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Fisheries and Watershed Programs

Clean, cold water is vital to the fish of Southeast Alaska. The Fisheries and Watershed programs are an essential link in managing this resource on the Tongass National Forest. The Sitka Ranger District is dedicated to healthy watersheds and abundant fish populations.

The big ticket fish on the Sitka Ranger District are anadromous species such as coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), sockeye salmon (O. nerka), pink salmon (O. gorbuscha), chum salmon (O. keta) and steelhead trout (O. mykiss).

Anadromous species spawn in fresh water streams, the eggs hatch and the young spend anywhere from a few months to 3 years in fresh water. The fish then "smolt" and go out to the ocean to live and grow there for 2-4 more years before returning to freshwater streams to spawn and complete their life cycle.

Adult salmon typically die after spawning which provides nitrogen to the streams to help create food for the next generation of fish as well as aid in growth of plants, insects and other animals in the riparian area.

Many animals in Southeast Alaska feed on live and dead salmon that returned to streams to spawn. Eagles, brown bears, ravens and crows get thousands of pounds of food every year from Alaskan salmon. Commercial fisheries are the backbone of the economy in Sitka. The commercial fishing fleet in Sitka harvest thousands of tons of a variety of seafoods likes salmon, halibut, black cod, lingcod, crab, shrimp, herring, sea cucumbers and more. Fish processing industry in Sitka has been and continues to be a major component of Sitka’s economic base. In addition, many sport anglers come to Alaska every year to try and land a “big one.”

There are resident fish species such as rainbow trout (O. mykiss), cutthroat trout (O. clarkii) and Dolly Varden char (Salvelinus malma) in many streams. These fish may travel dozens of miles in the stream in any year but remain in freshwater their entire lives.

Just what is a watershed anyway? Webster’s dictionary defines a watershed as “the region or area drained by a river or stream.” Still kind of vague? Ok, try this—when rain hits the ground, it gets absorbed by vegetation (trees, shrubs, grass, etc), evaporates or flows downhill. If the water flows downhill, eventually it ends up in a small stream which flows into a larger stream and so on until it eventually flows into the ocean. There are over 1,900 miles of anadromous fish streams, over 1,800 miles of resident fish streams and over 3,100 miles of perennial and intermittent streams that flow fish-bearing streams on the Sitka Ranger District. That’s a lot of streams and fish to manage!

Anything that changes the landscape can modify a watershed and the streams within them. Natural events such as fire, wind and landslides can massively change the landscape and streams by changing the amount of sediment (dirt) or water that ends up in a system. Forest management activities such as logging and road building (or road maintenance) or outdoor activities such as recreation use of Off Highway Vehicles (OHVs) can also modify the landscape. This, in turn, can modify in beneficial or detrimental ways the habitat that plants, fish and other animals live in.

Hydrologists and fisheries biologists with the Forest Service study/analyze natural events and human activities to determine effects to water, streams and fish. We work together with other departments in the Forest Service and other government organizations such as the National Marine Fisheries Service, Army Corps of Engineers, US Fish and Wildlife Service and Alaska State Department of Natural Resources to ensure healthy watersheds that maintain robust populations of plants, animals and fish.

We conduct stream surveys, looking at parameters such as pool habitat, stream width to depth ratios, and amounts of large woody debris to determine relative health of watersheds. We also look at riparian habitat and vegetation which is the area adjacent to streams. These areas are very important to watershed health as they slow down flood waters when they overtop the stream banks, capture sediment and provide shade for streams as well as cover and food (insects) for fish.

We write Landscape Assessments and Watershed Analyses to analyze conditions of the environment of Sitka Ranger District and to identify opportunities to improve, restore or enhance habitat for plants and animals.