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Winery Works to Uncork Ship Creek

Posted on: Monday, 11 July 2005, 21:00 CDT

Jul. 10--An Australian vineyard is supporting a local conservation group to get the dams out of Ship Creek.

Banrock Station, located along the Murray River in South Australia, has awarded the Anchorage Waterways Council a five-year grant worth $3,500 a year to support the local organization's efforts to restore Ship Creek.

Distributors Pacific Wine Partners and Odom Corp. are also donating $4 per case of wine sold in Alaska.

In 2004, the first year of the partnership, some $6,500 was raised, said Will Wright, area manager of Pacific Wine Partners, the Banrock distributor.

"We doubled the case sales last year after this started," he said.

If a case of wine seems a bit overzealous, donations by the glass can be made at Rumrunner's Bar and Grill in downtown Anchorage. Local distributor Odom Corp. expects a half-dozen other restaurants and bars to participate as well, said marketing manager Angela Pekich-Suarez.

Ship Creek has three dams along the 24-mile waterway. Two are located near the military bases -- one near Elmendorf Air Force Base and the other at Fort Richardson. The third dam is near the Knik Arm Power Plant, and marks the limit for the city's favorite urban fishing spot.

The Waterways Council has worked for more than three years to get the dams removed from the creek, but has had little luck. But the need for the dams has diminished in recent months, said Kelly Hepler, director of sport fishing for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

"Some day I want to see those dams gone," Hepler said. "It's not a done deal, but the discussions are going to start happening. My staff is actively engaging in these discussions. There's more optimism now than ever before.

The need to take water from Ship Creek directly is going away."

The state Legislature earlier this year approved a bond package totaling $63 million for three new fish hatcheries in the state. One will be a $45 million facility at Fort Richardson. The bonds will be paid for through an increase in fish and game licenses.

The new Fort Richardson hatchery will eliminate the need to draw water from Ship Creek, as is necessary with the current facility.

The Elmendorf dam was used primarily as a water coolant system for its power plant. That plant has since been updated and no longer needs the water supply.

The "fishing dam," near the mouth of the river, originally was used for the Knik Arm Power Plant, which has been out of commission for decades.

Fish and Game for years has used the dam to trap fish, primarily to create the popular urban sport fishery. The department oversees a fish ladder in the dam that has shown limited success, Hepler said.

The best thing for the fish would be to get those dams out of the creek and give the fish free reign over the waters. That, in turn, could also open the possibility of extending the fishery up the river as well, he said.

The conservation effort attracted the attention of Banrock Station, which has a business policy to focus on conservation as much as profits.

The winery features 600 acres of vineyards and 3,600 acres of wetland reserves. The area was once decimated by overgrazing and cropping, but the property has been restored since the 1994 opening. It is again home to the dozens of birds, plants, marsupials and other wildlife, and has become a successful tourist attraction.

Banrock Station winery produces about 3.5 million cases a year. To continue its conservation efforts, the winery donates a portion of its proceeds to various conservation projects, and is currently funding projects in nine countries.

The efforts on Ship Creek seemed to be the perfect match, Odom's Pekich-Suarez said.

Topping the agenda is unplugging the dam near the defunct Knik Arm Power Plant.

The Anchorage Waterways Council is working with local consultants to design a hydraulic lift to replace the current fish ladder and dam. The lift could be lowered during certain times of the salmon migrations and raised to let fish swim up river. Raising and lowering periods would be determined by Fish and Game.

Waterways Council executive director Holly Kent and Meagan Boltwood, the director of the council's Ship Creek Unplugged program, put special emphasis on the fact that their organization is working to restore Ship Creek, not set it aside.

"We have spent a lot of time presenting the concept that we're not just another environmental organization," Boltwood said. "We spent a lot of time convincing locals that we're for real, we're not trying to save Ship Creek and keep people from fishing in it. We're more conservation than preservation."

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Copyright (c) 2005, Alaska Journal of Commerce, Anchorage

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Source: Alaska Journal of Commerce

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