Integrating Local and Traditional Ecological Knowledge into Anadromous Waters Cataloging and Fish Inventories of select drainages of the Tanana and Yukon rivers 2021-2023

***Funded by the Alaska Sustainable Salmon Fund #54007, a part of the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund

Synopsis

During 2021 and 2022, staff from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G), Division of Sport Fish, Alaska Freshwater Fish Inventory (AFFI) program and the Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association (YRDFA) will collaborate to integrate Local and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (LTK) ethnographic interviews into a rapid systematic inventory of fish communities and associated habitats in select drainages of the lower Tanana River and Upper Yukon River in the area of Tanana and Fairbanks. First, in 2021, LTK surveys in the communities of Tanana, Manley Hot Springs and Nenana will locate important subsistence areas that will be overlain on our GIS-selected target streams to assist in filling gaps in coverage of the State of Alaska's Catalog of Waters Important for the Spawning, Rearing or Migration of Anadromous Fishes (AWC) in freshwater habitats expected to support anadromous fish populations likely to be impacted by human activities. Then, in 2022, this project will seasonally sample target streams and record observations in the Alaska Freshwater Fish Inventory database (AFFID), nominate water bodies to the AWC when anadromous fish are observed, and provide publicly available data via the AFFID internet mapping service. Anticipated benefits of this project are multiple hundreds of kilometers and/or dozens of water bodies added to the AWC as well as a broader understanding of the importance of this region’s fish species to local human communities.

1.      Introduction

In Alaska, habitats that support migrating, spawning, or rearing anadromous fish are protected under multiple administrative jurisdictions, including state, federal, and local habitat protection standards. Alaska Statute (AS) 16.05.871 (the Anadromous Fish Act) is a keystone statutory protection for freshwater habitats of anadromous fish in Alaska, requiring the ADF&G to "specify the various rivers, lakes, and streams or parts of them" of the state that are important to the spawning, rearing, or migration of anadromous fish.  The resulting atlas is known as the Anadromous Waters Catalog (AWC) which is adopted as regulation under 5 AAC 95.011. Under the Anadromous Fish Act, activities and uses conducted in or otherwise affecting water bodies specified in the AWC require permitting from the ADF&G Habitat Section. Many other federal, state, and local government policies specify additional protections for anadromous fish habitat in Alaska. To be listed in the AWC, water bodies must have site-specific, direct, unambiguous observations of anadromous fish by a qualified observer. This is a major reason the AFFI program targets areas with high potential to add water bodies to the AWC.

Beginning in spring 2021, YRDFA and AFFI staff will conduct LTK interviews and mapping in the communities of Tanana, Manley Hot Springs, and Nenana. By spring 2022, the LTK contributions will be mapped and added to our site selection criteria prior to field work. Based on seasonality of some fishes in this area, we will establish certain seasonal site locations that are road accessible to determine spatiotemporal patterns in the fish community used by area residents. This will include target streams sampled in June, the main summer season (see following paragraph), and September.

From July 10 to August 1, 2022, 4 crews, each with 2 members, will sample fish communities using AFFI protocols in selected streams draining into the Tanana and Yukon rivers within a general area upstream of the Kokrines (a historical settlement downstream of Tanana) and downstream of the city of Fairbanks. Target sites will include wadeable headwater streams and un-wadeable streams. Summer surveys will maximize detection of juvenile and spawning Chinook salmon, juvenile coho salmon, as well as spawning summer chum salmon. More opportunistic seasonal sampling for 5 days, tentatively in late-spring (e.g., early June) and fall (September or October), could enhance the likelihood of detecting multiple life history stages of rearing, migrating, or spawning whitefishes, Chinook salmon, coho salmon, and chum salmon.

 Given the size and remoteness of the Yukon and Tanana river drainages, this AFFI proposal is for years 3 and 4 of a multiyear effort to sample the region and provides enough funding to conduct spring, summer, and fall sampling. AFFI staff will pursue additional funding sources to conduct more surveys if possible. Before this proposed study, AKSSF funded AFFI to survey the upper Yukon and Tanana River drainages in 2019 and 2020 (AKSSF projects 44375 and 53013, respectively). For example, 2019 surveys in the upper Yukon and Tanana river drainages documented >40 streams previously unlisted in the AWC for Chinook salmon.

2.      Location(s)

Sampling will be done in select drainages of the Yukon and Tanana rivers bounded downstream near the old Yukon River village of Kokrines (N 64.9376, W -154.6944) and upstream to the Tanana River tributary Willow Creek (N 64.6719, W -148.2027). This includes the area and tributaries around the confluence of the Yukon and Tanana rivers (N 65.1682, W -151.9982) between the villages of Tanana and Manley Hot Springs.

I.                   Objectives

Objective 1: To maximize the spatial increase of documented anadromous fish habitats depicted in the AWC within the study area (sampling a minimum 80 headwater target streams, and 12 un-wadeable target streams) not including repeat sampling of select sites to document seasonal presence of some anadromous species.

Objective 2: To use LTK to maximize the spatial increase of documented anadromous fish habitats depicted in the AWC within the study area while also corroborating and verifying the LTK with field surveys.

Objective 3:  To record characteristics, using established protocols, of aquatic habitats (including riparian zone) at each sampling location.

Objective 4:  To provide the fish distribution and associated aquatic habitat information to State & Federal agencies, participating communities, and the public.

II.                Methods

This collaborative project is designed to contribute to the AWC using social and biological methods. Prior to field work, a YRDFA anthropologist and ADF&G staff will contact the Tribal Councils of Tanana, Manley Hot Springs, and Nenana to schedule community meetings (in-person or online, as able) and ethnographic interviews between late spring 2021 and spring 2022. These interviews and mapping activities will establish what is known about the timing and distribution of resident and anadromous fishes and create maps that can be overlain on the AWC with other AFFI site selection criteria to identify streams to sample the following year. The next year, project staff will seek to verify LTK surveys and add to the AWC through seasonal sampling. The proposed study area for 2020 has a road system along the Tanana River which will allow access via truck and boat to certain streams during 5 days each in spring (June) and fall (September). This will likely raise the number of sites this project can sample while avoiding excess helicopter expenses. Additionally, this will allow better seasonal sampling efforts to maximize the ability to document seasonally variable fish distributions such as summer salmon spawning and fall whitefish spawning seasons. Summer sampling will be more expansive and follow ADF&G's AFFI protocols (Giefer and Cathcart 2019) where 4 crews, each with 2 members, will use helicopters to sample fish communities in selected study stream reaches for approximately 21 days in summer of 2022. Target survey sites will include wadeable headwater streams sampled with a backpack electrofisher, and un-wadeable streams sampled with a raft-mounted electrofisher. Sites within the study area that are identified as being anadromous fish rearing from LTK surveys and currently unlisted in the AWC will be prioritized for verification.          

Study area selection

The long-term goal of the AFFI program is to complete a statewide baseline inventory of fish assemblages and associated aquatic and riparian habitats. At its inception, the AFFI program developed a systematic approach to rank and prioritize Alaska’s 139 subbasin level hydrologic units. At the time of this proposal, the AFFI program has surveyed 81 of the 139 subbasins that were originally prioritized. This project’s 99,099 square kilometer study area includes subbasins of the lower Tanana River between the city Fairbanks and the mouth of the Tanana River, tributaries draining the south side of the Tanana upstream of Fairbanks but west of Clear Creek, and in select subbasins of the Yukon River near the community of Tanana but upstream of Kokrines. 

Target stream selection

Target stream selection will be performed by integrating LTK survey information with our conventional method of using GIS to identify previously unsampled (or not rigorously sampled) streams that can be safely accessed while maximizing potential additions to the AWC. The number of headwater streams in the study area will exceed the project’s limited sampling effort capacity; therefore, a subset of streams comprising the longest stream segments not listed in the AWC will be selected as targets. The headwater team will sample approximately six to eight headwater streams per day and, when operating, the raft or riverboat team will float and sample one un-wadeable stream per day. Based on past AFFI projects, it is estimated that a minimum of 80 headwater target streams will be sampled, and 12 un-wadeable target streams could be rafted and sampled during the 21 field days (not including the 5 field days in each of June and September).  However, these estimates are contingent upon weather and logistics.

Reference sites for seasonal sampling will be prioritized depending on spatial and temporal observations from LTK surveys where we will select road or boat accessible locations to target fishes in spring, summer, and fall. We will seek to access all LTK-identified subbasins for subsistence fishes but they will be prioritized according to logistics (i.e., fuel and time needed to reach location) and potential addition to the AWC.

Sampling methods

Ideally, the fish community and habitat will be sampled with standardized methods per AFFI protocols. Fish will be collected by single-pass electrofishing standardized by stream width (i.e., 40 or 120 wetted-channel-widths in wadeable and un-wadeable target streams, respectively). Captured fish will be identified, measured, and released. Other gear types (such as beach seines, angling, or minnow traps) may be deployed if conditions prohibit electrofishing. Standard water chemistry, channel morphology, and riparian habitat parameters will be recorded at each sample site in addition to longer-term water temperature or eDNA sampling efforts in reference streams.  

III.             Benefits

Updated and more comprehensive AWC coverage will be the primary regulatory or fish habitat benefit of this project toward sustaining salmon habitat. Enhanced communication and partnerships with tribal communities will be established through interviews to gather LTK. Based on summer AFFI sampling since 2016, sampling at least 80 headwater target streams and 12 un-wadeable target streams, this project will add many (likely >300) previously unlisted kilometers of salmon habitat among several distinct streams to the AWC. Only anadromous fish habitat listed in the AWC receives protection under the Anadromous Fish Act and various other policies that provide additional protections to specified anadromous fish habitat. Also, providing more complete (e.g., seasonal) and accessible fish community and habitat information will benefit ADF&G, as well as help other federal, state, and local resource agencies better implement their respective fish habitat management, protection, and research missions.  Better protection and management of salmon habitat will benefit salmon fisheries and the communities they sustain by safeguarding critical salmon habitat thereby ensuring the long-term productivity of habitats and salmon populations.