I am a freshwater ecologist who focuses on the interactions that take place between fish and aquatic macroinvertebrates and the environments that influence those interactions. Currently my work centers around Coal Creek, a stream heavily impacted by placer mining. Located on the Yukon River in Yukon Charley Rivers National Preserve, Coal Creek should otherwise be prime rearing habitat for juvenile Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), however there has been a failure to document their presence an all but the lower portions of the creek near its confluence with the Yukon. With my study I hope to quantify energy available to fish from macroinvertebrate prey in Coal Creek and nearby unmined reference streams to understand the impacts of mining on fish and macroinvertebrate communities.