Gravel to Gravel: Supporting Healthy Salmon Habitat
Salmon shape ecosystems, cultures, communities, and local economies across Alaska. As a valuable renewable resource, maintaining healthy salmon habitats aligns with BLM’s mission of balanced land and resource management.
About 11,000 miles of streams and rivers flow through BLM-managed lands that support salmon populations across Alaska. These aquatic resources provide critical spawning, incubation, and rearing habitats for salmon harvested in subsistence, sport, and commercial fisheries. Important salmon streams on BLM-managed lands include the Innoko, Bonasila, Anvik, Nulato, and Tozitna Rivers of the Yukon basin; several tributaries of the Koyukuk River before it enters the Yukon (e.g. Gisasa, Kateel, Hogatza, and South Fork Koyukuk Rivers); the George, Tatlawiksuk, Swift, and Middle Fork Kuskokwim rivers of the Kuskokwim basin; in addition to several important wild and scenic rivers such as the Unalakleet River, Birch Creek, Beaver Creek, and the Fortymile River.
Salmon returns to individual rivers vary each year due to changing environmental conditions in both freshwater and the ocean. However, total salmon returns across different fisheries remain more stable as multiple populations migrate together. This stability helps Alaska’s salmon fisheries withstand environmental changes, benefiting both people and wildlife.
Long-term declines of Chinook salmon and recent crashes of chum salmon in the Yukon, Kuskokwim, and Northern Bering Sea regions have resulted in closures to commercial and subsistence salmon fishing. These closures have had profound impacts on food security, culture, and economies of communities that have relied on these resources for thousands of years.
To support and maintain diverse and healthy salmon habitats, the BLM, in coordination with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has partnered with Tribes, the State of Alaska, other agencies, and community partners to identify and implement projects that improve ecosystem resiliency and address the salmon crisis in Alaska’s Yukon, Kuskokwim and Northern Bering Sea regions. Under Gravel to Gravel, partners are working to conserve Pacific salmon habitats, collaborate with Tribes, and address ecosystem threats to food security.
The BLM is heavily focused on working with partners to improve watershed health through assessment and restoration.
BLM's role in Gravel to Gravel
Expanded Habitat Assessment
The BLM monitors the condition and trend of stream habitats on BLM-managed lands using the National Aquatic Monitoring Framework. The framework relies on statistically valid sample designs and consistent sampling methods to inform landscape scale decisions. Stream habitat data collected on BLM-managed lands in Alaska has been important to understand impacts from historic land uses and develop reference datasets for stream reclamation and restoration. Stream habitat monitoring is being expanded across the entire Gravel to Gravel region to assess the condition of stream habitats and collect data needed to design and implement stream restoration projects. Information collected at streams degraded by past human activity will be used to assess impacts and help prioritize restoration needs. BLM’s rigorous training program, public data portal, and data analysis tools will empower stakeholders across the region and shape strategic investments in restoration. Data collection will begin in 2025 in partnership with the State of Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation under the Good Neighbor Authority. Stream monitoring data will be available on BLM’s Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring public data portal.
More information about BLM Alaska's work to expand habitat assessments across the Gravel to Gravel region can be found in BLM’s Factsheet: AIM-ing to Understand Stream Habitats.
A more in-depth overview of BLM Alaska's stream habitat assessment program can be found in BLM’s Factsheet: BLM’s Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring Strategy.
Fish Inventories
Stream habitats in the Gravel to Gravel region support all five species of Pacific salmon in addition to many other anadromous and resident fishes that are important to subsistence, sport, and commercial fisheries. The lack of information on salmon habitats and distribution of salmon life stages across this remote landscape is a major data gap that limits effective land management decisions.
BLM is partnering with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) to inventory streams using traditional sampling equipment and emerging technology (e.g., environmental DNA ) will improve our understanding of resident and anadromous fish species’ distributions within the Gravel to Gravel region.
Planning for this project will begin winter of 2024-25 with on the ground sampling beginning in 2025 and continuing through 2027. Updated fish inventory data will be posted annually to the ADFG Fish Resource Monitor web mapper.
Restoration of Degraded Streams
The Alaska gold rush in the mid-1800s to early 1900s ushered in hundreds of industrious individuals seeking to strike it rich. The historic mining techniques used at the time created significant impacts to many of the streams from the removal of vegetation, rerouting of water, and erosion of soils. Alaska’s slow growing season, flood events that scour away newly established vegetation, and repeated mining activities prior to current restorative environmental laws resulted in slow habitat recovery in these areas. These types of legacy mining impacts can be found across several watersheds on BLM-managed lands including the Fortymile and Birch Creek watersheds. Since 2013, portions of the upper Yukon River have been the focus of applied research and the application of new habitat rehabilitation techniques . These efforts have contributed to the creation of stream restoration datasets that will help improve future project success across the region and the publication of an interagency Stream Design Guide.
BLM is working in partnership with the Salcha-Delta Soil and Water Conservation District to continue stream habitat rehabilitation within disturbed watersheds on BLM-managed lands. In 2023 and 2024, substantial restoration work was completed on Nome Creek within the White Mountains National Recreation Area, including nearly a half mile of stream and over 20 acres of floodplain habitats. This work will continue for many years within the 8-mile stretch of Nome Creek from the confluence of Sumner Creek downstream to the confluence with Moose Creek. Work on Wade Creek in 2023 included less than half a mile of stream and over 10 acres of floodplain restoration with efforts in 2024 focused primarily on material delivery and restoration planning for future years.
BLM will continue efforts to restore impacted streams over the next decade within the Fortymile and Birch Creek watersheds in the upper Yukon River. As priority restoration needs emerge across the Gravel to Gravel landscape, BLM will provide support and expertise to help formulate and implement stream restoration plans that enhance fish habitats, improve water quality, and boost overall watershed health. This support also includes providing technical assistance to placer miners on stream reclamation and efforts to rehabilitate fish habitat.
Streamlining Riverscape Restoration
Legacy impacts from historic land use practices, many of which occurred in the late 1800s to mid-1900s, continue to limit the productivity of aquatic habitats across areas of Alaska. Addressing these impacts requires careful planning, funding, and permitting. One aspect of the process is compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires the agency to analyze the effects to the environment resulting from a proposed project. This process can be time consuming and delay implementation of restoration projects. To help streamline site specific project compliance with NEPA in the future, the BLM developed a programmatic environmental assessment. This document will help guide future aquatic and riparian habitat restoration activities on BLM-administered lands in Alaska, which should increase the pace and scale of restoration completed on the ground.
The BLM’s programmatic analysis covers stream restoration activities on up to five miles of stream and associated habitats annually across the proposed project planning area. Actions considered in the analysis included in-stream and floodplain enhancements (pond, lake, and wetland restoration), such as the addition of large woody debris and other in-stream structures; streambank enhancement; head-cut stabilization; restored channel alignment; and plantings and vegetation treatments.
Invasive Species Management
Aquatic invasive species such as Elodea present a significant risk to salmon streams since this plant affects the quality of habitat for juvenile salmon and could lead to population-level impacts on salmon returns. Invasive species within the riparian and wetland plant community also pose impacts to the health of our riverscapes. Avoiding the establishment of invasive species requires a strong commitment to early detection through invasive species inventories and rapid response to new infestations. Early detection and rapid response are critical steps for reducing invasive species risks in Alaska and ensuring the resiliency of our aquatic ecosystems.
Beginning in 2024, BLM’s partnerships with Soil and Water Conservation Districts was expanded to include inventories within several Wild and Scenic River units. Weed free gravel certifications were completed at mineral material sites to stop the spread of invasives by one of the most common vectors. The development of an invasive species management plan is in the works for 2025.
Increased Stakeholder Engagement
Meaningful engagement of stakeholders in project planning, environmental review, and implementation is integral to developing durable solutions to the salmon crisis. The unique challenges facing salmon populations over the Gravel to Gravel landscape requires strong collaboration which is promoted through activities such as in-person meetings, field trips to restoration projects, and trainings to increase technical capacity among partners. In July 2024, BLM hosted tours of stream restoration accomplishments on Nome Creek, a system impacted by historic placer mining. BLM will continue to support coordination opportunities where project partners can share updates and increase collaboration. BLM will also support training for partners that have an interest in stream restoration project planning and implementation. BLM is committed to strengthening relationships with partners through these diverse engagement opportunities.
Current partners
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
- Trout Unlimited
- Alaska Department of Fish and Game
- Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation
- University of Alaska
- Salcha-Delta Soil and Water Conservation District
- National Park Service
- U.S. Geological Survey