The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is awarding more than $1.3 million to federally-recognized Tribes in Alaska to benefit fish and wildlife resources and their habitats. Recipients include:
Native Village of Brevig Mission
Watershed Assessment & Long-term Subsistence Habitat Protection for Hot Springs, Glacier Canyon, and Graphite Creeks in Alaska’s Seward Peninsula
The goal of this project is to provide long-term protection of the Native Village of Bervig Mission’s and other Imuruk Basin Native Villages’ culture and subsistence fish and wildlife resources and their habitat which are impacted by potential mining activities and exacerbated by more frequent extreme weather events within the Imuruk Basin Watershed and Norton Bay.
Chilkat Indian Village
Mapping Critical Salmon Habitats and Populations of the Chilkat Watershed
This project will create the first detailed map of strontium isotope variation across the watershed's rivers, providing a new tool for tracking fish populations and critical habitats in the Chilkat River watershed.
Chilkoot Indian Association
Utilizing Environmental DNA (eDNA) to Monitor Tribally Important Fisheries Populations withinDeishú, Alaska
The Chilkoot Indian Association will build Tribal capacity to monitor Tribally-important fish and wildlife populations using eDNA through the establishment of an Environmental Lab in Deishú, Alaska (present-day Haines, Alaska).
Chickaloon Native Village
Chickaloon Native Village Historical and Contemporary Salmon Research Project
This project will describe the run timing, enumeration, and species composition of adult Alaska salmon in Moose Creek, quantify juvenile salmon abundance in Premier Creek prior to restoration work, perform a fish health survey on Moose Creek, document and non-lethally sample genetic tissue from salmon in water bodies around the traditional homelands of the Chickaloon people to contribute to the Alaska Anadromous Waters Catalog and Genetic Baseline Collection, quantify marine-derived nitrogen and historical salmon DNA at culturally relevant fishing locations, and build program capacity for additional fisheries projects in the future.
Native Village of Eklutna
Eklutna River salmon population monitoring and fish weir project plan development
The Native Village of Eklutna will continue to monitor salmon population trends and habitat use by juvenile and adult salmon within the Eklutna River, continue the collection of genetic samples of salmon to help assess population viability, develop a fish counting weir project plan for future implementation, and present findings to management agencies and other partners to facilitate sound management decisions and ensure timely actions are taken.
Hoonah Indian Association
Video Monitoring of Sockeye Salmon in Hoktaheen Watershed
The Hoonah Indian Association aims to fill significant data gaps by installing and operating a fish weir with a video monitoring system to begin building complete and accurate records of Sockeye and other important fish species in the Hoktaheen system. Additionally, this project will begin year-round monitoring of water quality and temperatures in the main creek and lakes to further build a better understanding of the watershed and identify concerns and potential future restoration or enhancement projects in the area to increase resiliency to climate change climate change
Climate change includes both global warming driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns. Though there have been previous periods of climatic change, since the mid-20th century humans have had an unprecedented impact on Earth's climate system and caused change on a global scale.
Learn more about climate change and ensure food security for the people who use this system for up to 80% of their subsistence salmon needs.
Sitka Tribe of Alaska
Artificial Intelligence for Subsistence Salmon Monitoring and Management
The Sitka Tribe of Alaska will partner with Wild Salmon Center and the US Forest Service to install artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled video chutes to produce automated real-time counts of Redoubt Lake sockeye salmon for a fraction of the cost of traditional weirs. Sitka Tribe of Alaska and US Forest Service staff will use a web app to review video clips and train a deep learning model to accurately identify and count Redoubt salmon. Once the model meets accuracy targets, it will substantially reduce long-term monitoring costs and be able to generate accurate in-season salmon counts in real-time with minimal human input.
Sun’aq Tribe of Kodiak
Population evaluation of migratory emperor geese and Aleutian terns on the Kodiak Island Roaded Area, Alaska
This project will directly aid in conservation of migratory emperor geese and Aleutian terns (critically important subsistence species) within the Kodiak Island Roaded Area through collection of necessary population-level abundance and health data and will inform future harvest management decisions and conservation strategies, including habitat protection. Important staging areas for both species will be documented and used to develop the “Kodiak Island Roaded Area emperor goose and Aleutian tern status report and habitat conservation strategies” which will identify areas in need of greater protection. Investigation of anthropogenic contaminants (heavy metals), infectious disease (highly pathogenic avian influenza), and naturally occurring environmental toxins (associated with harmful algal blooms) will also be investigated and documented.
Tribal Wildlife Grants
The Tribal Wildlife Grants Program helps fulfill federal trust responsibilities and achieve Tribal sovereignty by expanding Tribes’ natural resource capacity. Since its inception in 2003, including this year’s grants, the competitive Tribal Wildlife Grants Program has awarded more than $124.5 million to Native American and Alaska Native Tribes, providing support for 697 conservation projects.
Tribal Wildlife Grants help Tribes develop increased management capacity, improve and enhance relationships with conservation state partners, address cultural and environmental priorities, and help train the next generation of conservationists by engaging Tribal students interested in fisheries, wildlife and related fields of study. Some grants have been awarded to support recovery efforts for federally listed threatened and endangered species.
The grants are provided exclusively to federally recognized Native American and Alaska Native Tribal governments and are made possible under the Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2002 through the State and Tribal Wildlife Grants program. To learn more about the grant program and application process, please visit: https://www.fws.gov/service/tribal-wildlife-grants.
For additional information about the Service’s Native American Programs, visit: https://www.fws.gov/program/native-american.
Learn more about the Office of Conservation Investment
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service works with others to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. For more information, visit www.fws.gov and connect with us on social media:
Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly known as Twitter), LinkedIn, Flickr, and YouTube.
