Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Scientists, Fish & Wildlife Commission ask Mat-Su Assembly to classify borough parcels as watershed lands to protect Deshka River cold-water refugia
Summary
A presenter summarized 20 years of temperature monitoring and mapping on the Deshka River, asked the assembly to direct staff to reclassify 13 borough parcels as watershed lands to help protect cold-water inflows that provide salmon refugia, and the assembly indicated support for sending the request to the planning department.
A scientist who led temperature monitoring and mapping work on streams across Cook Inlet told the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly on Aug. 5 that the Deshka River system contains extensive groundwater-fed cold-water refugia that are important for Chinook salmon and other fish. The presenter asked the assembly to direct the borough planning department to classify 13 borough-owned parcels as watershed lands to help preserve those inflows.
Presenter context and findings: Sue Mogher (former science director and keeper at a local research organization) told the assembly she and partners have recorded long-term stream-temperature trends across the Mat-Su Basin and used aerial thermal mapping and ground-truthing to locate more than 250 groundwater inflows in the Deshka mainstem. She said…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
