Stream Bank Restoration: Fairbanks Cost Share – Phase 4

From 2018 through 2020, staff received interest from 48 private landowners, Alaska State Parks, Fairbanks North Star Borough, an Alaska Native Corporation, and the city of Nenana along the Chena, Tanana, Salcha, Delta, and Nenana rivers. From those proposals, ADF&G helped fund or gave technical advice on 11 streambank vegetation and protection projects.

At five sites, structures detrimental to juvenile salmon were removed from the riparian area (including cinder blocks, riprap, rock, metal, and wood debris); at all 11 sites, streambanks were stabilized utilizing: brush layering (9 sites), trenched willows (3 sites), rootwads (3 sites), and spruce tree revetments (3 sites); at 2 sites, fencing was installed to protect riparian habitat; and at all 11 sites, riparian habitat was revegetated using native vegetated mat (9 sites), willows (1 site), alders (1 site), and fireweed (1 site).

This project will benefit salmon habitat directly by the removal of detrimental structures from streams and conservation and rehabilitation of riverbank, which together will help conserve and restore healthy salmon habitat and healthy salmon populations. It will also demonstrate to local residents, governmental agencies, and regulators the benefits of bio-engineered alternatives to the traditional use of riprap, concrete slabs, sheet pile, and wooden bulkheads for bank stabilization.