OUR VISION
We believe the Copper River watershed can have a vibrant, healthy future.
♻️ CORDOVA - Today, 10-3pm drop off your gill nets and seines at the Baler on Whitshed Road to recycle your fishing web!
👉🏼 The next web recycling event will be September 23-24. Net Your Problem wants to know if an October drop-off event would be useful?
♻️ Thanks for recycling your used fishing gear, keeping it out of the landfill and repurposing it into useful items.
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Find out more about our recycling program in our bio link.
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#FishingNetRecycling #RecyclingMatters #CordovaAlaska #recycledfishinggear
Salmon Jam Lost & Found - A few things were left behind from the Salmon Jam festival. If one of these items are yours, you can pick it up at the CRWP office on Main Street, or email Kim at operations@copperriver.org.
#lostandfound #CordovaAlaska
🌊 The Copper River this time of year feeds so many, from people to bears to birds.
🐟 Every year salmon migrate up this river from Prince William Sound to spawn and rear in tributaries and cold water refuge throughout the watershed. And downstream, Sixteen million shorebirds, including the entire population of Western Sandpipers, and Pacific dunlins use the Copper River Delta as they migrate north to nest.
🦅 The abundance and scale of this river, and the watershed it feeds, is mind blowing. And it just keeps giving, year after year.
🫶🏽 This is one of the last remaining healthy, intact watersheds in North America and beyond. You can help keep it wild, and keep it thriving by getting involved.
🌱 Volunteer for upcoming events, or offer your time and skills when you can. You can donate to CRWP to keep people in the field removing invasive plants, monitoring stream temperatures, and restoring habitat, just click our bio link.
💧 Together we can keep this watershed strong and healthy for the future of salmon and all that depends on them.
📷 Kirsti Jurica/CRWP - Copper River.
#ProtectTheWatershed #InvestInNature #copperriverwatershed #CopperRiver
"Why is that big tarp here?"
If you`re in Cordova, you might see it along the shore of Eyak Lake. The tarp was laid on the ground and staked down after a big effort to manually remove Reed canarygrass, an aggressive invasive perennial grass.
Reed canarygrass forms dense, monotypic stands of culms produced from creeping rhizomes in wetlands that outcompete and displace native species. Along the shores of Eyak Lake, Reed canarygrass threatens salmon habitat as the stands leave banks unshaded, and increase soil erosion.
Tarping is a technique we are trying to manually control this invasive plant along the lake. It will stop the sunlight and kill the invasive grass stand, preventing it from spreading. After that, the tarp will be pulled up and native plants and seeds will be planted in that area.
Big thanks to our amazing Invasive Plant Technicians, Maddie Tharp and Serena Herschleb, for working so hard to remove the Reed canarygrass and install the tarp.
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Find out more about our invasive plant management program in our bio link.
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📷 Serena Herschleb and Maddie Tharp/CRWP - Removing a dense stand of Reed canargrass and installing a tarp to control further spread of the invasive plant on the shore of Eyak Lake.
Today is National Nonprofit Day! We`re joining nonprofits from around the country to amplify the work that is so important in filling the gaps in communities and in all kinds of ways. In the Copper River watershed, we`re working to keep it wild, restore habitat, improve fish passage, and inspire local youth to get involved in the place they live and love.
In solidarity with other nonprofits today, we celebrate this work we love and share some examples of how we get it done.
#NonprofitsGetItDone
CopperRiver.org
✨ This is why we do what we do. The Copper River Stewardship Program this summer was a fun and powerful experience for 10 youth from communities throughout the region. They hiked, camped, canoed and kayaked, played games, explored, rafted, and had "candlelight chats" some evenings.
💡They left us with some reflections and thoughts when the adventure came to a close:
"It`s cool how we went from the bottom of the watershed to the top."
"I became starkly less reliant on my phone which improved my mood and attitude (JOMO) and I realized how much I love the watershed and I want to take care of it.
"The well-being of plants, salmon and animals needs to be considered when taking part in activities upriver and down."
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Thank you to our Partners and Sponsors for making this inspiring program possible: pwssc, Wrangell Institute for Science and Environment (WISE), wrangellstenps, Prince William Sound Regional Citizens` Advisory Council, Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, svitekfoundation, Bureau of Land Management - Alaska mypubliclands
When you donate to CRWP, you support youth programs like this, along with invasive plant management, stream temperature monitoring, and habitat restoration in the Copper River region.
👉🏼 Donate to CRWP in our bio link.
📷 CRWP/PWSCC - Youth tide pooling in Cordova during the Copper River Stewardship Program, 2025.
#copperriverwatershed #youthprogram #CordovaAlaska #CopperBasin #CopperBasin #PrinceWilliamSound
COPPER BASIN - Save the date! Saturday, September 6, 10am - 2pm, join us at the Little Tonsina Bridge for Revegetation Day and a BBQ complete with lemonade and coffee! This event is hosted by Copper River Native Association, Tribal Community Services, and CRWP.
We`ve been collecting native seeds and growing native plant starts that need to be planted along the banks of the river where the bridge construction project disturbed the ground. This will help re-establish the land along the river creating healthy habitat for fish, insects, birds, and animals.
We need your help! This will be a fun day with your community helping the land heal. The event is open to anyone and Tribal Community Services can provide transportation from CRNA on the day of the event.
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CopperRiver.org
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#LittleTonsina #nativeplants #nativeseeds #communityevent #CopperBasin #copperriverwatershed
We focused a lot this summer on manually removing aggressive invasive plants in the region like white sweetclover in the Copper Basin and reed canarygrass in Cordova. But as the summer winds down and plants are going to seed, we are shifting to collecting native plant seeds to replant disturbed areas with a goal of creating a native seed bank we can draw on year after year.
We 💚 native plant seeds! 🌱
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Find more information on our Invasive Plant Management program at https://copperriver.org/programs/invasive-plant-management/
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📷 Rachel Ryan/CRWP. Photo 1: Goldenrod. Photo 2: Wild Potato. Photo 3: Carex (Sedge). Photo 4: Good patch of Sedge for collecting seeds.
#nativeplantseeds #nativeplants #CopperBasin #invasiveplantmanagement #alaskanativeplants #goldenrod #carex #wildpotato #sedge
Happy Alaska Wild Salmon Day!
Salmon are the backbone of our cultures, communities, and livelihoods. We honor the fish that sustains our way of life and feeds so many. ❤️🐟🐟🐟
Our watershed is one of the last fully intact healthy places for salmon to spawn and rear.
We just need to keep it healthy.
Keep it wild.
And the salmon will return.
CopperRiver.org
#copperriverwatershed #cordovaalaska #alaskawildsalmonday #wild salmon
It`s a good year for salmonberries! `Tis the season to pick and preserve. Popping open a jar of these rain and sunshine soaked berries in mid-winter is a delight. These berries were picked (and eaten) near Cordova.
CopperRiver.org
#berryseason #salmonberries #YUM #CordovaAlaska #copperriverwatershed
We had a fun, productive summer in the Copper Basin removing white sweetclover with a lot of community involvement!
Our second floatable weed smackdown of the season on July 18 was with IGAP Coordinators National Park Service staff, and YETI and Native Village of Tazlina youth. Sixteen participants joined us to pull white sweetclover from popular fishing and recreation sites along the Gulkana River. This helps reduce the amount of white sweetclover seed that can be spread this fall, which is especially important for preventing this aggressive invasive plant from spreading further down river.
Pulling these weeds from our river banks and sandbars is a lot of work, but well worth the effort - and fun too!
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For more information on our Invasive Plant Management Program, visit https://copperriver.org/programs/invasive-plant-management/
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📷 Rachel Ryan/CRWP - CRWP`s 2nd Floatable Weed Smackdown of the season with sixteen participants pulling white sweetclover along the banks and sand bars of the Gulkana River.
#InvasivePlant #whitesweetclover #copperbasin #GulkanaRiver #invasiveplantmanagement #communityevent #copperriverwatershed
Last month, CRWP joined CRNA Summer School youth to plant native seeds for CRNA`s native plant garden located at the Glennallen School. Amanda Jackson taught about the plant life cycle and plant guilds, and Alvin and Rachel helped with native seed planting. The seeds will be cared for by summer school youth in the hopes of being planted in the garden when the sprouts are big enough to survive outside.
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CopperRiver.org
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📷 Rachel Ryan/CRWP - CRNA Summer School youth planting native seeds and learning about plant life cycles.
#nativeplantseeds #nativeplants #copperriverwatershed #copperbasin #youthprogram #CRNA
We are sad to say goodbye to Amanda Jackson, but appreciate all she has done for CRWP during her time on our team. She helped to expand our impact by engaging more students and partners in stewardship activities and education programs, helping ensure the Copper River has a thriving and healthy future. We will miss having her in the watershed but know she will continue to do great things and make positive impacts wherever she goes.
Join us in sending Amanda off with gratitude and good wishes. RSVP’s are appreciated. Robin Mayo (907) 259-3575 / robin@wise-edu.org
WHEN: Thursday, August 28, 5:30 pm
WHERE: Caribou Grill, Glennallen
Watch our Annual Meeting Presentation to get the full update on the progress and projects of the Copper River Watershed Project.
Our Programs Making a Difference
