Our Impact News & Insights Op-ed: The Eklutna River and its Salmon Deserve To Be Free
July 17, 2023

Op-ed: The Eklutna River and its Salmon Deserve To Be Free

Alaska’s Eklutna River was once teeming with salmon able to swim freely from the sea to their spawning grounds in Eklutna Lake. A century of poorly planned dams and diversions have left it devoid of water and fish.

Brad Meiklejohn
Senior Field Representative

Brad Meiklejohn is a Senior Representative for Alaska at The Conservation Fund, where he has worked to protect the Alaskan wilderness for the past quarter century. Brad managed the dam removal project on the Eklutna River in Southcentral Alaska from conception to its final deconstruction, and he describes this project as the highwater mark of his 30-year conservation career.

“
"The only chance most of us will see in our lifetimes to repair the Eklutna River is right now. As mandated by law, the power companies must atone for drying up the Eklutna River. But the utilities are backing a plan that will leave a dry riverbed for the next 35 years.... We no longer need to degrade the climate and decimate salmon just to turn the lights on." ”
- Brad Meiklejohn

Since the dam’s removal in 2018, Brad has worked diligently alongside many others to propel this project past the next hurdle, which this time isn’t a physical blockage but instead the resistance of power companies to restore water flow to the Eklutna River.

Advocates for restoration efforts, like Brad Meiklejohn, are still battling to restore natural ecosystems in the area.

OPINION: By fixing the Eklutna River, we can restore a salmon stream in our backyard

Read Brad’s opinion piece in The Anchorage Daily News  urging support for restoration efforts.

Read more

The Alaska Federation of Natives — the largest Native organization in Alaska — endorsed the restoration of the Eklutna River in March of 2021 to support the recovery of Pacific salmon and benefit Dena’ina Athabaskans from the Native Village of Eklutna. After a three-year removal period, and for the first time in 89 years, five species of Pacific salmon in the Eklutna River can once again move upstream, providing the rich subsistence resource on which the Eklutna Dena’ina people have traditionally relied. Dive into our Alaska project page here to learn more.

Photo credits (from top of page): Image courtesy of Eklutna Inc.

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