The Sitka Conservation Society has received funding to being a monitoring project that will assess the effectiveness of salmon habitat restoration projects on the Tongass National Forest on Prince of Wales Island. This monitoring project will take a "Triple Bottom Line" approach, addressing environmental, economic, and social values to bolster the project's overall impact to support developing resilient Southeast Alaska communities. More about this project from SCS below: [gview file="https://www.alaskawatershedcoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Salmon-Habitat-Monitoring-annoucement.pdf"] [caption id="attachment_4008" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Scott Harris of SCS surveys a stream in Hoonah for restoration opportunities[/caption] For more information on this project, contact: Scott Harris, Conservation Science Director Sitka Conservation Society 907.738.4091 scott@sitkawild.org
Post written by Lia Heifetz [caption id="attachment_4233" align="aligncenter" width="611"] Kake youth learn fish processing techniques at this summer’s Culture Camp[/caption] This fall, residents of Kake participated in a focus group to understand where opportunities exist to improve local wild food gathering and harvesting. The goal of this focus group was to determine which future cooperative efforts and direct investments in resources may improve the ease and efficiency of local gathering and harvesting. Constructive and instructive feedback was heard from seven Kake residents who participated in gathering wild foods. The dominant topic of discussion was the subsistence harvest of sockeye salmon. Due to high prices of fuel, the cost of harvesting sockeye salmon under current procedures may not make sense financially and environmentally. Changes to make the process more…
This November community leaders and practitioners from 7 Southeast communities gathered for two days to share their stories, goals, opportunities, and challenges faced working toward sustainable community development and resource management in Southeast Alaska. [one_half] [/one_half] [one_half_last] Those individuals that attended this meeting actively participate in a collaborative network of professionals and organizations with the common goal of supporting community efforts through information, knowledge, and resource exchange to build projects, programs and strategies that respond to the most pressing issues facing our communities, economies, and environments in Southeast Alaska. Coordinated by SAWC in partnership with the Tongass People and Place Program, this collaborative effort is called the Sustainable Southeast Network. This first Annual Meeting of the Sustainable Southeast Network brought together community-based professionals from Haines, Skagway, Juneau, Sitka,…
Like many communities in rural Southeast Alaska, Hoonah is working to address issues with high cost energy, sustainable economic development, and informed resource management. John Hillman, Director of Natural Resources for the Hoonah Indian Association, has developed a multi-faceted project that addresses multiple community needs while building a workforce with the skills necessary to adapt to the changing economic climate in rural Southeast Alaska. The primary goal of this project is to use ecological forest restoration as an avenue for local workforce capacity development in an effort to improve both forest and community resilience. In a collaborative effort between the US Forest Service, Hoonah Indian Assocation, City of Hoonah, Southeast Alaska Conservation Council (SEACC), and Southeast Alaska Wilderness Exploration, Analysis, and Discovery (SEAWEAD), John has assembled…
[caption id="attachment_1439" align="alignleft" width="711"] Sitka, Alaska. Image from City & Borough of Sitka website[/caption] Last month, the Coalition teamed up with Bob Christensen, coordinator for the People Place Program and Mike Skinner, a sustainable economic development specialist from Bainbridge Graduate Institute in Seattle to spend a week in Sitka checking out the happenings at Southeast Conference's Annual Meeting and meeting with members of the community working firsthand on informed resource management and sustainable development issues. We first met with Lisa Sadleir-Hart, Board President of the Sitka Local Foods Network. She gave us a brief history of the organization, born of a community need for access to more nutritious, locally produced foods. Sitka Local Foods Network promotes and encourages the use of locally grown, harvested, and produced foods in Sitka…
Food Security in Sitka: The Sitka Local Foods Network Born of a need and desire voiced by the Sitka community to have more access to healthy, locally produced foods, The Sitka Local Foods Network is a non-profit organization working to support a thriving local food system in their community. During the 2008 Annual Sitka Health Summit, community members identified a need for better access to healthy, locally produced food as a community health priority. The Sitka Local Foods Network was created to support the development of a community market, community greenhouse, and community garden program to promote a local food system. The Local Foods Network currently focuses on the following five priorities: 1. Creating and operating the Sitka Farmers Market 2. Expanding local community and family…
This year the Taiya Inlet Watershed Council in Skagway undertook a project to protect critical salmon spawning habitat in Pullen Creek, a popular attraction for visitors. [caption id="attachment_1355" align="aligncenter" width="507"] Pullen Creek and proposed project site[/caption] Located near Skagway's cruise ship docks and featuring dazzling annual runs of king, pink, and coho salmon, Pullen Creek is an easily accessible natural attraction for the many visitors traveling to Skagway each summer. Unfortunately, lacking a formal trail system or viewing area, the creek's riparian area has become degraded by visitors walking along the creek's edges to experience the salmon up close; causing streambank erosion, and trampled riparian vegetation that impact habitat crucial to salmon reproduction in the creek. Road near the creek and riparian area before fence…
Food security and self-reliance are critical components to building sustainable communities in Southeast Alaska. Southeast communities’ characteristic remoteness and isolation make transport and delivery of important resources such as food or fuel more difficult. Recognizing the importance of working toward community self-reliance and increasing community food security, the residents of Haines voiced a desire for access to more locally produced foods. The Takshanuk Watershed Council listened to this request and responded with the development of their Grow Strong food security program. The World Food Summit of 1996 defined food security as existing “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”. Food prices in Southeast communities carry a shipping cost that can be seen in the higher price…
The City and Borough of Yakutat is working on a paleontology project to get a glimpse at historic salmon runs of the past on the Situk River. In partnership with the University of Idaho, University of Alaska, and the Army Corps of Engineers, the project will combine paleontology and genetics work to gain a better understanding of what sockeye runs on the Situk River looked like years ago. The Nunatak and Hubbard glaciers are part of one of the largest ice fields on earth and are melting rapidly, which is causing the glaciers to surge. Flooding of the Situk River occurred in the nineteenth century and it is likely that a flooding event will occur again, which may severely impact many of the species on which…
Video and narrative courtesy of Sitka Conservation Society Second Growth Structures in the Tongass National Forest from Sitka Conservation Society on Vimeo. On July 3rd, 2013, Agriculture Secretary Vilsack announced a commitment to conserving the remaining old growth temperate rainforests on the Tongass National Forest. He stated that this will be accomplished by transitioning timber harvest out of old growth harvest towards using 2nd growth forest resources. This announcement comes on the heels of announcements by President Obama regarding the need to take action on climate change and to conserve, restore, and protect forest resources as a carbon bank to mitigate climate change. The Sitka Conservation Society applauds this announcement and feels that the time is past due for conserving what remains of our globally rare temperate rainforest old…
