This project will utilize NFHP funding to support engineering designs for 2 culverts that currently restrict fish passage for Coastal cutthroat trout, Dolly Varden Char, Coho Salmon, and Pink Salmon on Graveyard Creek, located on Annette Islands Reserve. This is the only Native American reservation in the State of Alaska and is home to the village of Metlakatla and the Metlakatla Indian Community (MIC) who rely on local salmon stocks for their robust commercial fishing industry and for subsistence harvest. This project will produce shovel ready engineers designs that will be used to leverage future Infrastructure BIL funding for implementation. Additionally, this project helps set the stage for building local technical expertise and capacity to address fish passage needs across Annette Island through a new partnership between the MIC, Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition (SAWC), and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).

Human Interest/Community Benefit:
The Metlakatla Indian Community (MIC) relies heavily on culturally-significant subsistence fish resources. The primary industry available to MIC is commercial fishing, and as a result, the majority of families rely on income from fishing to support themselves financially. MIC Department of Fish and Wildlife (MIC-DFW) operates the largest tribally-managed fishery in the United States. MIC manages commercial fisheries for salmon, halibut, sea cucumber, geoduck, and herring. The commercial salmon fisheries around Annette Islands Reserve are some of the most valuable in Southeast Alaska and preserving and restoring in-stream habitat is a priority to maintaining these fish stocks. Tribal residents of Annette Island also rely heavily on aquatic subsistence resources for sustaining their families as well as supporting their important cultural practices.

This project will help address two culverts that currently pose fish passage barriers to resident and anadromous fishes on Graveyard Creek. The existing culverts are undersized, ageing, and pose velocity and leap barriers at certain flows. The existing culverts are also at risk of failure during future flood events due to being undersized relative to increasing stream flows. Rivers supporting Pacific Salmon in Southeast Alaska are predicted to experience warmer, wetter conditions that will result in increased mean annual flood sizes of up to 28% by the late-21st century (Sloat and Reeves 2016). Increased flood intensity is anticipated to continue and result in a net loss of spawning habitat, reduce survivorship and incubation of juvenile salmon, and pose failure risk to undersized and ageing infrastructure.

This project will secure shovel ready engineers designs for these culverts and are already leveraging future funding for MIC to implement the removal and replacement of these structures with fully passable culverts that meet current fish passage standards. Restoring passage at these sites will reopen a total of 1.4 miles of upstream habitat and allow bidirectional access as needed for spawning, overwintering, and accessing feeding habitat, thermal refugia for resident and anadromous fishes securing future fishing opportunities for the residents of Annette Island.

Project Timeline:
Summer 2023: Cooperative agreement formed between MIC, SAWC and USFWS
Fall 2023: Watershed Plan for Annette Islands Reserve will be completed, contractors hired to begin culvert replacement designs for two sites on Graveyard Creek and future funding secured for implementation of culvert replacements (*currently funding has been secured from USFWS BIL fish passage funding and Federal Highway BIL fish passage funding sources).

Summer 2024: Replacement designs complete; implementation efforts will begin pending construction award processes.

Partners:
Metlakatla Indian Community
Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition
US Fish and Wildlife Service