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Boreal Forest Education

Tapping Into Spring
place-based education

Community-assisted Research

Forest Use Survey
resource economics study
Shaw Creek
baseline environmental study

FY04/FY05 Project Overview

The Shaw Creek watershed has important fish, timber, mining, and recreational resources. Its sustainable development requires the understanding of hydrologic processes. The Alaska Boreal Forest Council, with its partners, established four automated hydrologic data-collection stations in the watershed over the past several years. This year we will continue our citizen-based water-quality data collection and continuous hydrologic baseline monitoring. Additionally, we will evaluate the results and characterize critical hydrologic processes and their effects on road-building and current development projects.

The Current Situation

Shaw Creek watershed, located along the Tanana River between the Delta and Little Delta Rivers, is recognized as important fish spawning and rearing habitat, contains valuable timber and mining resources, wildlife habitat, and recreational areas (ADNR 2000; Ridder 1989; Ridder 1994; Barton 1992). Sustainable management of these resources requires knowledge of the hydrologic cycle, since water is the driving force behind watershed processes such as sediment transport, nutrient dynamics, and biological activity.

A watershed assessment, providing a comprehensive overview of conditions and trends that define baseline status, is an initial element needed to effectively manage watershed resources (USEPA 2001). The basic steps in a watershed assessment involve baseline data collection, interpretation, and reporting of results and recommendations (Watershed Professionals Network 1999; USEPA, 2001).

ABFC's goal is to gather baseline data to aid in the hydrologic assessment of Shaw Creek Watershed and neighboring spring-fed streams in the Tanana Basin.

Understanding hydrologic processes requires years of data collection and analysis. ABFC will continue to collect the baseline environmental and hydrologic data needed to address development concerns. For example, understanding overflow ice processes is important in design of access roads, river crossings and bridges to be used for future mining, forest, and other watershed development activities.

Shaw Creek is an extension of 2001's Upwelling Study and 2002/2003's Shaw Creek Project.

Project Funding

State of Alaska, Department of Environmental Conservation: Alaska Clean Water Actions Grant

Matching funds provided by ABFC and its partners.

Project Partners

Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation

Alaska Department of Fish & Game, Division of Sport Fish

Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry

Alaska Dept. of Natural Resources, Office of Habitat Management & Permitting

Community Volunteers

GW Scientific, Inc.

University of Alaska Fairbanks, School of Fisheries & Ocean Sciences

Whitestone Farm (Delta Junction, AK)