Third annual Eyak Lake Cleanup Day a success

By Shae Bowman For The Cordova Times

Volunteers from the Forest Service, Student Conservation Association and the Copper River Watershed Project gathered June 24 for Eyak Lake Cleanup day. Photos courtesy Shae Bowman

Volunteers from the Forest Service, Student Conservation Association and community partnered with the Copper River Watershed Project recently for the third annual Eyak Lake cleanup day.

The focus this year was around Mavis Island, an area used for docking floatplanes and as a campout area for Cordova Boy Scouts, plus the shoreline below the Powder House and Nirvana Park.

Volunteers arrived at Mavis Island on June 24 equipped with gloves, boots, waders, a boat, and a canoe. Throughout the day several sections of smashed-up floatplane docks, water logged Styrofoam blocks, tires, and even a fiberglass boat were recovered! The amount of debris cleaned up totaled 35 cubic yards, or about three and a half dump truck loads!

Eyak Lake is home to 10 fish species, including sockeye, coho and pink salmon, cutthroat trout, and Dolly Varden and it “provides an annual ex-vessel value for commercial harvest” of about $1 million dollars, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

However, of the several lakes providing valuable sockeye salmon spawning habitat on the Copper River Delta, Eyak Lake is the only lake within city limits, so that it takes the worst of the city’s storm water run-off, and pollution, and is the lake most heavily used for recreation.

The Copper River Watershed Project thanks all the volunteers, the US Forest Service, and the SCA crew for donating time, equipment, and energy to give Eyak Lake some positive attention.

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Shae Bowman is the operations manager for the Copper River Watershed Project.

Volunteers from the Forest Service, Student Conservation Association and the Copper River Watershed Project gathered June 24 for Eyak Lake Cleanup day.
Photos courtesy Shae Bowman
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