How does one of the largest free-flowing rivers in the country end up back on the table for dam construction?

Today we're heading up to Alaska to look at what's happening right now on the Sucitna River, from the proposed dams to the road system, to the people working on the ground to keep it wild.

Margaret Stern from the Sissetna River Coalition is back on the podcast to give us an update on what's changing, what's at risk, and how a small local team is helping connect the dots for anglers, communities, and anyone who cares about these rivers.

This is the Webfly Swing podcast where I show you the best places to travel to for fly fishing, how to find the best resources and tools to prepare for that big trip, and what you can do to give back to the fish species we all love.

Margaret Stern is going to take us into the Sysitna today.

We're going to find out what a massive dam project could mean for a completely free-flowing

system.

We're going to find out how local communities are stepping up and out to protect what they

love and why your public comments actually matter more than you think

and how the role of anglers can play even if you're not in alaska so right now even if you're

not in alaska you can have a role in helping protect these natural waters we're also going to

find out about this great river cleanup that they're doing this year so if you want to get

involved in that we can do it right now.

All right. Hope you enjoy this one. You can find Margaret at the Sucitna Rivercollition.org. Here we go. Here's Margaret Stern. How you doing, Margaret? Hey, I'm doing great this morning, Dave. Thanks so much for having me on here again. Yeah, thanks for setting some time aside to talk about some important topics up in Alaska. We'll have a link of the show notes the last time we had you on. We talked about some of the current events that are going on up there. I think we're going to continue that a little bit, maybe get an update on this. We've got a really cool giveaway right now where we're doing with Fishhound expeditions. We're giving away a spot for somebody to go up and fish with Fishhound. This week, we're actually doing a couple really cool episodes with you and then also with the Salmon State and we're really trying to highlight some of the good stuff. Well, I mean, some of the issues, but also some of the good work going on up there. So first off, how are things going and what's keeping you busy this time of year? Things are going pretty well.

It did snow quite a bit yesterday, so that's kind of a bummer as things are to come around. But this weekend, we were actually at the Matsu Outdoorsman show. We had a big table there, and we were talking to folks about all of our work in the watershed. And that is such a fantastic event to get outside and chat with, or not get outside. Get outside Talkeetna, where we're based and talk to folks in the surrounding area about what's going on. So we have been spending a lot of time prepping for that event, but more exciting as we're

prepping for a field season this summer and just prepping for a lot of outreach and getting

folks involved in all of our summer activities that we have going on.

Nice. Yeah. And I think one of the summer activities we've been talking about is the river cleanup. I think you have quite a bit going, but that's one that is coming up here. Maybe you can just describe that for people, you know, that are in the area, I guess, specifically, that might be able to help. When is that? Is that all set this year? Yeah, that is all set for this year. So last year we hosted a wild salmon

weekend. Alaska Wild Salmon Day is a state holiday, and we've been trying to really lean hard

into that because it is such an important fish for our communities in our ecosystems up here.

And so last year, we had a full weekend event with guided nature walks about river ecology and a big wild salmon burger feast with silk screening and kids activities.

So one part of that was an event that we've held for maybe seven or eight years, and that was also a river cleanup along the

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