Notes from Alaska: Traveling to Grayling and Alaska’s Longest River
By Jeremiah Millen, Alaska Wilderness League’s BLM Field Representative
In February, I was invited to represent Alaska Wilderness League’s BLM Wildlands Program and share information about regional BLM planning activities at the Yukon River Fisheries Drainage Association’s (YRDFA) annual meeting in Grayling Alaska. The Athabaskan village of Grayling located on a remote stretch of the Yukon River in Southwest Alaska and is home to close to 200 residents. This is an area only accessible by air with the Yukon River serving as a highway connecting remote villages by boat and snow machine in the winter.
YRDFA, a non-profit organization based in Anchorage, is made up of dozens of board members from rural communities who represent fishing interests of many of the communities along the Yukon River. The meeting location alternates every year between Yukon communities and provides a venue to discuss issues related to health of Yukon salmon serves as a forum to address individual community concerns and seeks to develop solutions and recommendations to drive fisheries management decisions for the region.
The 2300 mile Yukon River is Alaska’s longest river stretches from the Bering Sea to Canada and hosts an international fishery shared by the U.S. and Canada. Yukon in Alaska Native Gwich’in language means “great river” This fishery drives the economy, culture, and the ecology for the entire Yukon ecosystem. It is widely acknowledged that the most critical unifying element for communities along the Yukon is wild salmon. Yukon River Chinook and Chum salmon have some of the longest migratory journeys in the world and are cherished for their size and high oil content. People along the river depend on this resource for food, social, ceremonial, recreational and economic purposes. In addition, the region also provides critical habitat for caribou, bears, migratory birds, moose and other wildlife.
For thousands of years Alaska Native Tribes, Canadian First Nations and rural residents have depended on the stability of healthy wildlife resources and pristine habitat for subsistence and basic survival. Today there are 45 communities in Alaska that depend on the health of the ecosystem and the wildlife it supports. Economies throughout the region depend directly upon the stability of the wild salmon runs. Unfortunately, the health of Yukon salmon populations in Alaska and Canada has declined dramatically over the past few decades due to the impacts of industrial pollution from mining, military installations, dumps and other sources.
In an effort to address these issues 64 Alaskan Tribes and Canadian First Nations negotiated a cooperative management agreement in 2002 called the Yukon River Salmon Agreement. The agreement outlines steps to ensure the sustainability of Yukon River salmon stocks through conservation, management strategies, stock rebuilding, harvest sharing, research and habitat protection. YRDFA is a U.S. partner of this agreement which helps advise Yukon River management for a wide range of agencies the state of Alaska Board of Fish and federal North Pacific Management Council. This unique agreement provides an opportunity for those who depend so heavily on healthy on salmon to play an active role in management decisions. The people of the Yukon River take great pride in the agreement as it continually enables effective participation in managing salmon resources.
During the YRDFA meeting I was able to learn about local concerns for health and future of Yukon salmon and other wildlife resources. I was struck by the vast amount of traditional knowledge about life on the river and changes witnessed shared by members of the board, the public and Elders who spoke from surrounding villages. Concerns ranged from overfishing and high salmon by-catch levels by industrial vessels in Bering Sea to various diseases affecting the quality and health of salmon. Cumulative climate change impacts were also of top concern for residents as they discussed changes in temperature, ocean acidification and species redistribution for other important subsistence resources such as Caribou and Moose.
Our presentation to the group was focused on BLM’s latest East Interior Resource Management Plan which will dictate the management of 10.5 million acres of federally managed public lands throughout the region, much of which includes the Yukon River watershed. We shared information on the planning area, discussed emerging issues found in BLM planning areas throughout the state and discussed resources the Alaska Wilderness League’s BLM Wildands program can provide as a partner. We closed the meeting on the last night with a community potluck and dance. The residents of Grayling were exceptionally generous providing visitors with overflowing baskets of salmon strips, moose stew and other traditional foods. At the dance an eager crowd enjoyed a band of musicians from the villages who performed classic country tunes and Athabaskan fiddle tunes. I held off on dancing until one of the Elders requested a dance, which I was honored to be a part of.
We are grateful to the people of Grayling for their hospitality and to YRDFA for bringing people together to protect the Yukon River. It is our hope that we can work collaboratively with groups such as YRDFA and local residents to develop publically driven management decisions for BLM lands. If we are successful we can protect areas of the highest conservation potential in the region and prevent further impacts to the resources which are vital for the continued health and prosperity of the impacted communities and members of the U.S. who have a stake in Alaska’s BLM lands.
