"Aint no power like the power of the people ‘cause the power of the people don't stop!" We as a community have great potential to create the change we want to see in the world because this change is initiated by something we all have—our voice. We have the ability to envision things differently, contemplate the steps necessary to enact our vision, and then put those steps into action through our words, community involvement, and passion. These efforts typically don't have to start with a large group of people because change can begin with an individual, and that individual could be you.

When I met local Sitkan Paul Rioux and experienced his determination to raise awareness about genetically engineered salmon, I was seeing firsthand the power of voice and the importance of standing up for your beliefs. For Paul, organizing a rally that would protest genetically engineered salmon was one of those ways to stand up. "I saw that there were rallies going on in other parts of the country, and I decided that it would be nice to do one here," Paul said. Through Paul's actions, over 130 people came to the rally, which was then publicized by Senator Murkowski, Senator Begich, and Representative Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins. Four days after the event, the Food and Drug Administration announced they were going to extend the period to comment on genetically engineered salmon by 60 days, with the new date being April 26th, 2013. I'm certain that Sitka's activism helped spur this extension.

To make this happen, we started small. We gained support from fishing organizations like the Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association (ALFA) and the Alaska Troller's Association (ATA), who passed the message on to their members; we held sign-making parties at the SCS office, Blatchley Middle School, and Ventures; flyers were created, posted, and handed out, featuring both information on the rally and how to submit a comment to the FDA opposing genetically engineered salmon; Raven Radio had us on their Morning Interview, where myself, Paul, and David Wilcox, a Blatchley middle school student running across the country in protest of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), discussed the negative impacts of genetically engineered salmon; both the Mudflats blog and Fish Radio with Laine Welch hosted information on the rally to raise awareness to their subscribers that the FDA was considering approving genetically engineered salmon; and the day of the event, the local news station, the Sitka Sentinel, and Raven Radio came out to document the event, which made it on the front page of the paper. Days after the rally, Sitka's Assembly also approved, on a 7-0 vote, a resolution stating the city's opposition to frankenfish.

Technology more than ever can be used to organize our social networks, tell our stories to folks that live in communities all over the country, and enforce our opinion to decision makers to listen to their constituents. This can happen with any issue that we find ourselves passionate about, and for Paul that issue was the health of our wild salmon from the Tongass.

It is right here in our community that we can create the world we want to see through our actions, but this can only happen through an engaged, active citizenry. Far too often I encounter folks who are somewhat cynical to the democratic process, folks that have lost faith in the power of their voice. But in the end, if no one takes action, nothing gets done.

What kind of world do you want to live in? For us at the Sitka Conservation Society, we want the management of the Tongass to benefit the communities that depend upon its natural resources while supporting the habitats of the salmon, black tail-deer, and bears that roam wildly about. Sitkans like Paul Rioux remind us that our voice is a catalyst for change, and by speaking and standing up for what you believe in, we can continuously create the world we want to live in. Let us stand up together, generate the renewable energy of people power, and work towards that future some say is a dream but can be a reality if we work towards it.

If you haven't submitted a comment opposing Frankenfish, please go to http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=FDA-2011-N-0899-0685. For the required field "Organization Name," you can put "Citizen" and for the category, you can put "Individual Consumer." Do it right now, it only takes a few minutes!

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Bob Christensen, original member of SCS's Groundtruthing Project team, recently completed a comprehensive review of forest restoration methods for The Wilderness Society. This very readable work provides a thorough background of the why, how, and where of restoring forest habitats in the Tongass National Forest. It also describes a concise method for prioritizing restoration locations based on ecological, social, and economic criteria. We used this work to inform the prioritization we conducted for the Sitka Community Use Area. Efforts like this are critical to our understanding and ever-constant learning about how to restore fish and wildlife habitat in Southeast Alaska.

You can view Bob's report below or download an 8 Mb version by clicking on this link.

 

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The Sitka Conservation Society will hold their annual meeting on Thursday, February 21^stbeginning at 7:00 pm at the Harrigan Centennial Hall Exhibit Room. SCS staff will give a brief update on current SCS developments and projects. There will be a special showing of the short film, Discovering the Tongass. All SCS members and anyone who interested in becoming a member are encouraged to attend. Light desserts and non-alcoholic drinks will be served.

Discovering the Tongass

The film features the extraordinary landscapes, wildlife and people of the largest National Forest in the U.S. It showcases diverse landscapes - from dense, green rainforests to stark, glowing-blue glaciers - all filmed from land, air and sea in gorgeous high definition cinematography. Experience the Tongass from the top of old growth trees to caves hidden deep beneath their roots. Travel to rivers where bears and eagles feast on spawning salmon. View whales moving through the Inside Passage; thousands of snow geese migrating to river deltas; sea lions frolicking among spring's breaking ice. This fill was created for the Forest Service to be shown at the Mendenhall Visitor Center in Juneau.

This expedition is part of Sitka Conservation Society's Community Wilderness Stewardship Project. The Project, begun in 2009, is a partnership between SCS and the Tongass National Forest Service to collect base-line data on the ecological conditions and human impacts to designated Wilderness areas. The Tongass NF in Southeast Alaska is the nation's largest National Forest totaling 17 million acres with almost 6 million acres of designated Wilderness Area (also the largest total Wilderness area of any National Forest). Almost all of this land is only accessible by boat or on foot. Because most Tongass Wilderness Areas are so difficult to access, Forest Service Wilderness rangers rarely, if ever, have the ability to monitor areas which require technical skills, lots of time, or difficult logistics for access. SCS augments and fills in the gaps in data by targeting these areas.

For the 2013 project, the SCS Wilderness crew will work with Craig and Thorne Bay Ranger Districts to conduct a monitoring expedition to a set of outercoast islands adjacent to Prince of Wales Island including Coronation Is., Warren Is., the Spanish Is., and the Maurelle Is.

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Find out where the crew is at right now with SPOT satellite tracking![/box]

The Team:

Adam Andis, is the Communications Director for SCS. He has managed the Wilderness Stewardship Program since 2011. Andis first started paddling on a National Outdor Leadership School expedition in Prince William Sound. He guided kayak trips all over Southeast Alaska for Spirit Walker Expeditions before moving to Sitka to work for SCS. Andis is a Level 4 ACA Instructor, a Leave-No-Trace Master Educator, and Wilderness First Responder. He is also on the board of directors of the National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance and has a passion for Wilderness preservation and protection.

 

Rob Avery, has been paddling since he was a teenager (and that was a long time ago!) racing sprint and marathon in Junior K1. Originally from the UK, Rob now lives in the Pacific Northwest where he manages distribution for Valley & North Shore kayaks. He is also the regional rep for Snap Dragon, Level Six and other fun paddlesports stuff under hisActive Paddlesbusiness, and also runsKayak Kraftcoaching service. Rob is an ACA Level 5 Instructor, Level 4 BCU coach, 5 star BCU paddler, Wilderness First Responder, Leave-No-Trace Instructor and no stranger to Alaska where is has spend many windy and rainy days paddling in the SE, central, Kodiak and the Aleutian Islands.

Cris Lewis,

 

 

 

 

Paul Norwood, was born and raised in Paris, and has lived in Alaska since 1999. He spent a few years fishing and working in canneries, then did odd jobs in the interior of the state. Finally, he went to Sitka where he studied liberal arts and Spanish at UAS and worked as a tour guide on wildlife watching cruises. He has been on the Sitka Mountain Rescue team for several years, completed a year of Americorps service at the Sitka Sound Science Center, did an internship with the Peruvian Ministry of the Environment and a stint on a trail crew in southern Patagonia, and participated with numerous organizations on small projects ranging from traditional gardening to mapping invasive species. Paul has Emergency Medical Technician certification.

Dates and Duration: We are planning 16 days for the trip (11 field days, 2 travel days, and 2 weather days). The trip will begin June 16th and the crew will return to Sitka on July 2nd.

Route: The crew will pack boats in the small fishing village of Port Alexander. The crux of the trip will be the 12.5 nm open-water crossing of Chatham Strait to Kuiu Island. From there, the crew will paddle south to Cape Decision and stay at the Cape Decision Lighthouse. On to the Spanish Island and Coronation Island where the crew will monitor recreation sites and record visitor use data, survey for invasive plants, conduct owl broadcast surveys, swab toads for fungal infections, and a litany of other research goals. From Coronation, the team will cross to Warren, then down to the Maurelles to meet up with Craig Ranger District staff and Youth Conservation Corps to help out in the field. Back at the final destination in Craig, the crew will lead a kayak skills and rescue class for the Ranger District staff and community members in Craig. The trip will wrap up with an adventure in ferry hopping from Craig to Ketchikan and finally back to Sitka.

 

Itinerary:

Pre-trip: send kayaks to Port Alexander on mailboat

June 16: Fly in small plane to Port Alexander, cross Chatham Strait to Kuiu Island.

June 17: Paddle along Kuiu to The Spanish Islands and Coronation.

June 18: Survey Coronation I.

June 22: Paddle to Warren island and survey.

June 25: Paddle to Maurelle Island group.

June 26: Meet the Craig Wilderness Rangers and Youth Conservation Corps in the Maurelles to help with projects

June 27: Survey Maurelle Islands

June 28: Paddle to Craig

June 29: Teach kayak skills and rescue training for Craig community.

June 30: Catch InnerIsland ferry to Ketchikan

July 1: catch Alaska Marine Ferry to Sitka.

July 2: Return to Sitka, compile data, sort and clean gear, then drink some cold beers

 

 

For more information, please contact Andis at [email protected] or (907) 747-7509.

A FOOD Film Festival!

Learn what is happening in the Food Movement locally, nationally, and globally. Check out the films, join the roundtable discussion, and tune into Rob Kineen's keynote presentation on the use of local and traditional foods. Sink into your chair, munch on some popcorn, and get your taste buds in on the movie-theater experience! Films are free but donations are encouraged. Check out the line up below. Click on the title to learn more about the film.

 

Friday 8:30 pm: Feature Film @ Larkspur

Saturday 10:00 Ratatouille (Family Friendly Kid Movie) 12:30 Ingredients (111 min) 2:30 End of the Line (82 min) 3:45 Two Angry Moms (86 min) 5:30-6:30 Roundtable Discussion on Sitka's Food Resiliency 8:30 Feature Film @ Larkspur

Sunday 10:00 Feast at Midnight (Family Friendly Kid Movie) 12:30 Food Fight (91 min) 2:30 Bitter Seeds (88 min) 4:00 Food Stamped (63 min) 6:00 KEYNOTE speaker: Tlingit Chef Rob Kinnen "Store Outside Your Door" 7:00 Economics of Happiness(65 min)

--"Store Outside Your Door" Shorts will be shown in between a few films on both Saturday and Sunday. --All Movies screened in the Exhibit Room at Centennial Hall unless noted otherwise

Our Generous SPONSORS: SCS, Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust, SEARHC, Sitka Food Coop, Art Change, Film Society, Alaska Pure Sea Salt Co., and the Larkspur Cafe.

 

 

This past week, I checked an usual piece of luggage with me on the plane down to Albuquerque: a box of frozen Marten, Ermine, and River Otter skulls, femurs, and intestinal parasites. I was delivering my parcel to Steve O. MacDonald and Dr. Joe Cook (who literally wrote the book on Alaskan mammals) and Jonathan Dunnum, the collections manager at the University of New Mexico Museum of Southwest Biology as part of the ISLES (Island Surveys to Locate Endemic Species) project. ISLES is attempting to create a Tongass-wide catalog of mammal species to use in future research. SCS has been collecting vole in alpine areas of Chichagof and Baranof Island for the past 3 years as part of the Wilderness Project. But it's not just scientists and researchers who are involved.

"Trappers and hunters are clearly stakeholders in the maintenance of sustainably harvestable wildlife populations in SE Alaska and typically have the best local knowledgeable about the animals they are interested in."

ISLES relies on trappers and hunters to do what they do best and provide specimens of furbearers and big game animals to help create an archive of mammal species throughout Southeast Alaska. The samples will be included with non-game species collected by biologists and field crews, in the archive at the University of New Mexico and will be a valuable resource for management by providing a baseline of for future studies. Check out the ISLES site to learn more about the project and to learn how you can help by collecting and contributing samples.

ISLES is a progressive type of project because it recognizes the need to involve the folks who are actually on the ground. Its a new breed of conservation biology that we are likely to see a lot more of in the future if budgets for agencies and funds for research grants decrease. Budget realities are one impetus for projects like this, but it is also just common sense. The hunters, trappers, fishermen and women, recreationists, and other folks who spend countless hours in the field already have a more intuitive understanding of the environment and the most familiarity with conditions in the field. These folks are also those with the most invested in research that promotes conservation of the very resources they rely on.

If you would like to collect specimens for the ISLES Project contact:

Jon Martin Assistant Professor of Biology Department of Natural Sciences University of Alaska Southeast-Sitka 1332 Seward St. Sitka, AK 99835 [email protected] 907-747-7752  

All of us at SCS are excited about this hybridization of science and in situ, on-the-ground data collection. Soon, we will be compiling all of the citizen science initiatives that Sitkans can take part in on our Citizen Science page. Be sure to check back as we populate that page to see how you can get involved.

Partners:

US Forest Service

Alaska Department of Fish and Game

US Fish and Wildlife Service

University of Alaska Southeast

Sitka High School

Sitka Conservation Society

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The event will take place on Saturday, February 9th, from 1:00 to 1:30 pm, at the Crescent Harbor Shelter.

This a quick get together to show public opposition to the pending FDA approval. It's not too late to comment to the FDA, come learn why and how!

I'm inviting the press, so we really want a great showing.FRANKENFISH are a danger to our wild stocks,and to the marketplace.

Find out more about this issue by clicking the link below

http://archive.sitkawild.org/2013/01/senator-begich-works-to-protect-salmon-and-fights-gmo-salmon/

 

Friday, February 8th, 7:00 pm, UAS, Sitka, Room 220

Learn about research into the interactions of ice, land and sea across Southeast Alaska at the end of the last ice age. Recent discoveries, some in the Sitka area have been used in an attempt to model changing shorelines from the end of the last ice age into the present. You are invited to enter in to the discussion in hopes that you may know of places that will help with development and refining future models. This talk is free and open to the public. If you have any questions, please call Kitty at 747-9432

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Notorious for having bikes chained along its railway, the Sitka Sound Science center is upgrading its parking for those traveling on wheels. The Construction Tech class at Sitka High, under the instruction of Randy Hughey, is building a bike shelter for the Science center made of young growth Sitka spruce and old growth red cedar from Prince of Wales Island. The 6,000 board feet of this Alaskan wood was milled by Mel Cooke of Last Chance Enterprises out of Thorne Bay. From Cooke's perspective, the logs are very easy to work with – very symmetrical, very little taper, and mostly comes out straight. "I enjoy cutting it, it cuts real easy, and the wood looks really good-- beautiful boards" says Mel.

Back at Sitka High, the students have already begun applying a preservative treatment to the future deck of the bike shelter to protect the wood. The bike shelter will also rest on top of skids so that water can drain out of the shelter instead of forming pools that will rot the wood. The deck of the shelter is made of Yellow Cedar and Sitka Spruce. The framing and roof deck will be made of rough sawn Sitka Spruce and the structure will be sided and roofed with Red Cedar.

The timber framing of the bike shed is made possible thanks to Daniel Sheehan, a recent Alaska transplant from Massachusetts. Dan showed up at the SCS alder nightstand open house at Sitka High and met Randy Hughey. They discovered a mutual love of classic pegged mortise and tenon timber framing. Dan has worked for four years for Ted Benson Timber Framing in the Northeast United States and volunteered to help teach Randy and the students how to timber frame.

This bike shelter will serve both as a useable space for bikes but also a testament that young growth wood can be used in construction and carpentry fields. It also demonstrates that building with local wood builds community, relationships, and sustains the knowledge of carpentry for future generations.

Funding for this project was provided by the National Forest Foundation as part of an ongoing effort to support sustainable timber harvest and local markets in the Tongass National Forest. The purpose is to invigorate markets for Tongass young-growth timber products, particularly in Southeast Alaska, by exploring their performance in a variety of interior and exterior applications. By sharing practical information, broadening the knowledge base, and connecting local producers with consumers, the Sitka Conservation Society hopes to help builders, woodworkers, resource managers and others make more informed decisions about using Tongass young-growth.

This school year, SCS partnered with the Sitka High School Construction Tech program to explore and demonstrate ways that young-growth red alder and Sitka spruce from the Tongass can be used in building and woodworking. The projects that resulted are profiled, along with others from throughout the region, in "Alaskan Grown: A Guide to Tongass Young Growth Timber and its Uses," published by SCS this month.

DOWNLOAD a version for printing.

Whether you are a builder, woodworker, consumer, or simply interested in the growing conversation around Tongass young-growth timber, the guide profiles projects throughout the region and shares practical insights about the quality and performance of local young-growth in a variety of applications. It also discusses basic challenges and opportunities surrounding the eventual U.S. Forest Service transition to young-growth timber harvest on the Tongass, which was announced in 2010.

Funding for this guide was provided by the U.S. Forest Service and the National Forest Foundation as part of an ongoing effort to support sustainable timber harvest and local markets in the Tongass National Forest. The purpose is to invigorate markets for Tongass young-growth timber products, particularly in Southeast Alaska, by exploring their performance in a variety of interior and exterior applications. By sharing practical information, broadening the knowledge base, and connecting local producers with consumers, we hope to help builders, woodworkers, resource managers and others make more informed decisions about using Tongass young-growth.

Check out the guide to learn more about:

• Why Tongass young-growth is important right now
• What the most common species are, and how they can be used
• Where Tongass young growth is being used, including in the Sitka High School construction tech program, U.S. Forest Service public recreation cabins, and private homes
• When experts predict economic harvest of young-growth will be possible on the Tongass
• What it will take to start shaping a sustainable local young-growth industry with the opportunities we have today

We know there is significant interest in the use of young growth, and we believe Southeast Alaska communities can sustain small young-growth timber operations that support local expertise and sustainable economic development. Harvesters, processors, builders, and consumers throughout the region are interested in realizing this vision. We hope that this guide will be one small step toward expanding and informing this conversation.