Ice is a key player not only in the culture of the northern Northeast, but also in its unique lake ecosystems – a determinant of everything from water temperature to aquatic food chains to water quality. And according to long-term climate data, ice-out has been moving earlier and earlier.

B.C. drought exacerbating forestry damage to Bedwell River near Tofino as Ahousaht First Nation works to protect salmon, restore watershed.

Conservation and tribal groups in 2018 removed a downstream dam in the river northeast of Anchorage. But an upriver dam provides the cheapest energy in Southcentral Alaska. For people from the Native Village of Eklutna the river’s rebirth was an important moment. They want the 12-mile-long waterway permanently restored, along with the salmon their late elders once described as abundant.

This early in spring, the season usually only starts, but the weather patterns have been changing, and so has been the harvest time, Donovan said.