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King Maker: Conservation group leader promotes salmon education

Originally published in the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman on April 11, 2015

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MAT-SU — The number of salmon in Alaska may be declining, but King Maker Catherine Inman is doing her part to combat future decreases.

Currently, seven of the 11 salmon stocks of concern in the state are in the Mat-Su Valley, and some of our rivers have been closed to fishing. There are a variety of theories as to why our salmon are declining, from commercial bycatch and overfishing in lower Cook Inlet to ocean acidification and habitat loss.

As a community there is not much we can do about the ocean issues but we can help to make sure we are being good stewards of our backyard habitat and are taking care to keep our waters clean. Unfortunately, most of us don’t know what salmon need, what qualifies as important habitat and how to protect water quality.

That is why the Valley needs people like Catherine Inman, owner of Mat-Su Conservation Services. From building rain gardens to helping youth learn about salmon lifecycle needs, to teaching people how to maintain their residential septic systems, Inman is dedicated to making sure Valley residents understand we are all responsible for caring for our shared community resources.

Since moving to the Valley in 2002, Inman has spent the bulk of her time and energy as a volunteer, nonprofit director and local business owner, engaging the community in hands-on projects to restore salmon habitat and protect water quality.

Often teaming up with local nonprofit partners and the Mat-Su Borough, Inman has worked with more than 10,000 local youth on more than two dozen different shoreline restoration projects along Wasilla Creek, Cottonwood Creek, Wasilla Lake, Big Lake, Finger Lake, the Little Susitna River and many others. Through Teeland Middle School’s River Rangers program, over the past nine years she has helped build a stewardship ethic among Mat-Su youth by teaching them how to care for the lands and waters that support our Valley way of life.

“I love getting students outdoors doing hands-on projects,” Inman said.

In partnership with the Mat-Su Borough and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Inman initiated the rain garden movement in the Mat-Su, turning poor drainage systems into living stormwater filters and “schoolyard habitats.”

A rain garden is a garden planted with trees, shrubs and water-loving plants designed to catch and filter stormwater from roadways and parking areas before the water can get to our rivers and streams. They’re important because unfiltered stormwater from rainfall and snowmelt often contains soil particles, organic debris, fertilizers, pesticides, oil, gas and chemicals that are toxic to salmon, especially the young salmon who live in our waterways year-round.

As the Mat-Su population has grown, so have the federal requirements to manage our stormwater. Beginning in 2011, the borough funded a number of low-impact development projects to help limit the amount of unfiltered stormwater entering our creeks, rivers and wetlands. The rain-garden program was one of them.

Today, there are 12 demonstration rain garden projects in the Valley that Inman helped build with funding from the Fish and Wildlife Service. These projects can be seen at Cottonwood Creek Elementary, Big Lake Elementary, Wasilla Middle School, Machetanz Elementary, Burchell High School, Iditapark (City of Wasilla), Meadow Lakes Senior Center, Valley Recycling Center, Sutton Library, Spring Creek Farm and the Plant Materials Center in the Butte. Inman also worked on a how-to guide for private landowners on building rain gardens.

In the Mat-Su, we have four lakes and rivers that are polluted and listed by the state as impaired. While there are a variety of factors contributing to the impairment of these water bodies — such as stormwater and removal of shoreline vegetation — the Septic Smart program aims to relieve one stress, and in turn, make a difference for Alaska’s salmon.

In 2014, Inman spearheaded the Valley’s Septic Smart program in partnership with the Mat-Su Resource Conservation and Development Council and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.

“Most Mat-Su residents are on private wells and septic systems, but many people don’t realize septic systems must be (regularly) maintained,” Inman said.

Through the Septic Smart program, she is helping to teach people about septic health. Maintaining a healthy septic system is vital for salmon habitat, as improperly tended systems can allow harmful bacteria to enter water systems where salmon live. Through the program she is also helping neighborhoods form mini-co-ops, so they can receive “good neighbor” discounts for synchronizing the pumping time of their septic system. In addition to offering discounted pumping, the program also reminds landowners to pump on time.

Inman’s work and dedication to helping the community is benefiting our salmon and our waterways and is contributing to a long legacy of healthy salmon populations in the Mat-Su. Catherine Inman is a King Maker.

For more info about shoreline restoration, rain gardens or the Septic Smart program, contact Inman at catherine@matsuconservation.com.

Kim Sollien is the Mat-Su Program Director at Great Land Trust. To learn more about the King Makers campaign, contact her at 746-6406 or ksollien@greatlandtrust.org.