2024 Cook Inlet Water Quality Summit Follow-Up Community Discussions

October 28 & 29, 2024, 9am-12pm in Anchorage (28th) and Homer (29th)

After the Cook Inlet Water Quality Summit held in Anchorage in October 2023, we surveyed Summit participants to get feedback on the most helpful follow-up gathering.

Overwhelmingly, folks requested community-level discussions about water quality across Cook Inlet. In October 2024 several organizations again partnered to host Cook Inlet Water Quality Summit follow-up community discussions in Anchorage and Homer, representing upper and lower Cook Inlet, for the purposes of:

• Clarifying who is working on what locally, regionally, and Inlet-wide (see Registrants Information);

• Identifying general information needs and data gaps across groups and determining if an existing group/project has information to fill that need/gap;

• Building connections and identifying potential collaborations at the local, regional, and Inlet-wide levels to address pressing needs.

The targeted audiences were representatives of organizations and agencies whose work is related to, or affected by, Cook Inlet’s water quality, as well as participants from the 2023 Cook Inlet Water Quality Summit. For each discussion topic, select individuals provided a very brief overview of their work relating to that topic, what their limitations are, and what they see as pressing needs. There was an open discussion about other pressing needs and potential collaborations. Recognizing the limited time allocated for individual updates in each session, registrants who indicated interest in speaking were offered to have a brief abstract about their work included in this document.

Scroll down to view the Program Book, complete with the agenda, community discussion topics, brief abstracts, and registrant information.

2023 Cook Inlet Water Quality Summit

October 24 & 25, 2023, 9am-5pm at the Marriott Anchorage Downtown in Anchorage, Alaska

Cook Inlet is the most populated watershed in Alaska, home to a diverse array of people, cultures, wildlife, and economic interests. In October, we co-hosted a FREE two-day informational summit, where we shared knowledge on Cook Inlet water quality, biodiversity, research, regulations, policy and more. At this Summit, we sought to:

• Improve understanding of the status of Cook Inlet waters and ecosystems

• Improve understanding of the regulatory framework regarding water quality issues, and engagement with decision-makers

• Identify data gaps and opportunities for collaboration

• Share data concerning Cook Inlet water quality, for the benefit of people and wildlife

Scroll down to view the Program Book, complete with the Summit agenda, speaker bios, presentation abstracts and presentation slides.

If you would like a high resolution copy of the slides, please contact Mandy@akwildlife.org

(Program Book also available here)

The Cook Inlet Water Quality Summit’s planning committee includes representatives from these and other organizations: