2025 Alaska Department of Fish and Game Activities

Fish Passage Surveys

Technicians survey a perched culvert along the Elliot Highway in August, 2025.

The 2025 season brought great progress for the ADF&G restoration team. With the kickoff of our three-year Yukon drainage culvert survey project, our technicians were able to survey 142 culverts, with a focus on the Fairbanks area, Steese Highway, and the Elliot Highway out to Manley Hotsprings. Preliminary observations indicate that many of the culverts surveyed were likely not suitable for fish passage, though fish sightings near survey locations were infrequent.

In the 2026 season we hope to have our crew complete surveys on the Dalton Highway. We will hire two technicians based out of Fairbanks. Applications should open in the spring on Workplace Alaska. Fish Passage Program staff also continued to advise on ongoing culvert installation projects in Southcentral and Western Alaska.

Crews survey a large culvert under the Steese Highway in July 2025

Fairbanks Workshop

Fairbanks workshop attendees, July 2025. Photo curtesy of Tanana Valley Watershed Association

In July of 2025, the staff of the ADF&G Streambank Habitat Rehabilitation and Restoration Cost Share Program hosted a workshop in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Twenty-One participants attended and assisted with the rehabilitation of 56 feet of streambank along the Chena River. Participants learned about a wide variety of restoration techniques in the classroom and then were able to install coir logs, a brush layer, trenched willows, and vegetative mat during the hands-on portion of the class. The program additionally assisted with the rehabilitation of a 46-foot section of streambank in another spot on the Chena River by installing brush layers, cabled spruce trees, and transplanting a variety of native species to enhance the riparian buffer along the river.

The proposal period for 2026 projects is now closed. The proposals for 2027 projects will be accepted starting in April of 2026. Those interested in attending the 2026 restoration workshop in Fairbanks in July may email DFG.DSF.StreambankRehab@alaska.gov for more information. Program staff also continue to support projects in the Mat-Su and Kenai regions and will be hosting workshops in both areas in May.

Workshop attendees install a brush layer along the Chena River. Photo curtesy of Tanana Valley Watershed Association.
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