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MTJP CORPS · MORE THAN JUST PARKS ·
A place we watch

Bristol Bay Watershed

Timing

Nothing is open on this one today. It is a place the Corps keeps an eye on, so we see the paperwork the day it lands.

What is worth photographing here

Go to the headwater streams above Bristol Bay and photograph the water itself: clear gravel, spawning sockeye, dead fish on the banks, any bear or gull activity on the run. Date every shot and note the stream name.

Why we watch it

Nearly half of all wild sockeye salmon on Earth come from Bristol Bay. Alaska Native communities, commercial fishers, and a food chain stretching to the open Pacific all depend on these headwaters. The proposed Pebble Mine would sit right on top of them, gambling the world's greatest salmon run on a single copper deposit.

How to record it so it counts

  1. 01Photograph the crossing from the road, then from upstream and from downstream.
  2. 02At a culvert, photograph the outlet from downstream so the drop from the pipe to the water shows. Put a pole or a person beside it for scale.
  3. 03Photograph the water: is it flowing, standing, or dry. Note the time.
  4. 04Photograph any fish, fish sign, or aquatic life you can see. Don’t enter the water to chase it.
  5. 05Write down what you saw and how the crossing looked to you.
What would count
  • The drop from the pipe to the water, with something for scale. A pipe left hanging above the water is one a fish cannot swim up, and that is a fact on its own.
  • Up and downstream, dated. Flow is the claim most often wrong.
All of it, with the phone settings, in the field guide
Nothing to answer yet

Nobody is asking you to go here today. We watch this place so that the day a decision opens on it, the people who already know it hear the same week. If you are out here anyway, what you photograph now is worth more later than anything taken after the paperwork lands.

Before you go
  1. Public land only. Plenty of land inside a national forest or park boundary is privately owned, and that is not yours to walk on. A gate or a closure sign means stop. Check the rules for the specific place you are going, because they differ.
  2. Don’t touch survey stakes, flagging, equipment or anything a crew left. Photograph it; leave it.
  3. Don’t approach crews, contractors or agency staff about the project. Don’t interfere with any operation.
  4. Wildlife at a distance. No drones in wilderness or anywhere they’re prohibited. Stay off closed roads and trails.
  5. If you’re not sure, don’t. Weather, terrain, water, fire and people are your call, and yours alone.

More Than Just Parks doesn’t direct where you go or what you do. Terms.