Kvichak Watershed Habitat Conservation – Phase 2

In 2023 and 2024, this project acquired and conserved two properties containing 1,696.97 acres of habitat important to Pacific salmon, including over 20 miles of streambank. For the first acquisition, this project acquired and conserved 11.17 acres on the Anchor River on the Kenai Peninsula, securing habitat for Pacific salmon and protecting a groundwater discharge spring that helps to sustain juvenile salmon during extreme weather events. For the second acquisition, this project conserved 1,685.80 acres along the Nome River in Nome, securing both sides of the streambank on a 10-mile stretch of the Nome River important to Pacific salmon, subsistence, and recreation.

This project will provide long-term habitat protection through fee and/or conservation easement acquisitions of approximately 450 acres or more of priority salmon habitat in the Kvichak watershed. These conservation acquisitions will benefit subsistence salmon resources and access for subsistence use, effectively restricting development that is incompatible with the conservation values of the property and maintaining self-sustaining natural ecosystem functions and processes for the benefit of salmon, subsistence use, and subsistence access.