Kenai Peninsula salmon buffer review shows 3 of 32 restoration tax credits approved

The Kenai Peninsula Borough has approved three of 32 restoration tax credit applications so far this year, according to its annual review of the 50-foot salmon stream buffer. River Center Manager Samantha Lopez presents the review to the borough Planning Commission on Monday, Oct. 26, in Soldotna.

The buffer, called the Habitat Protection District, covers "all lands within 50 horizontal feet of anadromous waterbodies," the streams, rivers and lakes salmon and other fish use to spawn, rear or migrate. Tree cutting, bank restoration, walkways, structures, fill, grading, culverts, bridges and roads there need a permit. Trimming, planting native vegetation and removing naturally downed trees do not.

The 32 credit applications are the most of any year in the review's chart, which begins in 2020. The three approvals are the fewest. Last year the borough received 19 applications and approved 15. The records do not say whether the rest of this year's requests are still pending or were denied.

The credit repays up to half of the land tax assessment or the project cost, whichever is less, for three tax years after work such as a walkway, spruce revetment or bank restoration within 150 feet of protected water. A 2024 review put the credits' value at $13,056 to $34,101 a year from 2019 through 2023.

Tree cutting in the district has fallen from its peak. The review counts 391 trees removed so far this year, down from 2,772 in 2022. The 2024 review tied the surge to the spruce bark beetle outbreak, saying trees cut in the district "have increased 10x." Tree removal permits fell from 226 in 2021 to 58 this year.

The district now counts 980 regulated waterbodies, 875 streams and rivers and 105 lakes, up from 793 in May 2024. Assembly ordinances added waters newly documented in the state's anadromous catalog in the South District in 2024 and the West District in 2025. "Maintaining watershed connectivity via riparian habitat buffers along anadromous waterbodies is one crucial tool that has proven to aid in sustaining the Kenai Peninsula's salmon populations," Lopez wrote in an August 2025 memo on the West District measure.

Overall habitat permits fell from about 164 in 2020 to about 110 so far this year. Since 2020, 87% have been on the Kenai River and 5% on the Kasilof. In June, Alaska News reported on a company's request to build a cabin inside the Kenai River buffer.

The commission meets at 7:30 pm Monday. The review is an informational item, not a public hearing; the agenda allows public comment on items not set for hearing.