Alaska Creek Impacted by Historic Mining Restored to Support Salmon and Local Communities

An excavator digs a new stream channel while a dump truck unloads stones to recreate the stream bed on Resurrection Creek. Credit: Molly Feltner/NOAA

Just outside the small town of Hope, Alaska, on the Kenai Peninsula, a salmon stream scarred by more than a century of gold mining is coming back to life. This large-scale river restoration project was funded by NOAA Fisheries' Office of Habitat Conservation. The aptly named Resurrection Creek once again offers spawning and rearing habitat for all five species of Pacific salmon-Chinook, coho, pink, chum, and sockeye.

Through the combined efforts of our partners, restoration crews are reshaping the creek's channel, rebuilding gravel beds, and reconnecting the stream to its natural floodplain. These changes are already boosting salmon populations in an area where recreational salmon fishing supports both culture and the economy. The project also reduces flood risks in Hope and provides local workers with jobs.

NOAA's Office of Habitat Conservation awarded the National Forest Foundation$3.9 million for this project. Additional major project partners include:

• Trout Unlimited
• U.S. Forest Service
• Kinross Gold Corporation
• Hope Mining Company
• Alaska Department of Fish and Game

A restored side stream channel on Resurrection Creek. Credit: Molly Feltner/NOAA

A Creek Transformed

On a sunny May morning, a recently restored section of Resurrection Creek sparkles as a heavy spring flow splits into a braided stream channel. At the creek's edge, deep, slow-moving pools with human-made log jams create safe places for juvenile salmon to grow and feed before they head out to sea.

Further downstream, it's a different story. The creek roars like a freight train through a narrow, artificially straightened channel. Heaping piles of stones-tailings leftover from gold mining-line the creek, preventing it from spreading out on its natural floodplain. Without gravel beds or channel complexity, salmon have nowhere to spawn or stay during the winter.

But things are changing quickly. A heavy equipment operator trained in restoration techniques works adjacent to the creek, excavating a new meandering stream channel. A dump truck rumbles up and tips out its load of stones and gravel, material that will help rebuild a more natural stream bottom. By August, when the salmon migration peaks, this reconstructed reach should be ready to welcome them.

Stream reach damaged by gold mining awaits restoration. Credit: Molly Feltner/NOAA

Building on Success

This current restoration effort is the second phase of a project started 20 years ago. In the mid-2000s, the U.S. Forest Service led a successful restoration of 1 mile of Resurrection Creek upstream from the current project site. That work brought salmon back to spawn in increasing numbers.

"The first phase was very successful," said Aaron Prussian, habitat restoration director for Trout Unlimited's Alaska Program. "We saw a six-fold increase in Chinook salmon use in the restored reach and thousands of pink salmon."

Phase II builds on that success. The project is:

• Restoring 2.3 miles of stream and 74 acres of floodplain habitat
• Constructing 8,500 feet of side channels
• Building log jams with more than 1,000 large trees
• Creating gravel beds and pools tailored to the needs of multiple salmon species
• Transplanting 21,000 willow trees from other parts of Alaska along the creek

The trees will stabilize the shoreline and provide shade to cool-water-loving salmon.

These features are especially important for coho and Chinook salmon, which don't migrate to the ocean immediately after hatching. Instead, they spend 1 to 3 years in freshwater. Pools and slow-moving side channels give them places to rest, feed, and survive Alaska's harsh winters.

In July, Annie Eggert, Chugach program coordinator for the National Forest Foundation, witnessed Chinook making their way through the project site. "It's pretty rewarding to see," says Eggert. "It shows that what we do works."

Resurrection Creek's revitalization helps an entire web of life. Bald eagles, bears, moose, and even plants and trees depend on the fish and the marine-derived nutrients they deposit in the creek when they decompose. The salmon runs returning to Resurrection Creek feed into Cook Inlet, home to the endangered Cook Inlet beluga whale, a NOAA Species in the Spotlight. Increasing salmon abundance may help address one of the species' key roadblocks to recovery: insufficient prey.

A pink salmon migrates up Resurrection Creek. Credit: Adobe Stock

A Boost for the Community

The Resurrection Creek project's benefits go beyond salmon and wildlife. It will make the town of Hope safer while also supporting its fishing culture and the livelihoods of its residents.

The town lies just 1.5 miles downstream from the restoration site, and the creek poses a flood risk during heavy storms. Reconnecting the creek to its floodplain, where peak flows can spread out, reduces the risk of flooding to nearby homes and businesses.

The project also provides a major economic boost to the region by creating multi-year employment opportunities. About $6 million of the project funds is going to local heavy equipment operators, construction workers, youth crews doing hand tool restoration, and other workers. That money flows into the local community where the workers reside during the summer months.

"It's a blessing to have this work, to employ guys down there because they have families they are supporting," Paul Light, owner of Western Construction, told Trout Unlimited staff. About 20 Western Construction crew members, in addition to workers from other companies, will be on the project site this year. "It's also a blessing to restore that creek that will benefit generations to come."

"Resurrection Creek is important to a lot of people in Southcentral Alaska because it's a great place to catch salmon recreationally," says Austin Williams, director of federal relations for Trout Unlimited. "Some of my kids' first salmon were caught here."

"This restoration will create more areas for people to fish, especially during the popular pink and coho salmon runs," says NOAA Fish Biologist Erika Ammann. "By spreading out access and making the banks safer and more stable, it will reduce pressure on any one spot and lessen damage to the habitat."

Abandoned gold mining equipment by Resurrection Creek. Credit: Molly Feltner/NOAA

An Unlikely Alliance

Phase II of the project almost didn't happen. Despite the success of Phase 1, the project stalled. Support and funding were in short supply. Then in 2021, two organizations with very different missions came together to reignite it.

Austin Williams of Trout Unlimited and Anna Atchison, director of external affairs for the mining company Kinross Gold Corporation, met for lunch at the Rustic Goat in Anchorage. They discussed how they could partner together to undo some of the damage caused by historical mining in Alaska. Though they had worked together running fishing trips for veterans, this meeting was different.

"We were doing these fishing trips, and it was great," said Atchison. "But at lunch with Austin, I said, 'I feel like we could be doing more-something that impacts generations.' That's how the Alaska Abandoned Mine Restoration Initiative started."

The collaboration set out to restore salmon habitat areas impacted by gold mining. Kinross committed $540,000 to the Alaska Abandoned Mine Restoration Initiative for instream work on Resurrection Creek.

"Even those first couple of times that Austin and I met, it was a bit awkward," Atchison said. "We thought we were coming in with separate goals. But as soon as we set aside what we knew we might disagree on, we realized we had a lot in common."

Williams echoed that sentiment. "Through being open and communicating, we've built trust. What might seem like big differences at the start really aren't as far apart as you might think."

They chose to start with Resurrection Creek. For Atchison, who grew up in Alaska, this project was personal.

"I deeply cared about this project-not just because I relied on salmon for protein as a kid-but because this is my life," she said. "Eating fish, being out there, recreating. That's what we care about as Alaskans."

Partners from NOAA, the U.S. Forest Service, and Trout Unlimited at the project site. Credit: Molly Feltner/NOAA

Additional investments came from the NOAA Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund and $2.2 million from the U.S. Forest Service's Collaborative Aquatic Landscape Restoration program. Private companies and individuals contributed another $400,000 from to the project's $7 million cost.

The participation of the local Hope Mining Company, which still holds active mining claims adjacent to the Resurrection Creek corridor, was key to the success of the project. Rather than resist the project, the company agreed to a unique solution. A 200- to 500-foot-wide corridor, spanning 74 acres, would be removed from their plan of operations, to allow full-scale stream restoration.

"It took 20 years for the U.S. Forest Service to come to an agreement with Hope Mining Company," said Marian Giannulis, Alaska communications & engagement director for Trout Unlimited. "But they found a way to make it work-for the creek, Hope Mining Company, and the community."

"Early in my career, I was inspired by seeing the benefits to salmon from the first restoration project on Resurrection Creek," said David Pearson, fisheries biologist for the U.S. Forest Service. "Seeing the current work improve salmon habitat and ecosystem services without preventing nearby consumptive uses really coincides with the Forest Service's value of multiple use land management."

Looking Ahead

Across Alaska and beyond, historical mining has left behind rivers stripped of their natural stream beds and complexity, unable to sustain significant salmon populations. Restoring them will take time, money-and trust. The project at Resurrection Creek shows what is possible when like-minded individuals from nonprofit, business, and governmental organizations come together to find solutions.

"Based on the success that we've seen on Resurrection Creek, we're hoping to take the same partnership model to new projects," says Williams. "Fingers crossed we'll be able to replicate this success many times in the future."