Sterling teen awarded Youth Salmon Fellowship

Eve Downing, a 16-year-old from Sterling, has been chosen as an Alaska Youth for Environmental Action Youth Salmon Fellow, an extension of the Alaska Center Education Fund program.

The Youth Salmon Fellowship grew out of a campaign from 2016 called Save Our Salmon, where members of Alaska Youth for Environmental Action worked on salmon-related issues.

“The fellowship is a youth-founded and youth-driven program,” Tasha Elizarde, the supervisor of the Youth Salmon Fellowship program, said. “Our fellows developed their own work plan and are engaging in projects that promote their individual passion for salmon.”

Downing, along with four other fellows, receives a basic stipend for their work on promoting updates to fish habitat laws while working directly with the Stand for Salmon campaign.

Downing said she applied because it was a cause she thinks will impact all Alaskans.

“I see how deeply salmon affects people in my life,” Downing said. “Every single person in Alaska can find a way that salmon affects them.”

In its inaugural year, the Youth Salmon Fellowship gives Alaskan teens an opportunity to work with organizations across the state in advocating for protections on salmon habitats. The four other fellows are from Utqiagvik, Palmer, Shishmaref and Dillingham.

“This is a way for teens who are interested in this issue to work on it,” Meghan Cavanaugh, Field and Political Director at the Alaska Center, said.

The application process for the fellows required them to answer essay questions regarding salmon’s importance to them and how they can contribute as a fellow. Finalists went through an interview process.

Funding for the program comes from Alaska Youth for Environmental Action, a 20-year-old program that is part of the Alaska Center Education Fund and seeks to empower young Alaskans to work on their choice of environmental issues.

Downing’s position will last for the duration of the summer. She will work in conjunction with Cook Inlet Keeper when canvassing for Stand for Salmon, and then independently on her own salmon-related project.

More in News

Seward City Clerk Kris Peck, right, administers an oath of office to Seward City Council newcomer Casie Warner during a council meeting in Seward, Alaska, on Oct. 28, 2024. (Screenshot courtesy City of Seward)
Seward City Council swears in winners of October municipal election

They were sworn in two weeks after the council certified its election results

Duane Bannock speaks to the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly in Soldotna, Alaska, on Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Borough’s tourism industry working group takes shape

The group will explore the effects of a potential bed tax

Assembly Member Peter Ribbens speaks during a meeting of the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly in Soldotna, Alaska, on Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Ribbens, Cooper named new heads of borough assembly

The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly reorganized during their Oct. 22 meeting

A special weather statement for the western Kenai Peninsula was issued Monday by the National Weather Service. The area will see strong gusty winds and rain late tonight and through Tuesday morning. A winter storm warning remains in effect from 3 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday for areas of the eastern peninsula. (Image via weather.gov)
Windy weather heads for western Kenai Peninsula

The western Kenai Peninsula will experience some windy and wet conditions Tuesday and Wednesday.

Lisa Gabriel, left, watches as beach seine nets are pulled from the waters of Cook Inlet at a test site for the gear near Kenai, Alaska, on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Board of Fish to consider set beach seines for east side setnet fishery

Seines were tested on local beaches this summer in effort helmed by Lisa and Brian Gabriel

Sockeye salmon are gathered together at a test site for selective harvest setnet gear in Kenai, Alaska, on Tuesday, July 25, 2023. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Board of Fish to consider expansion of commercial dipnetting fishery

Discussion of expanded time, days and season of commercial dipnet fishery scheduled for March

The Alaska Board of Fisheries hears public testimony at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex in Soldotna, Alaska, on Feb. 18, 1999. (M. Scott Moon/Peninsula Clarion file)
Board of Fisheries again declines to hold Upper Cook Inlet meeting on Kenai Peninsula

The State Board of Fisheries this week rejected calls from the Kenai… Continue reading

U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski takes a selfie with Rose Burke at the Kenai Municipal Airport in Kenai, Alaska, on Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. Burke won the 2024 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree essay contest and will travel to Washington, D.C., in December to light the tree. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Connections student to light U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree

Rose Burke, 9, won the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree essay contest and will travel to Washington D.C.

Most Read