Teaching the Next Generation about Salmon in Alaska

On Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, salmon lessons start early. It’s common for young children to be able to rattle off names of the five species that collectively generate more than $1.5 billion in economic value annually and are deeply woven into the region’s cultural traditions. For decades, Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s programs have grounded students in salmon biology. What’s often missing from the curriculum, though, is a deeper understanding of the role that local landscapes play in salmon abundance. That’s where the Kachemak Bay Reserve steps in, by helping students connect salmon to the watershed in which they live.

“Our goal is to expand student understanding of salmon science,” says the Reserve’s education coordinator Ingrid Harrald. “We help them see where salmon live in the watershed, why this habitat matters, and how all of our actions can impact these important species ”

The Reserve pairs traditional classroom learning with hands-on field research so students can connect what they’ve studied in school with the places they know from everyday life. Through Reserve programs, students visit local streams, estuaries, and tidal marshes where salmon migrate, feed, and grow, turning familiar landscapes that become living classrooms.

The curriculum is grounded in the Reserve’s research into groundwater temperature and the movement of juvenile salmon on the Peninsula, work that directly informs lesson plans and field activities. For example, at a Reserve monitoring site near the Anchor River, students work alongside fish technicians to seine, identify, and count salmon and other fish. In nearby streams and channels, they sample macroinvertebrates, tiny organisms that reveal the health of food webs and habitats. At another station, they collect water from ocean, tidal, and freshwater sites, measure its pH and salinity, and explore how water chemistry, tides, plants, and geology interact to shape salmon habitat from headwaters to sea.

“These field trips transform our own backyard into a living classroom and allows students to collect and work with up-to-date, local scientific data and knowledge” says Harrald. “Those who live miles upstream, can see how their local stream connects to coastal habitats. This fosters a real sense of ownership and stewardship of the salmon.”

That connection is reinforced through teacher training, a core strength of the Reserve’s work. Each year, local educators participate in field-based professional development that introduces new ways to teach watershed science and salmon ecology through a regional lens. Partnerships with organizations such as the Chugach Regional Resources Commission further strengthen these efforts, ensuring teachers have access to local knowledge and culturally grounded resources they wouldn’t find elsewhere.

“The outdoor field trips with the Reserve have given our students a better understanding and appreciation of the marine environment and estuaries in our community,” says Kendall Dellasperanza, an elementary school teacher with McNeil Canyon Elementary School. “By observing and gathering real-time data about the environment, they now understand the important roles that macroinvertebrates, marsh plants, peat, salmon and water quality play in making our lives better.”

By linking long-standing salmon education with place-based research and lived experience, the Reserve is helping Alaska’s students understand how their actions, landscapes, and watersheds shape the future of the salmon they’ve been learning about since childhood.