The Mat-Su Basin Salmon Conservation Partnership earned the U.S. Department of Interior's 2007 Cooperative Conservation Award. Last summer the borough and U.S. Fish and Wildlife teamed up to restore several salmon crossings by installing fish-friendly culverts beneath Mat-Su roads. In the Mat-Su, salmon are swimming in some places where they haven't been for years. In 2006, the habitat restoration project revived salmon in Moose Creek near Chickaloon. Several representatives of the partnership will be traveling to the award ceremony, which is to be held in Washington, D.C., April 21. The Matanuska-Susitna Basin Salmon Conservation Partnership is a broad-based, cooperative effort to better steward the region's salmon resources while maintaining economic prosperity. The partnership can be found on the Web at nature.org/Alaska, or for information call Borough Planner Frankie Barker at (907) 746-7439.

The Port of Seattle welcomed Lufthansa's first flight to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, marking new daily international nonstop service between Seattle and Frankfurt, Germany. Lufthansa's service not only will connect Seattle to Germany, but also will allow passengers to make connections to Europe, Russia, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and India. The airline is the largest carrier of international passengers in the world and Frankfurt is the eighth largest airport in the world.