Alaska Insight is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by viewers just like you.

Thank you.

Salmon have long been a reliable food source and central to the culture of Yukon River communities.

But in recent years, low returns have prompted closures.

One young Alaskan wants to help her community recover.

If our generation doesn't do it, then there's no one to be able to get that fish back for our future.

It's something that we have to do now.

What is the outlook for the future of the Yukon River salmon runs and what can be done to help communities adapt?

We'll discuss it right now on Alaska INSIGHT.

Good evening.

The mighty Yukon River has been a majestic icon of power, beauty and for generations, a sustainable source of food.

Salmon reliably returned to the Yukon to provide a stable source of healthy wild food for communities along its length.

But in recent years, those reliable runs have been beleaguered by warming waters, food scarcity and disease causing closures that have halted longstanding traditions for many families.

We'll hear about one young woman's passion to help the fishery recover.

And we'll talk with biologists about what is realistic and possible for the future of the Yukon River salmon fishery.

But before we get to that discussion, here are some of the top stories of the week from Alaska Public Media's Collaborative Statewide News Network.

Alaska's food assistance program has processed the oldest applications from a backlog plaguing the state for more than a year, but many applicants are still waiting up to three months to receive benefits.

The State Division of Public Assistance administered the administers the Federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, also known as Food Stamps, which serves around 12% of the state's population.

The backlog in applications was at its worst in April, when thousands were waiting for help buying food, some as long as eight months.

Now public assistance director Deb Etheridge says the current processing wait is about three months.

But people with low income or who meet other criteria can qualify for an expedited application.

Etheridge would not offer a guess on how long it might take to get through all 8500 pending applications and renewals.

The Anchorage Assembly approved the opening of a new temporary winter homeless shelter on Thursday.

The shelter will be housed in a former garbage utility administration building in midtown Anchorage with capacity for 150 beds and a vehicle storage bay.

Alexis Johnson, the city's homelessness coordinator, says the shelter is expected to open by November 1st.

But these beds will only be used if the 372 beds in the renovated Aviator and Alix Hotels are full.

The shelter will also include services to guide people to more stable housing.

The Department of Homeland Security's Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties is investigating a complaint around the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA's interactions with Alaska Native communities in the aftermath of Typhoon Rybak last year.

The complaint stems from an investigation by KYUK into mistranslations of disaster assistance information into Yugtun or Yup'ik.

FEMA had hired California based translation company accent on languages to translate applications and other disaster information documents into Yugtun.

But native speakers of the language say the end product was nothing but gibberish.

Last January, FEMA announced accent on languages reimburse the agency and that they were no longer working with the company for translations accent on languages.

FEMA and the Office for Civil Rights and Liberties.

All either declined or did not respond to KYUK requests for comment on this story.

You can find the full versions of these and many more stories on our website.

Alaska Public dot org or by downloading the Alaska Public Media app on your phone.

Now on to our discussion for this evening.

Fishing for salmon has always been a way of life on the Yukon River.

But for the last four years, as runs have collapsed, managers have restricted most fishing for local communities.

Alaska Public Media's Kavita George has been reporting on the salmon collapse and has this story about what it means to one young person to miss out on this tradition.

In August, Mackenzie English, who returned home to a place she's never actually lived, Gwichyaa Zhee, means people of the flats.

So welcome to the flats, Gwichyaa Zhee also known as Fort Yukon, is a village of less than 500 people on the Upper Yukon River.

Kenzie is 20 years old, a student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Her mother is from Gwichyaa Zhee, and it's clear how connected she is to this place.

We're pretty much all family here.

Kenzie grew up with her dad and brother near Chandalar Lake in the Brooks Range and then lived in Fairbanks.

But she visited the village regularly as a child, and it's where she feels most rooted.

And now she'll live here full time.

For Kenzie, who like most of the village, is Gwich'in, this move has been a long time coming.

Like, I feel like I've been waiting my whole life to come back here and be, like, being my community as much as I wanted to.

But Gwichyaa Zhee today is very different from the village she remembers visiting as a kid.

Life here used to revolve around salmon.

The first kings would arrive in late June and chum would follow in late summer.

But four years ago, after decades of decline, both runs collapsed and river managers have all but closed fishing ever since.

Researchers say climate change is driving the collapse.

Residents say it's made life here unrecognizable.

Now on the riverbank, half a dozen fish wheels lay idle.

Kenzie calls it the fish wheel graveyard.

You would probably sit right here with one of those chairs and you would just watch the the nets catch the fish.

And I bet my grandpa was just smiling, smiling, watching it, knowing that he was going to be supplied for the winter.

These fish are more than just food.

They're culture and community.

But Kenzie wasn't around enough as a kid to fish salmon for herself.

She never learned to use those fish wheels.

And now that she's finally here full time, she's worried she never will.

And it's hard because I feel like it's I'm almost missing a part of myself.

Her uncle, Michael Peter, says that experience going to fish camp and building a connection to your family through salmon is an essential part of passing on their culture and only take your kids out and teach them and show them again how much you know.

Pretty much what we're taught.

We're taught how to cut and preserve and smoke fish.

Michael is second chief of Gwichyaa Zhee, and he worries that knowledge is getting lost for the next generation.

Do you worry about that for Kenzie?

Oh, yeah, sure.

Oh, sure.

I mean, you know, she's got a learning curve for sure.

And then, you know, I mean, she hasn't really been to fish camp.

You know, this loss has fueled Kenzie sense of purpose.

She feels a responsibility to help save her community from giant existential threats like climate change.

She's become an advocate for climate justice and indigenous rights.

She's fighting for more Alaska native control over fishery management.

And it's a lot of pressure.

It's overwhelming.

But I'm I'm happy to do it because, like I said, if no one it if our generation doesn't do it, then there's no one to be able to get that fish back for our future.

It's something that we have to do now.

I think great Grandma used to wear these.

One morning, Kenzie met her grandfather, Sonny Jonas, at his house for coffee.

There's a lot of changes around here, I'll tell you.

For years, Sonny taught kids in which age how to fish and how to make fish wheels.

If Kenzie had grown up here, he's the one who would have taught her.

Jonas has watched climate change transform the Yukon Flats just in his lifetime.

Thawing permafrost has caved in houses.

Summers are unrecognizable, warm.

He says the changes are alarming, but he sees hope in Kenzie.

Yeah, I'm glad to.

What she's doing right now, She's really trying to get into our culture and I'm really proud of her for that.

As for Kenzie, she's still learning that culture and she's determined to keep it alive for herself and future generations.

In Gwichyaa Zhee I'm Kavitha.

George.

Joining me tonight to discuss what's going on with Yukon Salmon is Holly Carroll.

Holly is the in-season manager for the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service for the Yukon River.

And Gabe Canfield is the policy coordinator for the Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association.

Welcome, both of you.

Thank you.

Thanks for being here.

So, Holly, I want to start with you.

This summer, fishing was closed, but there was some positive news in the returns for Chinook and chum.

Tell us about that.

Right.

We we did have an increase in the summer chum population, and we were able to meet our drainage wide escapement goal for that population.

That's the first time in a few years.

And so we were able to open up some fishing opportunity for that species and then for the fall chum.

They didn't do as well as the summer chum.

We didn't meet our drainage wide goals.

But there was one stock that he drink, river or formerly known as the Chandalar River, up in Kinzie's neck of the woods.

We were able to open that drainage to fall chum fishing actually pretty early in September.

There was some limited fishing, but there were restrictions put in place.

Talk a little bit about why people had to use different methods.

Right.

So because the Chinook run is so very poor, I mean, it only slightly improved, improved over last year, but we're well below meeting any escapement goals because of that.

You know, we can't use the large 300 foot GILLNETS that are more efficient for salmon capture.

So we had to use selective gears.

Those are gears like dip nets and beach scenes where they could target summer chum but release any kings they might catch.

And those gears are far less efficient and not everyone has those gears.

Well, thank you for starting us off.

Gabe, I want to turn to you.

The organization that you're with has been around for more than 30 years.

You have board members from each fishing district and you just had an annual meeting at the beginning of the month.

Talk a little about what the discussion was.

What are people concerned most about right now?

Well, as we know, we've been at least four, if not more years into this fishery disaster.

And some of the things that we are really focusing on and our board members bring to our annual meeting every single year is how we can see some more continuation of culture and solutions to food insecurity that is occurring in our communities.

And our board members come together at this annual meeting every single year to bring resolutions forth to help with advocacy at different organizations such as the Alaska Board of Fish and the North Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting.

These spaces are places that we can advocate for our children, our Chinook salmon, especially during this fisheries disaster that's been happening.

And as your organization centers on what Fishing Communities request of you for to protect and advocate for you.

SALMON what do they want you to do and what realistically can you do?

There are some solutions that they have been bringing forth on chum salmon Bycatch the issue out in the Bering Sea Pollock fishery.

That's one of the biggest focuses, especially now.

We just had the North Pacific Fishery Management Council happen this past week where they had a motion see for on chum salmon bycatch.

There is currently no limit on chum salmon bycatch, and that's something that has been brought forth similar recently to the Chinook salmon bycatch that was done in the past with your fund bringing those solutions forward in that policy, forward, put into regulation, into law so we can allow some of those Yukon River and Western Alaska chum salmon to return to rivers just fine.

All right.

Thank you.

Holly, turning to you again.

You mentioned that after a crash in 2000 and 2001, this was an earlier interview.

You talked about salmon rebounding more quickly than what you're seeing now.

What is different now than in 2001 that could be causing this slower recovery if recovery is happening?

Well, I think a lot of things are happening now that weren't happening then.

So, yeah, we're seeing a much slower rebound.

I think I think part of that is that, you know, the salmon are being impacted in every part of their life stages.

You know, the eggs in the gravel, if the eggs are not as healthy, their body condition, if the marine environment is not providing the right food for them or is too warm, you know, then they're coming back with smaller body size.

On the Yukon in particular, we've got the issue of disease.

Chinook are plagued with active owners right now that can be causing them to die before they even make it to their spawning grounds.

But then we have the environmental changes that are occurring that are really drastic.

You know, for the fall chum, there's an entire drainage, the colony that just dried up.

And so when those fish are getting to those spawning grounds, there's no more spawning locations.

So these these fish are being hit at every life stage.

And so it's sort of death by a thousand cuts.

But we also are dealing with lower productivity.

So smaller runs, you know, a very large run can sustain some of these losses or these hardships.

And the smaller runs we're seeing are just not able to and they're certainly not able to in a way that makes them fishable like those other runs were.

A lot of this news gave is pretty bleak right now.

But what do you see that's promising in the way that people are adapting and helping each other through this difficult time?

This isn't the first time that Alaska Native people and rural people in Alaska have dealt with hardship.

We see a lot of actual state wide allyship and community connections throughout the state.

In this time we have had in the past couple of years salmon donations from Bristol Bay, for example, has been huge in helping some of our community members, especially our elders in communities who haven't been able to get the fish that they've been living their entire life on and allowing those elders to share it with their family members in their youth and their family.

And we've been seeing those donations come from southeastern Bristol Bay.

And some people get Fisher fish from the Copper River drainage and bring them back to the Yukon River in times of hardship, in spaces where they aren't able to get their fisheries, they still try to bring those fish in and try to practice the culture camps whenever they can.

Ten and a cheese conference and other organization in the Yukon River drainage has been also doing these fish donations to help continue that way of life.

All right.

So there is efforts that are being successful at helping people at least get some fish.

Yeah.

Can stay connected to that part of tradition.

You had mentioned trawl bycatch concerns.

It's a frequent target of subsistence fishermen.

We talked with Katie Howard earlier.

Katie is the lead fishery scientist for the salmon Ocean Ecology Program with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

She says the North Pacific Fishery Management Council is currently studying the effect on one particular salmon species.

Let's hear from her.

They are looking at the chum salmon issue right now.

They believe their last action on salmon bycatch was, oh gosh, that might have been in 2016 for Chinook, but they are looking at chum salmon right now, what they can do for western Alaska.

Chum salmon.

It does become really complicated because most of the chum salmon they catch are Asian origin and those are hatchery stocks predominantly.

So they're bait.

Yeah, that's something that they're grappling with, is how do you how do you focus in on the Western Alaska chum salmon and try to reduce the bycatch of those with when it's a smaller component of what they're catching.

So given that mingling of Asian stocks into Alaska, chum, how could that be managed?

Are the Asian hatchery stocks marked somehow?

How could that be reduced when they're co-mingled?

Well, I mean, you're asking me.

I'm an in river manager.

We need the best minds at the table and we need a lot more indigenous knowledge at the table.

I know that sort of missing.

We've got a lot of biologists working through all these agencies, these different organizations, people like Katie, who are trying to address this issue with Western Science.

But I think we also need to bring some more indigenous voices, people like Kenzie.

You know, I think we are going to need climate action or indeed all of that.

It is not going to be an easy issue to solve.

But they were able to figure out some solutions for Chinook, and it has helped.

There has been a huge reduction in bycatch of Chinook.

So I trust that if they continue to push for change, they will find it, but it will take all of us.

And I'm I'm certainly heartened by the story about Kenzie.

You know, while it's really tragic to see the loss of people like that becoming fishermen, it really makes me happy to see them becoming climate scientists or advocates like Gabe, because this issue for all of our animals is not going to go away and I'm happy to see that adaptation occurring because we need to adapt to these changing amounts of salmon that that is the future for us.

Mm hmm.

Gabe, your thoughts there on what could be possible with this Asian stock concern?

You know, the Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association, we always believe that every salmon counts.

That is something that is within our messaging.

And even if it's just a few salmon, even if there's like reductions in whether it's a chum bycatch that was being discussed as one of the reasonable alternatives.

Anything that does help reduce that chum salmon bycatch will eventually get those fish to the river and those fish will spawn and start to return in numbers that can help subsistence and help bring back that way of life.

That's why we advocate for that, and that's why we always hope to have space to protect those chum salmon.

And I think that we can get there if we keep going to these advocacy organizations and advocating for our way of life in that way.

All right.

Well, I'm glad that you have a positive outlook on that.

That's that's good.

This might be a misguided question for you, Holly, but I'm going to ask anyway, is it known?

I know that you work within river fish, but our hatchery salmon or wild stocks are more or less resistant, resilient when it comes to surviving disease and warming water conditions.

Well, I think the bigger issue there is more that when there are so many the sheer volume of the hatchery stocks, it's creating a competitive environment in the in the ocean or in areas where they're returning to natural systems.

So, you know, for us, this idea of all these hatchery fish, it's it's not helping our wild stocks to survive out there.

Certainly not.

Does it result in this huge volume of the bycatch?

Yes, but what if they weren't there?

Would our wild stocks be doing better in the marine environment?

I think that's the question we need to ask ourselves.

The Alaska Salmon Research Task Force, Katie said.

There's a lot happening within this task force.

They're examining Yukon, Kuskokwim and Arctic salmon stocks.

Are either of you involved with this group or getting any reports from that work?

Are organization leaders?

Serena Efficacy.

Unfortunately, couldn't join us today, but she actually is on the Salmon task force.

She's been involved in advocating for the Yukon River Fisheries with alongside her board.

They do have a pretty large group of folks from the coast will come in from the Arctic region as well as the Yukon.

So western Alaska is being represented in its entirety in the way that they have been looking at solutions for western Alaska.

Katie Howard also noted that understanding the full life cycle, as you'd mentioned, is critical for understanding all that could be challenging.

Salmon Starting with the first year fish, but looking at that entire cycle.

Let's hear from her again.

And so we're we're looking at the juveniles, but we're also using some of the information that we're getting from these big international surveys to pinpoint, okay, well, what's happening later in their marine life as well.

Are we seeing evidence of competition that's impacting these chunks?

I mean, are we seeing not enough food out there?

You know, what is the whole picture for these fish?

And looking at it from a gravel to gravel perspective, when you look at the entire lifecycle, where are those bottlenecks occurring that are really impacting how many fish return?

She says that, you know, in trying to kind of understand the complexity here, she noted that even different stocks of the same species don't do the same thing.

I'm sure that that really complicates research during a time of urgency for Alaskans who can't fish.

Holly, when you think about next steps and what they can be to help the stocks, what are some of those?

Well, I think we're going to have to get really adaptive with management, because I think we're going to see a period where we have very small fishable surpluses.

And so we're going to have to adapt as managers and as fishers to say, okay, if a 300 foot gillnet doesn't work anymore because of the incidental catch of Chinook, what are some other gears we can use?

What are some other methods that will allow a very small surplus of Chinook, let's say five or 6000 fish when they start to rebound?

How do we share that equitably across 44 villages?

And it is going to take all of us coming to the table and coming up with these solutions.

And Gabe, you talked about how the Bristol Bay folks had had sent some donated fish, but some families are also adapting to other species of fish.

Talk a little about that adaptation.

We do see a lot of Yukon River families fishing for whitefish, fish and pike.

Those species have also been experiencing some ups and downs throughout the years.

But we do find that there is adaptive management in having different types of fisheries open and relying on those.

One of the programs that we actually have within our organization, we do an annual summer survey program to see what potential things some of our Yukon River community fishermen are getting.

And there is some uptick in relying on those other fish.

And although they are appreciated, it doesn't really fill the space that salmon usually do.

That is the favorite of the Yukon River.

If you've ever had a Yukon River salmon before, you know what I'm talking about.

They are amazing.

One thing that you talked about was how the closures have kind of rippled out into other areas and you mentioned Tanana and how the closures have affected mushing families.

Talk a little about that.

Yeah, we've seen one of our former board members who was on the board for almost 30 years actually was a dog musher and his son was also a dog musher in Canada.

And Ken and I used to be a huge dog mushing community.

And so many people would have kennels out there and would use chum salmon to feed their dogs and the Chinook salmon to feed their families.

But with the chum salmon collapse, we've seen so many people have to give up their dog teams out in that area.

And when I visited there last with yard, there was only one person with a dog kennel out there left.

And when you would see like 200 to 300 dogs in every single community, it's quiet out there.

You can't hear and you don't hear the dogs barking and you don't hear the the smokehouse is running and you can't smell it in the village.

And you could feel it pretty much as soon as you get off the plane.

And it's really changed life out there.

Well, thank you both so much for being here this evening and for the work that you do on behalf of all Alaskans and especially families along the Yukon River to help them adapt to the changing way of life.

Alaskans who depend on subsistence are also dependent on state and federal managers decisions about when they can fish.

As we heard this evening, those decisions are just part of the picture of managing salmon stocks into the future climate change, predation by other species, and competition for food all challenge.

The returns of the future cooperation, science and adaptation must lead the way.

That's it for this edition of Alaska Insight.

Visit our website, Alaska Public dot org for breaking news and reports from our partner stations across the state.

While you're there, sign up for our free daily digest.

So you won't miss any of tonight's Alaska's top stories of the day.

Thanks for joining us this evening.

I'm Laurie Townsend.

Good night.