Cook Inletkeeper is preparing to launch a community effort to explore and implement solutions for local salmon habitat, starting with a meeting and discussion on Monday.
According to a release from Cook Inletkeeper, its “Local Solution” program is an effort “to meaningfully address the impacts of pollution and warming temperatures in the Cook Inlet watershed.”
On Monday, Feb. 10, at the organization’s Community Action Studio in Soldotna, the meeting will begin at 4:30 p.m. with a “community happy hour” before a 5:30 p.m. panel discussion of the issues facing salmon, a brainstorming session, and a vote to identify the best proposed solutions. Subsequent meetings will dive into those solutions, select one to focus on, and then work to implement that project within two years.
Previous solutions implemented by Cook Inletkeeper on the Kenai Peninsula include a community composting project that kept more than 60,000 pounds of food waste from Central Peninsula Landfill; “Solarize the Kenai,” which added new solar energy capacity to 142 local households; and “Project ReTree,” which planted more than 3,000 trees in areas impacted by the spruce beetle outbreak.
“Though changing air temperatures are being driven by global forces, local actions have a measurable impact on reducing polluting emissions, and community-level solutions have the biggest bang for the proverbial buck when it comes to taking action,” Cook Inletkeeper Regional Director Kaitlin Vadla says in the release.
Stream temperature monitoring conducted by the organization has found that Cook Inlet watershed temperatures often reach heights that can stress salmon at all of their life stages, the release says.
“Heat-trapping emissions are resulting in warmer salmon habitats and contributing to the decline in salmon populations, which are vital to the health of our Kenai Peninsula coastal communities,” Cook Inletkeeper Science Director Sue Mauger says in the release.
For more information, find “Cook Inletkeeper” on Facebook.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
