South-central Alaska’s Susitna River is a 300-mile sweetheart home to all five species of pacific salmon, including the state’s fourth largest chinook run. The Susitna has also been pegged for its hydroelectric potential, contending with several dam proposals over the last 60 years. The latest threat called for erecting the country’s second tallest dam, upstream of Devils Canyon, at a price-tag of $6 billion. And in what’s been hailed as a victory for Alaska salmon, that plan is officially dead.

The Susitna-Watana Hydro project (FERC No. P-14241) promised to diversify Alaska’s energy portfolio. In reaching that goal, it would have flooded 40,000 acres of recreation and hunting lands near Denali National Park. The move to shelve the dam came as part of broad budget cuts by Alaska Gov. Bill Walker.

“We applaud Gov. Walker for making the right decision during these tough fiscal times,” says Emily Anderson, Wild Salmon Center’s Alaska Senior Program Manager. “This project would have wreaked havoc on the river, harmed important local tourism and recreation based economies, and set a very bad precedent for future energy development on our salmon rivers in the state.”

Filmmaker and Drake contributor Ryan Peterson chronicles the Susitna’s plight in The Super Salmon. The video recently took home Best Conservation at the 10th Anniversary Flyfishing Video Awards in Orlando.

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Tom Bie
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Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.

Category: Daily Drake
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Author: Tom Bie

Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.

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