Aquatic Resources of the Salmon Fork, Black River, Alaska

The Salmon Fork, a tributary to the Black Porcupine and Yukon Rivers in Alaska, is managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) east of 142° west Longitude upstream to the International Boundary. It originates in the mountains of Canada's Yukon Territory, flowing southwesterly and crossing the International Boundary just south of the Arctic Circle. It terminates at the confluence with the Black River near abandoned Salmon Village (Figure 1). In June l99l, the BLM initiated a multidisciplinary resources investigation of the Salmon Fork Black River drainage as part of a reconnaissance resources inventory of the upper Black River watershed. This component of the inventory addresses the aquatic portion of the Salmon Fork ecosystem and includes preliminary fisheries surveys, hydrological quantification, and water quality results from the International Boundary to Kevinjik Creek.