Research & Project Partners
KRITFC relies on the support and collaboration of numerous partners to successfully fund, implement, and assess our fisheries monitoring and assessment projects. We are glad to work closely with the following entities who operate throughout the Kuskokwim drainage basin, State of Alaska, and elsewhere in the country.
ADF&G manages the Kuskokwim River in state waters, from Aniak to Telida. KRITFC has a partnership with ADF&G at the Takotna River weir to collect upper river king and chum salmon data. Before the 2021 season, ADF&G and KRITFC entered into an agreement for KRITFC and its tribal partners to use the weir and equipment at the Takotna River.
In response to salmon declines, Bering Sea Fishermen’s Association and regional Native organizations (Association of Village Council Presidents, Kawerak, Inc., and Tanana Chiefs Conference) joined with state and federal agencies to create the AYK SSI, a proactive science-based program working cooperatively to identify and address the critical salmon research needs facing this region. AYK SSI provides funding and technical support to many KRITFC salmon monitoring projects.
KRITFC works with BFSA to collect fish harvest data through the Community-Based Harvest Monitoring (CBHM) program. The program, run by LaMont Albertson and Orrie Reich, is designed to collect harvest and effort data through subsistence users and fish information from traditional Elder knowledge directly after subsistence harvest opportunities. Information from the CBHM Program is collected by tribal members themselves in the communities of Akiak, Kwethluk, Bethel, Napaskiak, Napakiak, and Tuntutuliak, and this data goes directly to fisheries managers from KRITFC and USFWS to inform their management decisions.
Additionally, KRITFC partners with BSFA to operate the Takotna River weir, which provides the only long-term run data for headwaters Chinook and chum salmon.
Both Karen Gillis, executive director of BSFA, and Joe Spaeder, PhD, fisheries consultant to KRITFC and research coordinator at BSFA, collaborate with KRITFC to implement the CBHM program and the Takotna River weir with KRITFC.
Nikolai is one of the 33 federally recognized tribes represented by KRITFC and is located in the upper Kuskokwim River region. The village of Nikolai partners with KRITFC to install and operate the Takotna River weir.
Kwethluk is one of the 33 federally recognized tribes represented by KRITFC and is located in the lower Kuskokwim River region. Each year, OVK partners with KRITFC and USFWS to install and operate the Kwethluk River weir. Locally hired technicians at this weir monitor Chinook salmon abundance on the second most productive Kuskokwim tributary.
ONC is one of the 33 federally recognized tribes represented by KRITFC and is located in the lower Kuskokwim River region. ONC’s Natural Resources Department works closely with the ONC Board, ADF&G, USFWS and KRITFC on managing and researching fish and game resources. ONC provides services as a central clearinghouse on resource questions within the Bethel area as well as Bethel-area harvest data for the CBHM program.
The upper Kuskokwim village of Takotna is located 2 miles downstream of the Takotna River weir. Each year, several Takotna tribal members are recruited and hired as weir technicians who install, operate, and dismantle the weir. At the weir, these technicians count Chinook and chum salmon passage, estimate Chinook salmon ages and sexes, and collect environmental data like air and water temperature and precipitation levels.
University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) – International Arctic Research Center (IARC) & College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences (CFOS)
In 2022, KRITFC began partnering with researchers at UAF’s IARC and CFOS labs to collect environmental DNA (eDNA) at our weir sites to complement salmon counts. IARC was founded in 1999 at UAF through an agreement between Japan and the United States “to demonstrate our ability to solve, jointly, problems that are beyond what any one nation can address,” specifically regarding climate change. Research at CFOS “addresses pressing issues in aquatic ecosystems from the Arctic to Antarctica.”
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) - office of subsistence management (OSM)
Housed within USFWS, OSM provides administrative support to the Federal Subsistence Board and Federal Subsistence Regional Advisory Councils. KRITFC has funded the Kwethluk River weir thorugh OSM’s Fisheries Resource Monitoring Program.
YDNWR is headquartered in Bethel. In the Kuskokwim watershed, YDNWR extends from the river mouth up to Aniak. USFWS employees at YDNWR co-manage Kuskokwim salmon fisheries with KRITFC under our 2016 MOU. In addition to in-season management, USFWS-YDNWR partners with KRITFC on a number of fishery research projects, including operation of the Kwethluk River weir and providing aerial boat count information for the CBHM program.
USGS seeks to monitor, analyze, and predict changes in lands, waters, and ecosystems. USGS coordinates and helps fund KRITFC’s heat stress monitoring projects in king salmon.
BECOME A PARTNER
If you would like to partner with us, please get in touch with us at info@kritfc.org.