Draft Gulkana River Environmental Assessment Released: In early January, 2004, BLM released a draft Environmental Assessement (EA) describing effects of implementing proposed actions, indicators, and standards on the Gulkana River. This document was available for public review through February 15th, but comments are still being accepted. The document outlines proposeals for addressing crowding, powerboat issues, little, campsite impacts, and human waste on the Gulkana River, a part of the National Wild and Scenic River system.

The State of Alaska (Department of Natural Resources) has yet to release its draft Special Use Land Designation, a critical component to the BLM's plan. Navigable waters are managed by the State, so the Special Use Land Designation is necessary for regulating motor size or type of watercraft. 82% of users who commented to the BLM opposed airboats on the river. Copper Country Alliance recommends a 65 hp limit on all boats on all sections of the river and a ban on jetskis and airboats.

Contact: Bruce Rogers, BLM/Glennallen Field Office (907) 822-3217

Copper River Chinook Escapement Monitoring by the Native Village of Eyak: From 2001 to 2003, the Native Village of Eyak conducted a feasibility study on using fishwheels to mark and recapture chinook salmon and thus derive an abundance estimate of Copper River chinook salmon. The conclusions of this three-year study deduced this sampling method is accurate and in 2004 the NVE will commence another three-year project to enumerate Copper River chinook salmon. The project will again use fishwheels at Baird Canyon and Canyon Creek to investigate the annual system-wide escapement and run timing of Copper River chinook salmon and stock specific contributions of chinook to the total annual escapement. Objectives are to tag and recapture approximately 4% of the annual chinook run upstream of Miles Lake. This long-term program is operated by the Native Village of Eyak in conjunction with LGL Alaska Research Accociates and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Contact: Erica McCall, Native Village of Eyak, Regional Social Scientist, erica@nveyak.org.

Test Fishery in Lower Copper River by Native Village of Eyak: For the fourth season the Native Village of Eyak (in association with Aquacoustics, Inc and LGL Alaska Research Associates) will be operating the long-term escapement monitoring project entitled Indexing the inseason abundance of Copper River Sockeye in th elower reaches of the Copper River Delta. This project uses acoustics to index the abundance of salmon in the lower Copper River and to improve in-season escapement estimates of sockeye salmon in the lower Copper Rier, downstream of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game Miles Lake sonar site. The data from this project are provided to fishery managers on a daily basis and thus provide fishery managers with more timely in-season information than is currently available from the Miles Lake sonar site.

Contact: Erica McCall, Native Village of Eyak, Regional Social Scientist, erica@nveyak.org.

BLM Sewde Lake Trail Hardening & Erosion Control: In summer, 2004, th eBureau of Land Management plans to conduct trail work on the Swede Lake Trail where it crosses the Middle Fork of the Gulkana River. The proposed action area is entirely within the Gulkana National Wild River Corridor on the Middle Fork of the Gulkana River. The BLM's Glennallen Field Office is conducting an environmental assessment and expects to complete the analysis by April. Proposed work will invovle installing porous pavement panels to reduce erosion in wetlands areas, and using wood, culverts, silt fencing, and gabions to stabilize the trail and areas around the river crossing to redirect run-off water back into its natural drainages and away from the trail. Some area residents are requesting that the BLM wait to conduct such projects until the East Alaska Resource Management Plan is complete to take into account fully the affects of ATVs and ramifications for their improved access.

Contact: Cory Larson, BLM Outdoor Recreation Planner, cory_larson@ak.blm.gov, (907) 822-3217.

DEC has attached Conditions of Approval to Alyeska's request for an amendment to its oil spill contingency plan that require APSC to determine how it will compensate for increased spill risks. Before it can initiate its Strategic Reconfiguration for any region, Alyeska must meet the conditions for that area and then public hearings will be held on the plan amendment (about one year from now).

Contact: Becky Lewis, DEC, (907) 257-1374, blewis@ipo.doi.gov.

Tonsina North Agricultural Sale of State Lands: Alaska's Department of Natural Resources plans to hold a land sale by the end of June, 2004 of 11 tracts (2,163 acres) located on th ewest side of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline at approximately Mile 94 of the Richardson Highway, south of Copper Center. DNR anticipates that lands will be purchased for a mix of uses, including agricultural cultivation (hay), hometead sites, and some livestock raising. In response to concerns from Copper Basin residents, the DNR will require that 25 percent of usable land be cleared and prepared for cultivation within five years of purchase and that a 50 foot floating easement be added to each parcel to allow for construction of contiguous grass drainage structures. A brochure on the land sale will be available a minimum of 30 days before the sale is held. Look for the brochure and other sale details at http://www.dnr.state.ak.us/ag/index/htm. Contact: Steve Trickett, Division of Agriculture, steve_trickett@dnr.state.ak.us

ADF&G 2004 Sockeye Salmon Harvest Forcast: Alaska Department of Fish & Game biologists have released their 2004 Copper River salmon forcasts. Total harvest for commercial, subsistence, personal use, and sport sockeye salmon fishereis is projected to be one million fish (total production forcast range of 860,000 - 2.5 million), with an escapement goal of 530,000. Harvested salmon from Gulkana River hatchery production are expected to total 80,000 (total production forcast range of 35,000 - 126,000).

The 2004 run will be composed primarily of returns from brood years 1999 and 2000. Five-year-old sockeye salmon (brood year 1999) are expected to predominate Copper River delta and upper Copper River runs. Production from the early portion of the natural run may be weak because of low in-river escapements prior to mid June in brood years 1999 and 2000. The in-river sonar estimates on June 10th were only 26% 91999) and 40% (2000) of the 1990-1998 average. The low in-river escapements appear to have been matched by low spawning escapements in 1999. Aerial surverys of sockeye salmon spawning systems were significangly lower than the 1983-1992 average for almost all systems surveyed.

The forcast for the 2004 total run is ~.02 million below the 1978-2003 average (1.84 million). If realized, the 2004 forecast total run would rank as seventeenth largest since 1978, just above the 2000 runs. The 1.53 million natural salmon run would be average for runs documented prior to substantial supplemental production, and a 0.11 million Gulkana Hatchery run would be about 80% below the 1997-2003 average.

Contact: Steve Moffit, ADF&G Fisheries Biologist III, (907) 424-3212, steve_moffit@fishgame.state.ak.us.