Capacity Building among Alaskan Tribal Entities: A New Approach to Fish Passage Restoration
Andrea James
Environmental Program Manager (Fish Passage)
Nay’dini’aa Na’ Kayax (Chickaloon Village Traditional Council)
Chickaloon, AK
Chickaloon Native Village is an Ahtna Dene Tribe located in Suton, Alaska, about a 90-minute drive from Anchorage along the Glenn Highway. Surrounded by snow-capped mountains, glaciers, and lush boreal forests, this Tribe has stewarded the region for the past 10,000 years. The Chickaloon Nave Village Environmental Stewardship Department aims to apply Traditional Knowledge and western science to promote the health of livings things and their environments within the Tribe’s Traditional Territory. Fish, and specifically salmon, are a crically important source of food and cultural well-being for Chickaloon Nave Village. Salmon resilience is dependent upon habitat availability, habitat quality, and habitat connectivity.
In 2023, Chickaloon Nave Village was awarded funding through the NOAA Habitat Restoraon Center’s Restoring Tribal Priority Fish Passage through Barrier Removal Program to develop a Chickaloon Nave Village Tribal Fish Passage Program. This program will increase Tribal capacity in the state of Alaska by providing free training opportunities to Tribal entities in fish passage and habitat restoration topics, including river forms and processes, culvert assessments, heavy equipment operation, GIS, and OSHA safety courses. Along with trainings, Chickaloon Native Village is hosting quarterly, virtual Tribal Fish Passage Working Group meetings as a resource for Tribal entities in Alaska to learn about fish passage-related trainings and fish passage funding opportunities, network with other Tribal entities, and help each other with resources and coordination. Finally, the NOAA-funded Chickaloon Nave Village Fish Passage Program will replace two barrier culverts on a culturally significant tributary of the Matanuska River, within the Tribe’s Traditional Territory. This presentation will give an overview of the NOAA-funded Chickaloon Native Village Fish Passage Program including recent successes and lessons learned.
About Andrea James
Andrea James is an Environmental Program Manager for Fish Passage at Chickaloon Village Traditional Council (Nay’dini’aa Na’Kayax). She is originally from Indiana where she received her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and Underwater Science from Indiana University. She received her Master of Science in Environmental Science at Florida Gulf Coast University, while also guiding dolphin eco-tours and teaching marine biology to students. During her time in graduate school, she was involved in oyster reef restoration and harmful algal bloom research. After graduate school, she moved to Idaho and worked as a Fisheries Biologist operating an automated salmon tagging trailer. She moved to Alaska in 2021 and has worked in commercial fisheries, harmful algae, salmon counts, and now stream restoration and fish passage. At Chickaloon Village Traditional Council, her responsibilities include managing a NOAA funded Tribal Fish Passage Program by organizing workshops and trainings to build Tribal capacity in stream restoration and fish passage within Alaska, planning meetings of an Alaskan Tribal Fish Passage Work Group, and working toward the replacement of impassable aquatic organism passages in the Traditional Tribal Territory of Chickaloon Native Village.
