The Greek philosopher Heraclitus (c.535 – 475 BC) said “You cannot step into the same river twice”. This eloquently states why we monitor the amount of water flowing in key streams. At any given spot on any stream, the water is constantly changing as it flows toward the ocean.  Water quality is different when the water is rising during a flood compared to when it is receding after the peak and is very different between high runoff times and dry periods. We cannot say much about water quality without understanding water flow.

Different streams exhibit vastly different flow patterns on the Kenai Peninsula, largely dependent on the presence or absence of glacial melt. How fish respond to changing flow is poorly understood, and we seek to more clearly understand this. In addition to how much it rains or how much and how fast the snow or ice melts, some of the factors controlling stream flow include characteristics of the watershed such as: percentage and type of wetland, how much pavement (or other hard surfaces that shed 100% of rainwater), forest type, and topography. Water runoff behavior in Alaska is significantly less understood than in the other States; however many decisions important to fish and other aquatic life are based on the best available information – it is our goal to make an important contribution to better understanding the water flow characteristics of smaller streams that are nurseries for juvenile salmon. To date we have focused on Beaver, Slikok and Soldotna creeks.