In 2025, CRRC was awarded an EPA Wetland Program Development Grant to connect patterns of subsistence use to wetland habitat in the Port Graham and Nanwalek region on the south shores of Kachemak Bay on the Lower Kenai Peninsula. In partnership with the Alaska Center for Conservation Science (ACCS), CRRC will develop subsistence use summaries and map patterns of subsistence use in the Rock River and English Bay watersheds. Summaries will describe each wetland or deepwater habitat type’s typical plant (or algal) community and the subsistence activities these communities support.

In 2024 CRRC completed an Intertribal Wetland Mapping and Development Program.

In 2024 CRRC published a report titled Improving Wetland Conservation and Management through Updated Wetland Mapping in the Chenega Region, Alaska.

In 2023, CRRC was awarded an EPA Wetland Program Development Grant to connect patterns of subsistence use to wetland habitat in the Chenega Region of Prince William Sound in Southcentral Alaska. In partnership with the Alaska Center for Conservation Science (ACCS), CRRC proposes to develop subsistence use summaries and map patterns of subsistence use in the Evans Island–Latouche Island watershed. Summaries will describe the typical plant (or algal) community for each wetland or deepwater habitat type and the subsistence activities these community’s support.

In 2021, CRRC was awarded an EPA Wetland Program Development Grant to update geospatial wetlands information covering their traditional lands. CRRC created a high-resolution map of wetlands on traditionally used lands, not currently available for this region. This project will provide the Chenega IRA Council with resources to better conduct wetland, watershed, and land management planning in the region.

In 2019, CRRC was awarded an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Wetland Program Development Grant to develop a strategic and unified approach to preserving, protecting, and managing the wetlands important to member Tribes. In this report, we seek to identify the environmental needs of wetlands in the Chugach Region through the lens of Tribal members. This project aims to provide a framework to focus future organizational efforts. This WPP will serve as the framework to address the environmental needs of wetlands within the Chugach Region, as identified by Tribal Members. This is intended to be a living document as the wetlands and watersheds of the Chugach Region are ever-evolving ecosystems with a diverse user group. However, we aim to set a precedent for the planning, thought, and care needed to understand better and maintain the wetlands that are important to the health of the people, the animals, and the land.  

In 2006, Chugachmiut and CRRC contracted Mapping Solutions to conduct several GIS needs analyses for all five federally recognized CRRC member Tribes, including Chenega, Eyak, Nanwalek, Port Graham, and Tatitlek. Overall, Tribes strongly supported GIS mapping of Tribal lands throughout all five communities. While previous efforts focused on wetland mapping, Chugach Tribes also expressed a strong desire to expand wetland-related efforts to include other facets of management, such as policy, preservation, research, and restoration.  

In 2002, a similar effort was made to conduct a watershed analysis and water quality evaluation for the villages of Chenega and Tatitlek, located in Prince William Sound. This study was conducted by URS, an AECOM company. The goal of this study was the same as that of those conducted in 1999.  

In Chenega and Tatitlek, the watershed delineation/characterization involved developing a series of map layers in GIS using ArcView. Watershed maps were created using 1:63,360 scale U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) quadrangle maps. The map layers created included watershed boundaries, streams, and soil types. Watershed boundaries and streams were mapped based on detailed aerial photo interpretation combined with information from topographic maps and field notes from a September 2001 site visit. In the Chenega and Tatitlek report, detailed aerial photo coverage was not available for the northwestern third of the Chenega watershed and thus mapping relied more heavily on topographic details, field observations, photographs, and previous studies.  

In 1999 and 2002, CRRC was involved with Chugachmiut to conduct a watershed and water quality evaluation for the Native Villages of Chenega, Nanwalek, Port Graham, and Tatitlek. These studies aimed “to gather and analyze information related to watershed characteristics, soils, and water quality parameters in village watersheds to understand the naturally occurring conditions that may experience land use impacts.”   

In 1999, a watershed analysis and water quality evaluation for the Nanwalek and Port Graham watersheds were conducted by Dames & Moore, a consulting company for CRRC and Chugachmiut. These evaluations were performed on watersheds and steams identified as potential drinking water sources at Nanwalek and Port Graham. Stereo aerial photographs and topographic maps of the available site were reviewed to identify watershed boundaries and surface water flow patterns. Within this evaluation, a subtask included watershed delineation/characterization. This subtask included watershed boundary identification, watershed area determination, and mapping of relevant topographic features or mechanisms for surface and subsurface water movement patterns (Dames & Moore 1999). A combination of existing data, topographic maps, aerial photography, and field observations were used to create a conceptual model of hydrologic and hydrogeologic conditions. In support of this Wetland Protection Plan, the data was digitized so it could be used by constituents for landscape planning.