The Kenai River Cost Share Program

The Kenai River Rehabilitation and Protection State/Federal Joint Funding Program, the Kenai River Cost Share Program, came about from a culmination of known threats to the Kenai River from development in riparian habitats, the private landowner concerns about erosion on their riverfronts from natural and boat wake erosion and the occurrence of major flooding in 1995. In 1993, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) obtained Alaska Coastal Management Plan (ACMP) Section 309 funding to document all developed structures and fish habitat components on each parcel along the Kenai River. The ADF&G identified 1,869 structures along the river, potentially impacting to over 11 miles of juvenile chinook salmon rearing habitat along the Kenai River mainstem (Liepitz, 1993). In 1997, the "309 study" was funded again to detect changes to the river; primarily to evaluate newly developed structures and habitat components. In 1997, ADF&G documented 5,989 structures along the river, an increase of over 300 percent since 1993 (Wiedmer, pers. comm.). Though a considerable amount of the increase in development is due to differences in sampling methodology and an expansion of the sampling area to include the 50-foot habitat protection zone recently established by the Kenai Peninsula Borough, it is clear that development within the riparian area is dramatically increasing.

During the fall of 1995, the Kenai River experienced a 120 year flood event that made the state and federal agencies, local government, landowners and legislators acutely aware of the possible problems with human induced erosion due in part to; development, denuding of banks, poor land stewardship and boat wake effects. Local landowners needed solutions to the erosion problems on their properties while allowing for the necessary access and full utilization of their properties. More importantly, they needed a process by which they could obtain needed technical and regulatory assistance, permitting information and an incentive to implement "habitat friendly" fixes for their riverfront problems.

In 1995, the ADF&G received funding from the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, through Senate Bill 183 and funding from Senator Stevens, through a National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) grant, to conduct fish habitat protection and rehabilitation projects on private and public lands along the Kenai River. As a result, the Kenai River Cost Share Program was implemented. The ADF&G has successfully matched these funding sources with other funds from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Partner's for Fish and Wildlife Program, the Kenai Peninsula Borough and the local Kenai River Sportfishing Association to conduct habitat protection and rehabilitation projects.

In eight years of the Kenai River Cost Share Program, projects have been installed throughout the river, stretching from the outlet of Kenai Lake to the mouth of the Kenai River at Cook Inlet. Since the inception the Cost Share Program has completed 275 projects, removing over 1,900 feet of structures that are detrimental to juvenile salmon, sustaining fish habitat on over 26,000 feet of Kenai River bank and rehabilitating over 10,700 feet of riverfront. Existing funds for the Kenai River Cost Share Program will be exhausted at the end of 2003. However, new funding was received from NOAA that will continue the program on the Kenai Peninsula streams, including the Kenai River, over the next few years.