Sea Pony Farm is Open for the Season
After one of Southeast Alaska’s snowiest winters in recent memory, we did not know exactly what we would find when we returned to Sea Pony Farm at the end of April.
Located in Lisianski Inlet near Pelican, the remote property is winterized each fall before storms, snow, and short winter days settle over the outer coast. When SCS staff members Lione Clare, Kolby Sirowich, and Triona O’Broin arrived to open the farm for the 2026 season, they were relieved to find it in remarkably good shape. Aside from minor snow-load damage to some scaffolding and a temporary woodshed, the property had weathered the winter well.
The work of opening Sea Pony Farm is both practical and deeply satisfying. Together, the crew unpacked dry goods stored in the root cellar, reconnected the rainwater catchment system, launched the skiff, set up the rope haul-out, hung hummingbird feeders, staged debris for proper disposal, and uncovered chimneys. After months of winter cold, they lit fires to bring warmth back into the buildings.
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For Kolby and Triona, both members of SCS’s youth team, it was their first time experiencing Sea Pony Farm.
“It was really special to share this property with staff who hadn’t experienced it yet,” Lione reflected. “Our work doesn’t always cross paths day to day, so getting to know one another better while seeing them develop a firsthand connection to Sea Pony Farm was a wonderful opportunity.”
Several days later, Lione and Kolby welcomed Kiley and Suz, two instructors from the Alaska Marine Safety Education Association, commonly known as AMSEA. In addition to lending a hand at the farm, the instructors traveled to Pelican to teach a day-long cold-water survival and marine safety course for local youth. The visit offered an opportunity to strengthen partnerships while connecting Sea Pony Farm more closely with the surrounding community.
The season also began with some interior and exterior barn work involving crafting and installing cedar shingles, finishing up interior trim and making windows, and installing a new wood stove, flooring, and portions of the roof, as well as much-needed tree maintenance.
At Sea Pony Farm, caring for the landscape does not mean taming it. The goal is not to create a manicured property. It is to care for the farm in a way that respects its wild edges, organic shapes, and sense of belonging within the surrounding Tongass landscape.
Nick of Archon Tree Services Inc. traveled to the farm to care for fruit trees and remove or trim trees that posed safety risks. But the project required a different mindset than a typical arborist job.
“Usually, people want symmetry. They want pruning to look modern. They want to see that work has been done,” Nick reflected. “At Sea Pony Farm, it was the opposite. How do we do the necessary work for the health and safety of the property while making it look like we didn’t touch it? It took me a few days to shift my brain to thinking this way. Every cut I made shifted from automatic to more intentional.”
That meant considering every tree and branch carefully: preserving bird perches, leaving healthy trees undisturbed, and making choices that would allow the property to continue growing naturally over the next ten years and beyond.
“From the water, the work blends into the landscape,” Nick said. “The orchard and surrounding trees still feel like part of the place rather than something imposed upon it. That was the intention.”
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Sea Pony Farm was once the home of renowned Southeast Alaska artists Eric and Pam Bealer, who left the property to Sitka Conservation Society with the hope that it would “continue to help and protect this land that we so love.”
Today, we are restoring and caring for the farm as an outpost for wilderness stewardship and a place where artists, community members, and changemakers can experience the Tongass firsthand.
For Nick, that connection came quickly.
“I felt like I could sit on the beach in Lisianski Inlet and stare out at the views for eight hours. I found myself pausing a beat longer than I normally would at the top of the canopy to just look at this place,” he said. “If I were trapped anywhere in the world, I’d want it to be here.”
We are deeply grateful to Nick and Archon Tree Services for bringing skill, flexibility, and a thoughtful stewardship ethic to this special place. Every project at Sea Pony Farm helps us care for what the Bealers entrusted to our community while creating a space that can continue inspiring connection, creativity, and care for the Tongass for generations to come.