COPPER BASIN - Feel like getting on the water? Join us on July 18, 9:00am - 12:30pm for a FREE Gulkana rafting trip with Copper River Guides for up to 20 participants!

This is a Community Weed Smackdown event to tackle white sweetclover along the river where this prolific invasive is crowding out native plants and clogging up sand bars and areas along the banks of this salmon passage tributary of the Copper River.

This event is for those interested in working hard with a fun group to manually pull white sweetclover while floating on the river enduring the elements for a day. Fingers crossed for sunshine! ☀️

For more information and to RSVP to save your spot in a boat, go to https://copperriver.org/programs/invasive-plant-management/floatable-weed-smackdown/
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📷 Amanda Jackson/CRWP - Stewards floating the Gulkana River pulling white sweetclover, June 2025.
#CopperBasin #copperriverwatershed #weedpull #communityevent #invasiveplantmanagement ...

Copper River Watershed Project’s (CRWP) plant program crew, in partnership with the City of Cordova and Parks and Recreation, have been working on managing an infestation of reed canarygrass at Skater`s Cabin via light exclusive tarping. The tarps are laid as alternatives to address the need for managing this highly invasive plant without herbicide application. These blackout tarps will remain in place for 3-7 years in hopes of eradicating the invasive grass by limiting photosynthesis and therefore stopping plant growth. We are attempting this approach in response to concerns over the use of herbicide to treat invasive plants. Using tarps requires more personnel time to maintain them over such an extensive period of time, and we need assistance from the community to help sustain these manual treatment efforts.

Please reach out to CRWP to sign up to help “adopt these pests”! Our team plans on tarping a few other sites during this field season, so keep an eye out and please do not run over/walk on them!

For more information on invasive plants in Cordova, visit https://copperriver.org/programs/invasive-plant-management/.

📷 Serena Herschleb/CRWP - CRWP`s Maddie and Serena manually remove reed canarygrass from the shoreline of Eyak Lake, then apply a light blocking tarp to control the spread of this highly invasive plant.

#reedcanarygrass #invasivespecies #EyakLake #CordovaAlaska #invasiveplantmanagement ...

On Tuesday, July 1st, CRWP Watershed Stewardship Program Manager Amanda Jackson, Invasive Plant Technician Serena Herschleb, and intern Maddie Tharp teamed up with Cordova 3-4 Grade Girl Scouts and friends to tackle an infestation of the invasive plant orange hawkweed in a local Cordovan`s yard.

Together, in less than an hour, the team plucked nearly all of the flower buds and flowers off the orange hawkweed. This small action helped to prevent the invasive plants from going to seed and spreading via wind to other parts of Cordova. Infestations of orange hawkweed are hard to get rid of with a small team, so a community effort is much appreciated to keep these infestations from getting out of control.

To learn how you can help control invasive species in Cordova, contact the Copper River Watershed Project at 424-3334 or email invasives@copperriver.org.
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Find more information on invasive species at https://copperriver.org/programs/invasive-plant-management/
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📷 Kate Morse/CRWP - Girl Scouts and friends along with CRWP`s Amanda Jackson, Serena Herschleb, and Maddie Tharp knock back a patch of invasive orange hawkweed in less than an hour in Cordova.
#invasiveplantmanagement #orangehawkweed #CordovaAlaska #communityweedpull ...

On June 17, CRWP hosted an Integrated Pest Management workshop for youth groups (YCC, SCA, YETI, and Tazlina Youth). The goal of the workshop was to provide an overview of Integrated Pest Management, to cover best practices for monitoring and managing invasive plant species in the Copper River Basin, and offer the opportunity for youth workforces to contribute to CRWP efforts.

The workshop also taught youth how to identify invasive plants in the Copper River watershed. Youth used their creative skills to design a “Wanted” poster for an invasive plant, including the plant`s key characteristics, how it spreads, and a reward for finding this “wanted” invasive.

Students also learned how to collect invasive plant data. Amanda Jackson, CRWP`s Watershed Program Manager, demonstrated how they can use QR code and Survey 123 to report invasive plant species to CRWP, supporting statewide efforts to manage invasive species.
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CopperRiver.org
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📷 Rachel Ryan/CRWP
#CopperBasin #IPM #copperriverwatershed ...

It was a busy June in the watershed! Last week the Youth Employment Training Initiative (YETI) program, run by the Copper River Native Association, worked with our Hydrologist, Kirsti Jurica at the Little Tonsina Bridge restoration site. Participants were introduced to the methods used to identify and evaluate the components of aquatic habitats, focusing on the physical and biological characteristics of stream environments. The group also discussed the impact of human activities on the integrity of streams and ecosystem responses. The YETIs also planted native plants to help with re-vegetating the banks along the work site.

YETI participants are Copper Basin youth ages 14-18 who are employed for the summer to work with various regional organizations and agencies, and are learning career skills, gaining mentors, and helping their communities.
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CopperRiver.org
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📷 Colleen Merrick CRNA/CRWP - YETIs at the Little Tonsina River studying aquatic habitats and planting native plants at the Little Tonsina Bridge restoration site. ...

Last week our Executive Director Kate Morse and our Hydrologist Kirsti Jurica led the Community Coastal Experience, teaching how to identify and evaluate the components of aquatic habitats, focusing on the physical and biological characteristics of stream environments at Black Hole Creek. This creek is upstream of one of our fish passage sites along the Copper River Highway.

We love field season, and getting out into the watershed to observe how the habitat is responding to restoration efforts.
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CopperRiver.org
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📷 Kirsti Jurica/CRWP - CCE participants at Black Hole Creek along the Copper River Highway.
#fishpassage #CCE #CordovaAlaska #copperriverhighway #habitatrestoration ...

This year`s Copper River Stewardship Program was a great adventure! The program ended this last Sunday after a whirlwind tour of the watershed.

Last week, the crew was in the Copper Basin and had fun canoeing and fishing for pike on Mineral Lake and hiking and exploring off the Nabesna Road. On their way south, they stopped at the Little Tonsina bridge and helped take care of the new native vegetation CRWP is working to establish at the restoration site. After a night in Valdez, they hopped on the Prince William Sound ferry to Cordova!

In Cordova, our Executive Director Kate Morse met up with the stewards one afternoon to assess fish at a recently replaced culvert after they spent the morning kayaking on Sheridan Glacier Lake. Next, they had a great day learning about hydropower and exploring the coastline. For their last day of the trip, they chose to play (and go to the spa!) on the sand dunes of the copper river at “27 mile “ (27 miles out the road from downtown Cordova).
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Find out more about the Copper River Stewardship Program at https://copperriver.org/programs/watershed-education/copper-river-stewardship-program/
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📷 Copper River Stewardship Program, 2025. ...

Lakota McRoberts, with Colleen Merrick from Copper River Native Association, led a native plants talk this month in partnership with Rebarcheck Farm, Anchorage Soil and Water Conservation District and Alaska Pacific University. Lakota is a native plants champion and has been very engaged in replanting the Little Tonsina Bridge project site with native plants.

We love to see our partners out in the community sharing this excellent information on native plants to grow in gardens, yards and on farms in the region. Removing invasive species is only part of the solution. Planting native plants before invasive`s can take hold is another part of keeping the watershed healthy.
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CopperRiver.org
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📷 courtesy of Colleen Merrick/CRNA - Lakota McRoberts leading a native plants talk in the Copper Basin.
#nativeplants #CopperRiver #CopperBasin #copperriverwatershed ...

Happy National Alaska Day!

We love our corner of Alaska here in the Copper River watershed — from the headwaters of the Copper River near Mentasta, to the Copper River Delta near Cordova where the river drains into Prince William Sound. One of the last intact, thriving watersheds supporting an abundance of salmon, birds, mammals, and people who rely on the resources here, the Copper River is worthy of the work and dedication it will take to keep this region wild and thriving into the future.

Love the Copper River? Get involved! You can sign up on our email list and keep an eye out for upcoming volunteer opportunities. https://copperriver.org/email-signup/

You can donate to CRWP to help keep boots-on-the-ground and people in the field doing habitat restoration, stream monitoring, and invasive plant management. https://copperriver.org/barrier-free-crwp/
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📷 Photo 1 - Copper River near Mentasta. Photo 2 - Confluence of Chitina & Copper Rivers. Photo 3 - Alaganik Slough on the Copper River Delta (Kirsti Jurica & Michelle McAfee/CRWP).
#AlaskaDay #copperriverwatershed #CopperRiver #CopperRiverDelta ...