Spencer Severson grew up in San Diego abalone diving and learning carpentry. He moved to Ketchikan in 1981 and to Sitka in 1990. He is a salmon troller and previously a diver and experienced sailor. Spencer witnessed clearcut logging and destruction of salmon streams across Southeast Alaska and when he moved to Sitka and found that SCS was “very functional” and the “oldest conservation society in Alaska, naturally I gravitated towards it.” Spencer was SCS Board President in 2016.

In a 2017 interview by SCS, Spencer said, “This is the largest intact temperate rainforest in the world and it’s important that we protect it. I would like to see communities that can live with it, not against it...We need people that love it and want to stay here. It’s wet and it’s cold but it is wild and crazy beautiful and just really special.”

We are grateful for Spencer’s skills and experience during his six weeks of work at Sea Pony Farm in the summer of 2025. He led the charge on two major projects: replacing the workshop roof so it could be ready for our upgraded solar panel and system installation, and constructing the new barn dormer. Spencer traveled from Sitka on his sailing troller, Dryas, which circumnavigated the world with its previous owners.