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Ten years ago, I jumped into the Eklutna River and got swept away.
I’ve spent the past 10 years fixing up this badly broken river, driven by a vision of abundant salmon in my backyard. Together with many others, we took the first major step in 2017 by destroying the Lower Eklutna River Dam. That turned out to be the easy part. The difficult part was navigating the political whirlpool of water, power, and salmon.
The lifebuoy came from an unexpected direction. The Anchorage Council has repeatedly and vigorously supported the vision to restore the Eklutna River. Residents of southcentral Alaska expressed overwhelming support for river restoration. Indigenous groups, athletes, politicians, and prominent Alaska foundations are all supporting our efforts to put Humpty Dumpty back on the wall.
We now face a decision that will determine the fate of the Eklutna River for the next 35 years. Power companies are expected to finalize a plan later this month to reduce the impact of hydropower development on salmon. Alaskans are forced to choose between hope and abundance on the one hand and fear and deprivation on the other.
The story of Eklutna is the story of Alaska. In their rush to colonize the Last Frontier, early settlers acted boldly and sometimes carelessly. The young and growing city of Anchorage needed electricity in the 1920s, so it drew electricity from the Eklutna River. Salmon and Alaska Natives were everywhere. Who notices more or less?
How do we know when we’ve gone too far? When we start to lose what makes Alaska special?
Today, we newcomers are carving out the modern world from the Alaskan wilderness. Now, who can tell the difference between Wasilla and Walla Walla, Anchorage and Austin, or Fairbanks and Fresno? Just like everywhere else, there’s Krispy Kreme, Olive Garden, and his three-week-only Hamilton. We still have one thing that the rest of the world doesn’t have. It’s wild salmon.
Alaskans don’t often agree, but they do agree about salmon. We share the satisfaction of having a well-stocked internet, a well-stocked freezer, and a well-stocked grill. Salmon is a fundamental value to our bank accounts, bears and bald eagles.
There are signs we’re asking for too much salmon. The Yukon River is suffering from salmon. King salmon are in trouble across Alaska, especially in Upper Cook Inlet. Salmon calls can be heard from the Southeast and the Alaska Peninsula.
Now, let’s go back to Eklutna. The easy and cheap thing to do would be to shrug and let the salmon escape. Eating salmon is difficult, but civilization requires us to be creative. We have many more ways to generate and save electricity today than we did in 1920. It offers a range of tools, including micro-hydro, battery storage, solar and wind, high-efficiency heat pumps, networked power grids, and smart home energy monitors. Replaces the power generated by Eklutona. No more killing salmon just to turn on the lights.
One day I was walking along the Eklutna River, which runs under the Glen Highway. I will never forget the electric shock I felt when I saw a large brown bear fishing in the mud. I stood paralyzed between his four lanes of rush-hour traffic overhead and the 400 pounds of fur in front of me. Where else could this happen other than Alaska?
I jumped into the Eklutna River 10 years ago because I believed then, and still do, that Alaska can be both civilized and wild. You can see cars overhead and bears fishing below. In doing so, Alaska can serve as a model for other parts of the world.
We Alaskans run to the challenge. Anyone can do the easy things, but Alaskans try the difficult things. We imagine a better world and we work for it. Because we didn’t dam the river, we still have more salmon than anywhere else in the world. The Eklutna River was an exception, and the salmon paid the price. We need to learn from our mistakes, correct them, and avoid repeating them.
brad meiklejohn I am the senior representative of the Alaska Conservation Fund. He led efforts to remove the Lower Eklutna River dam.
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