan 21 or 22, 2015 – Portland, OR
Feb. 12, 2015 – Weed, CA
To Register:
http://epp.esr.pdx.edu/registration.html
Course Fee: $50
Presenters:
Michael M. Pollock, Ph.D., Ecosystems Analyst – NOAA Fisheries NWF Science Center
Chris E. Jordan, Ph.D., Mathematical Ecologist – NOAA Fisheries NWF Science Center
Janine Castro, Ph.D., Fluvial Geomorphologist – US Fish & Wildlife Service & NOAA Fisheries
Gregory Lewallen, Graduate Student – Portland State University
These workshops will be offered for a nominal fee through a partnership with US Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA Fisheries, and Portland State University, Environmental Professional Program.
Using beaver to restore streams is rapidly gaining acceptance as a cost-effective technique to improve aquatic habitat, especially for salmonids. Regulatory and institutional obstacles are being reduced or removed as scientific advances continue to demonstrate that beaver can restore stream habitat far more effectively, and at a much lower cost, than many traditional stream restoration approaches.
Join us for an intensive 1-day workshop symposium for the beta release of a state-of-the-science manual regarding the use of beaver to restore streams. Workshops will be interactive with the audience as we walk through the manual and describe its use to facilitate the restoration of streams. We will provide assessment tools for determining how, where, and when to use beaver in stream restoration. Also included will be a discussion of the regulatory process and how to maximize the probability of successfully obtaining permits.
As a leader in aquatic habitat restoration, your feedback on this document is very important to us and necessary to create an effective tool for restoration using beaver. We encourage you and your colleagues to attend a workshop and to spread the word. Please let us know if you would like to join us and/or if you know of particular groups who may want to attend by responding to this announcement, so that we may adjust the number of workshops as necessary.
Thank you and we look forward to hearing back from you.
For more information contact: maryanns@pdx.edu , 503-725-2343 until 6/30/2014
Starting July 1, 2014 contact epp@pdx.edu 503-725-5388
The Southeast Alaska Fish Habitat Partnership will be hosting the first annual Alaska Fish Film Festival during the annual meeting of the Alaska Chapters of the American Fisheries Society and American Water Resources Association in Juneau (October 20–24, 2014) Conference Details.
We are soliciting fish-related videos for the Festival and encourage you to capture footage this summer and/or edit footage you already have! Check out the details here.
Release Date: May 16, 2014
Contact(s): Sheila Jacobson
See the press release online here: http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/tongass/news-events/?cid=STELPRD3800819
CRAIG, Alaska–Drawn to the streams where they hatched, millions of salmon return each year to spawn in the Tongass National Forest. This natural cycle has sustained humans and wildlife for eons. Subsistence, wildlife watching, commercial, and sport fishing all depend on salmon habitat. In Southeast Alaska, protecting and improving that habitat is a team effort.
Enter the Southeast Alaska Fish Habitat Partnership, or SEAKFHP. The group brings together communities, government agencies, tribes, conservation groups and researchers. Each brings unique perspectives and ideas. All share the goal of sustaining Southeast Alaska’s highly productive fisheries. The National Fish Habitat Board recognized the SEAKFHP as its 19th national partner on March 10, 2014.
“The Forest Service is leading the way in building our partnership. We can celebrate vibrant, sustainable fisheries here,” said SEAKFHP coordinator Deborah Hart.
“The partnership is a tremendous value for Southeast Alaska and the Tongass,” said Tongass National Forest Fish Biologist Sheila Jacobson. “Together, we are doing things the Forest Service could not accomplish on its own.”
One of the group’s major initiatives is to share information. The group is pooling assessments to develop a more complete picture of fish habitat. By identifying knowledge gaps, research needs come into focus. In turn, partners can prioritize the most promising restoration projects. Restored watersheds support more fish and larger harvests.
“What we know about the watersheds is key. We can target restoration where it’s needed the most,” Jacobson said. “Working collaboratively leads to more successful projects and more fish habitat.”
Forest Service scientists are creating models to predict the impact of climate change on fish habitat. Hart said these tools will help the partnership “look ahead” and consider long-term projects.
Another initiative involves working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to create a mitigation bank. Mitigation banks create new habitat or restore damaged wetlands. This compensates for the impact of development on watersheds. By taking part in the process, the SEAKFHP can help select projects with the most benefit.
Jacobson said the group’s next goal is to serve as a channel of grant funding for restoration projects.
The Prince of Wales Watershed Association recently joined as the group’s 14th member. Partners include Trout Unlimited, The Nature Conservancy, Central Council Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition and the University of Alaska Southeast. For more information, visit the partnership’s website at https://www.seakfhp.org or call 907-723-0258.
![WadeDavis.Postcard.4.29_Page_1[1]](https://www.seakfhp.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/WadeDavis.Postcard.4.29_Page_11.png)
Wade Davis: Anthropologist | Author | Explorer
MAY 14 at 7pm
Juneau Arts & Culture Center
Enjoy light Taku River salmon appetizers while listening to this National Geographic Society “Explorer for the Millennium” share the story of the Sacred Headwaters campaign to protect the salmon-rich Stikine, Nass and Skeena Rivers of northern British Columbia. This story has lessons for the current fight to safeguard from industrial development the other great salmon rivers that flow from British Columbia into Southeast Alaska.
A panel discussion with First Nations and tribal leaders to follow.
www.daviswade.com or call (907) 209-8486
This event is FREE but kindly RSVP here.
For Immediate Release: May 6, 2014
Contact: Ryan Roberts
National Fish Habitat Partnership
202-624-5851
rroberts@fishwildlife.org
2014 “WATERS TO WATCH” PROVIDE EYE FOR THE FUTURE OF FISH CONSERVATION
Broadly supported conservation efforts to increase fish populations and improve habitat conditions
(Washington, DC) – The National Fish Habitat Partnership (www.fishhabitat.org) has unveiled its list of 10 “Waters to Watch” list for 2014, a collection of rivers, streams, estuaries, lakes and watershed systems that will benefit from strategic conservation efforts to protect, restore or enhance their current condition. These waters represent a detailed snapshot of this year’s locally driven voluntary habitat conservation efforts in progress implemented under the National Fish Habitat Partnership by 19 regional Fish Habitat Partnerships throughout the country.
The objective of these projects—to conserve freshwater, estuarine and marine habitats essential to the many fish and wildlife species that call these areas home—is the foundation of the National Fish Habitat Partnership. Throughout the year, through the work of our partners, these projects will demonstrate how conservation efforts are turning around persistent declines in our nation’s aquatic habitats. Having featured 80 partnership projects since 2007, these “Waters to Watch” are proving that on-the-ground conservation activities and science-based strategies are truly making a difference in improving fish habitat.
“These projects are a model for how fish habitat conservation should be approached.” said Kelly Hepler, Chair of the National Fish Habitat Board. “Often times these projects bring partners together that otherwise may not work together. These efforts are all about working across boundaries and jurisdictions with a wide array of partners involved, working for the greater good of habitat conservation.”
The 2014 “Waters to Watch” list and associated Fish Habitat Partnerships:
1) Bear Creek, Colorado (Western Native Trout Initiative)
2) Boardman River, Michigan (Great Lakes Basin Fish Habitat Partnership)
3) Eel River Delta, California (California Fish Passage Forum)
4) Lake Bloomington, Illinois (Reservoir Fish Habitat Partnership)
5) Milltown Island Estuary, Washington (Pacific Marine and Estuarine Fish Habitat Partnership)
6) Montana Creek, Alaska (Mat-Su Basin Salmon Habitat Partnership)
7) Muddy River, Nevada (Desert Fish Habitat Partnership)
8) Nash Stream, New Hampshire (Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture)
9) Tolomato River, Florida (Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership/Atlantic Coastal Fish Habitat Partnership)10) Twelvemile Creek Watershed, Alaska (Southeast Alaska Fish Habitat Partnership)
For more information on project maps and descriptions of the 10 Waters to Watch list for 2014, Visit: http://fishhabitat.org/waters-to-watch/2014
Visit the Waters to Watch Homepage for all of our projects from 2007-2014.
Visit, http://ecosystems.usgs.gov/fishhabitat/ to use our interactive habitat data mapper.
About the National Fish Habitat Partnership:
Since 2006, the National Fish Habitat Partnership has been a partner in 417 projects in 46 states benefiting fish habitat. The National Fish Habitat Partnership works to conserve fish habitat nationwide, leveraging federal, state, tribal, and private funding resources to achieve the greatest impact on fish populations through priority conservation projects. The national partnership implements the National Fish Habitat Action Plan and supports 19 regional grassroots partner organizations. For more information visit:
http://fishhabitat.org/
http://www.facebook.com/NFHAP
https://twitter.com/FishHabitat
http://www.scoop.it/t/fish-habitat
Ryan Roberts
National Fish Habitat Partnership Communications Coordinator
Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies
444 N. Capitol St. NW (Suite 725)
Washington, DC 20001
O: 202.624.5851
C: 202.329.8882
For Immediate Release:
April 4, 2014
Ryan Roberts rroberts@fishwildlife.org
NATIONAL FISH HABITAT CONSERVATION ACT ADVANCES THROUGH SENATE EPW COMMITTEE – Bill will Head to Senate Floor
(Washington, DC) – The U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works passed the National Fish Habitat Conservation Act (S. 2080) en bloc, in a package with six other water resource and conservation bills on April 3, 2014.
Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID) introduced S. 2080, the National Fish Habitat Conservation Act (NFHCA) on March 5, 2014. The bipartisan legislation authorizes the National Fish Habitat Action Plan (NFHAP) – an unprecedented national partnership effort aimed squarely at protecting, restoring and enhancing the nation’s fish habitats.
Both Senators Cardin and Crapo sit on the Environment and Public Works Committee. Senator Cardin is the Chair of the Water and Wildlife Subcommittee, and Senator Crapo is a long-time supporter of NFHCA. Previous versions of NFHCA have enjoyed broad bipartisan support in Congress, including bipartisan approval by the Environment and Public Works Committee in two different Congresses. The bill passed today includes modifications to language in earlier versions of NFHCA that were made in consultation with several Senators and their staffs from both sides of the aisle. “I want to thank our co-sponsors for their help in ensuring that the National Fish Habitat Action Plan will someday become a major tool to deliver conservation in the United States. This is one more step in ensuring that the visioning in the National Fish Habitat Action Plan will one day be codified through this important piece of legislation.” said, Kelly Hepler, Chair of the National Fish Habitat Board. “We were certainly encouraged with today’s advancement by the committee and hope that the National Fish Habitat Conservation Act will go to the Senate floor in this session of Congress.” The bill can now proceed to the U.S. Senate floor for approval, action on the bill will be determined at a later date.
About the National Fish Habitat Partnership:
Since 2006, The National Fish Habitat Partnership has been a partner in 417 projects in 46 states benefiting fish habitat. The National Fish Habitat Partnership works to conserve fish habitat nationwide, leveraging federal, state, and private funding sources to achieve the greatest impact on fish populations through priority conservation projects. The national partnership implements the National Fish Habitat Action Plan and supports 18 regional grassroots partner organizations.
For more information visit:
http://fishhabitat.org/
