This year’s Mat-Su Salmon Science and Conservation Symposium was another great success! Thanks to all who presented, volunteered, attended and supported this annual two day event. Symposium presentations, an audio recording of Langdon Cook’s keynote address, and the symposium booklet with agenda are posted below.
This year we also celebrated the bounty of this great land with a Wild and Local Foods Dinner at Turkey Red accompanied by Book Reading & Signing by Langdon Cook. What a treasure! Thank you to our special guest Langdon Cook, our hosts at Turkey Red, and everyone who joined us for this magical evening!
Special thanks to our keynote speaker and this year’s sponsors, listed below.
Our keynote speaker was Langdon Cook, who is a writer, instructor, and lecturer on wild foods and the outdoors. He is the author of Upstream: Searching for Wild Salmon, from River to Table, selected by Amazon.com as one of the “Best Books of 2017,” nominated for a Washington State Book Award, and called “invigorating” and “a celebration” by The Wall Street Journal. His previous book, The Mushroom Hunters: On the Trail of an Underground America, won a 2014 Pacific Northwest Book Award. Cook’s writing appears in numerous publications and has been nominated for a James Beard Award (2016) and a Pushcart Prize. His on-screen credits include the Travel Channel and PBS. A graduate of Middlebury College in Vermont (BA) and the University of Washington (MFA), Cook lives in Seattle with his wife and two children.
2018 Symposium Flyer, Evening Event Flyer
2018 Agenda, 2018 Symposium Booklet
Keynote Address – Cook, Langdon: Living on the Wild Side: Sustaining Our Age-Old Bond with Pacific Salmon Listen to the audio recording here.
Presentations: Wednesday, November 14th 2018 (Click on titles below for access to presentation slides)
Managing Our Watersheds for Thriving Salmon
- Templin, Bill; Jones, Ed and Hasbrouck, Jim: State of the Kings: Update on the Statewide Chinook Salmon Research Initiative
- Aho, Kelsey: Assessing Watershed Integrity in the Matanuska-Susitna Basin
- Gracz, Michael: Wetland Loss Assessment by Type and Watershed in an Expanded Core Area of the Matanuska Susitna Borough
- Inman, Catherine: Remediating Stormwater Runoff: A Local Solution
Implementing Habitat Conservation
- Kugel, Libby: Great Land Trust Overview of Projects in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough
- O’Doherty, Gillian: Fish Passage in the Mat-Su Borough: Progress and Goals
- Sollien, Kim: Mat-Su Trails and Parks Foundation and Salmon Habitat
Invasive Northern Pike: Updates and Impacts
- McKinley, Tim: Impacts of Invasive Northern Pike in the Susitna Drainage
- Wizik, Andrew: Shell Lake Project Update on Invasive Northern Pike
- Jablonski, Jillian: Invasion of Northern Pike in the Threemile Creek Drainage: Background and Updates from Tyonek Tribal Conservation District
Presentations: Thursday, November 15th, 2018 (Click on titles below for access to presentation slides)
Data and Updates: Genetics, Fish Passage, Elodea and Statewide Synthesis
- Barclay, Andrew: A New Chinook Salmon Genetic Baseline for Cook Inlet: Opening Doors to New Analyses
- Engel, Larry; Delo, Howard and Couch, Andy: The Mat-Su Fish and Wildlife Commission: Past, Present, and Future
- Krupa, Meagan: State of Alaska’s Salmon and People: SASAP
- Coleman, Dan: Aquatic Infestation in the Mat-Su: An Elodea Update
Cincotta, Christy: Mat-Su Salmon Partnership Strategic Focus: Update and Feedback
Using Temperature and Flow Information to Understand Freshwater Productivity: Part 1
- Rinella, Daniel: How Can Stream Temperature and Flow Affect the Productivity of Alaskan Salmon Populations?
- Mauger, Sue: On the Hunt for Thermal Diversity in the Deshka River Watershed
- Dekker, Franklin: Discovering Downriver Discharge in the Deshka Watershed for Habitat Modeling and Protection
- Campbell, Johnathon: Summary of Deshka River Salmon Assessment Projects Conducted by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, 1974 – Present
Applying Freshwater Productivity Information into Management Decision-Making: Part 2
- Jones, Leslie: Bridging the Gap: Creating Proactive Conservation and Management Tools
- Varner, Matt: Using BLM’s National Aquatic Monitoring Framework to Better Understand the Current and Future Physical, Chemical, and Biological Characteristics of Streams in the Mat-Su
- Ivey, Sam: Management of Salmon Sport Fisheries in the Mat-Su Area
- DeCovich, Nicholas: Susitna River Chinook Salmon Run Reconstruction
A huge Thank You to the many who funded, planned, volunteered and participated in any way to make the 11th annual symposium a success. We hope to see you next year!
Thank you to our 2018 Symposium Sponsors!
