ALASKA—An Alaska-based volunteer program that has been around since 1994 can once again call itself award-winning, after receiving news it has been bestowed an Enduring Service award from the Forest Service for its work in 2021. The accolade is a national acknowledgement designed to recognize sustained support and engagement with volunteerism and service over many years to the agency.

The program is a long-lived effort under the Kenai Watershed forum, a nonprofit organization out of Soldotna, Alaska. It last won a Regional Director’s Excellence Award for Outstanding Partnership in 2015 from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Alaska Region works closely with the organization and its volunteers at Forest Service sites on the Russian and Kenai Rivers. Forest Service Stream Watch coordinator Amber Kraxberger-Linson joined the agency in 2020 and took on the project that she described as “a wonderful, effective program where visitors can have conversations with a peer rather than a federal employee in a uniform and a badge.”

This is Kraxberger-Linson’s third season as the coordinator, but she credits the many Forest Service coordinators who came before her and made the program what it is today. “I feel very lucky and privileged to be the latest,” she said.

An average day for these volunteers includes talking to anglers, sharing guidance on fishing regulations, keeping the site clean and free of trash, and ensuring the infrastructure at the Forest Service locations is in good repair. 
“People from all over the world come to fish in the Kenai and many of them don’t really know how to catch salmon,” Kraxberger-Linson continued. “We have these remarkable volunteers who have fished these rivers for many, if not dozens of years. They are a valuable resource and serve as amazing ambassadors.”

There are up to 80 volunteers out on the rivers and in the campsites each season, offering up to 24 hours of service during the summer. “They do it because they love the area,” Kraxberger-Linson shared. “As a matter of fact, we still have some of the original members who routinely volunteer beyond the 24 hours of service required for ambassadors.”

The volunteer group was notified of its latest honor in May, after Kraxberger-Linson submitted a nomination only a few months earlier. Both she and the volunteers are awaiting the arrival of the award, not really knowing what it looks like.

“We have an end of season gathering and that’s probably where we will host a more formal award presentation,” she concluded. “For now, I am just enjoying spending time in the field with these amazing ambassadors and bringing joy to hundreds of thousands of anglers, hikers and—because of the sheer number of bears attracted by the salmon runs—wildlife viewers as well.”