Funding Frozen for Weir Project Critical to Alaska’s Copper River Salmon Fishery
A collaborative project to replace a weir critical to the Copper River salmon fishery in Alaska is in jeopardy after the Trump administration froze millions of dollars in funding, including $3.5 million in construction funds for the weir project.
The Copper River Watershed Project (CRWP) in Cordova, Alaska, had been working for over five years to replace the failing weir in Eyak Lake, a barrier built to control water flow, which had been in place for years.
They had worked with their project partner, The Eyak Corp. in Cordova, to finalize an agreement with the Federal Highway Administration, including $3.5 million for construction, which is a significant chunk of the overall construction cost.
Bids on the project came in just days after the Trump administration announced a funding freeze, Kate Morse, executive director of CWRP, said. While negotiations with the FHA had been ongoing for over 14 months, the federal agency had not yet signed on to the deal, putting the construction phase of the project in jeopardy, she said Feb. 12.
Primary goals of the weir project include better passage for juvenile salmon between Eyak Lake and the river at all flows of water, while maintaining current water levels to protect important nearshore spawning sites for salmon, particularly sockeye salmon, and maintaining current property lines along the lake shore.
The value of the Copper River salmon fishery varies from year to year but is in the millions of dollars. The fishery supports hundreds of jobs in commercial fishing, seafood processing and tourism.
Eyak Lake offers habitat for 10 fish species critical to the economy of Cordova, which is home to many commercial, sport and subsistence fish harvesters.
The weir was installed in the wake of the 1964 Good Friday earthquake in order to maintain lake levels and keep the nearshore sockeye salmon habitat underwater. Now, over 50 years later, the weir is failing.
Complete failure, according to CRWP, would result in most of the lake draining, exposing spawning beds, reducing lake habitat for aquatic organisms and eliminating our emergency drinking water source.
Morse said if the funding freeze continues it would also cause more financial problems for 15 of 23 other grants still frozen and inaccessible for CRWP to draw down.
The budget and staff structure of the non-profit is based on significant funds from the federal government, largely because their federal partners have seen CRWP as an effective entity to get work done, she said.
“We grew our staff to meet that demand and now are wondering how long we can maintain our staff,” she said. “The fact that our existing awards have been stalled … is overwhelming and something I never thought was at risk. I never imagined our existing awards would freeze.”
