MAT-SU Salmon partnership wins national award

MAT-SU -- The MAT-SU Basin Salmon Conservation Partnership earned the U.S. Department of Interior's 2007 Cooperative Conservation Award.

The MAT-SU Borough is a member, so are ConocoPhillips Alaska, The Nature Conservancy, the Alaska Dept. of Fish & Game, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the Chickaloon Village Traditional council, among others. The group is made up of more than 30 members including local communities, landowners, agencies, businesses, and non-profits that share a vision for healthy growing communities and thriving fish and wildlife in the MAT-SU.

Borough Manager John Duffy said the Borough is a strong supporter of the Salmon partnership.

"We also greatly appreciate our strong relationship with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service," Duffy said. "Not only are we improving salmon habitat, we're also making our road dollars go further."

The Salmon partnership is a pilot project drawing significant notice because of its tangible results. Last summer the Borough and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife teamed up to restore several salmon crossings by installing fish friendly culverts beneath our MAT-SU roads.

In the MAT-SU, salmon are swimming in some places where they haven't been for a long time. In 2006, the habitat restoration project revived salmon in Moose Creek near Chickaloon.

The Cooperative Conservation awards recognize cooperative conservation achievements that involve collaboration among a diverse range of entities.

The MAT-SU basin supports thriving populations of Chinook, coho, sockeye, pink and chum salmon as well as world-class rainbow trout, char, and grayling; making it one of the country's premier sportfishing destinations. Rapid growth and development can have adverse effects on fish habitat if conservation isn't considered. The Borough, itself, has been recently the 28th fastest growing county in the nation.

Several representatives of the Partnership will be traveling to the award ceremony, which will be held in Washington, D.C. on April 21. The Matanuska-Susitna Basin Salmon Conservation Partnership is a broad-based, cooperative effort to better steward the region's salmon resources while maintaining economic prosperity; ensuring that Alaskans can continue to fish, hunt, and view wildlife in the MAT-SU far into the future.

The MAT-SU Basin Salmon Conservation Partnership can be found on the Web at nature.org/Alaska. Or call Borough Planner Frankie Barker at 746-7439.