Angie Eldred | Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition

22May 2017 by Angie Eldred

Growing Produce in Southeast Alaska: Economic Opportunities in the Last Frontier

Most of us know that supporting local business and localizing our food system is important, but just how big of an impact could a local food economy have for Southeast Alaska? Members of the Sustainable Southeast Partnership, Spruce Root Community Development, Grow Southeast, and the Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition partnered to produce a study on the economic impacts of localizing vegetable production in Southeast Alaska. Check out the handy infographic below, and read the full report here!

31Mar 2017 by Angie Eldred

2016 Petersburg Beach Monitoring Program Results: Sandy Beach Park

Community Watershed Stewardship

Last summer the Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition (SAWC) in partnership with the Petersburg Indian Association continued a second year of recreational beach monitoring to test a popular local beach for levels of harmful bacteria. With support from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), the Petersburg Beach program sampled waters at Sandy Beach Park for organisms that indicate fecal contamination. The Beach Program was established by the Alaska DEC through the Alaska Clean Water Actions program to provide support for communities to begin monitoring marine water quality at high-priority beaches for bacterial pollution, specifically, fecal coliform and enterococci. A partnership between the State of Alaska’s Departments of Environmental Conservation, Fish & Game, and Natural Resources, ACWA was created to characterize Alaska’s waters in a holistic manner, and facilitate the sharing…

06Jan 2017 by Angie Eldred

How to be a “Stream Friendly” Landowner

Community Watershed Stewardship

There are hundreds of salmon streams throughout Southeast Alaska and chances are likley that you live next to or close to one of them! The Juneau Watershed Partnership has created a handy brochure to help streamside landowners be good neighbors to their stream-dwelling friends. The brochure has some helpful information for Juneau-specific streams, and tips that apply to streams through Southeast Alaska. Streamside landowners play a critical role in protecting and maintaining the high quality of water and habitat our salmon and wildlife populations need to thrive. Being "stream-friendly" means making choices that minimize impacts to our creeks, streams, rivers and lakes. The pay off is clean drinking water, healthy and functioning fish and wildlife habitat, and sustained fish and wildlife populations. Check out the Juneau Watershed Partnership's brochure, "…

28Oct 2016 by Angie Eldred

Now Hiring: Environmental Science Intern for Water Quality Monitoring

Uncategorized

In partnership with the Juneau Watershed Partnership (JWP), the Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition seeks an Environmental Science Intern to carry out the collection of water quality monitoring data on the Duck Creek Watershed in Juneau: The JWP in partnership with the Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition (SAWC) and the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) will collect data to determine the effectiveness of the Nancy Street wetland in improving water quality conditions on Duck Creek. Since 1994, Duck Creek was listed on the state’s Impaired Waters List for non-attainment of dissolved oxygen (DO), residues/debris, metals (specifically iron), fecal coliform bacteria, and turbidity standards. The Nancy Street wetland is one of many restoration projects completed on Duck Creek to improve water quality, but there has been little to no water quality monitoring to…

29Sep 2016 by Angie Eldred

Localizing the Food System: Developing a Food Hub for SE Alaska

Community Food Sustainability, Community Watershed Stewardship

In Southeast Alaska, improved access to local foods and a more reliable food supply are critical components of self-reliance and community resiliency. Residents of the region's rural communities face high and rising costs of living, a declining state economy, and dependence upon air and water transport for delivery of basic commodities including food and petroleum products. According to a report commissioned by the Alaska Dept. of Health and Social Services, 95% of the food purchased in Alaska is imported, often shipped through extensive supply chains arriving by truck, airplane, and barge. The high cost of imported foods and lengthy supply chain make Southeast Alaska communities vulnerable to unforeseen disruptions in larger national food and transport systems, and send local dollars outside of the state. Many communities throughout the region have begun prioritizing…

08Aug 2016 by Angie Eldred

Southeast Alaska Stream Temperature Monitoring Network Seeks to Coordinate Climate Data Collection

Community Watershed Stewardship

SAWC will begin development of a stream temperature monitoring network in Southeast Alaska with funding from the North Pacific Landscape Conservation Cooperative (NPLCC) [caption id="attachment_6071" align="alignnone" width="611"] Scott Harris downloads stream temperature data from a logger placed in Salmon Lake Creek on Baranof Island[/caption] Stream temperatures affect salmonid emergence, growth, and survival in freshwater stages of their lifecycle. In Southeast Alaska, climate change is expected to affect stream temperatures as air temperatures warm and hydrologic patterns shift. Understanding and anticipating these changes will be critical for predicting how salmon species and other aquatic resources be will affected by climate change. Although stream temperature is being monitored in many locations in Southeast Alaska, data collection is not coordinated across entities, and data sources can be difficult to identify and…

29Jul 2016 by Angie Eldred

New Faces at SAWC!

Community Watershed Stewardship

We've had some new faces join the crew at SAWC in the last few months, and would like to give a warm welcome to the staff who are working with the Coalition to advance the informed management of our region's watersheds! Meet the newest members of the SAWC team: Rebecca Bellmore, Science Director [one_third] [/one_third] [two_third_last] Rebecca recently moved to Juneau after almost a decade in the Pacific Northwest. She’s enjoying exploring the many hiking trails, berry picking, and fishing. She’s excited to get to know Southeast Alaska’s communities and work with them to protect and improve watershed health and sustainability. Rebecca has a graduate degree in Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences from Washington State University. She has studied stream watershed nutrient cycling in the context of mitigation strategies for the…

19Jul 2016 by Angie Eldred

SAWC Wraps Up the Wrangell Beach Monitoring Program; Petersburg Begins Second Year

Community Watershed Stewardship

The Wrangell Beach Monitoring Program collected its final samples this June, wrapping up 2 years of water quality monitoring for bacterial contamination on high-use recreational beaches near the Wrangell community. [caption id="attachment_6040" align="alignnone" width="611"] City Park beach near Wrangell, AK[/caption] [caption id="attachment_6039" align="alignleft" width="611"] Petersburg Indian Association sampling technicians learn sampling protocol for the program[/caption] The end of June saw the completion of the first year of data collection for the Petersburg Beach Monitoring Program. The Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition has received funding through the State of Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation's Alaska Clean Water Actions (ACWA) Program to carry out a second year of water quality monitoring at the popular Sandy Beach park near Petersburg. The Petersburg Beach…

07Jun 2016 by Angie Eldred

Resource Managers Build Watershed Restoration Capacity at Regional Workshop

Events, Trainings & Opportunities, Restoration & Mitigation

The 2016 Southeast Alaska Stream and Watershed Restoration Workshop brought together 21 Natural Resource Management Practitioners from across the region and 6 experienced Instructors from the Pacific Northwest for five days of intensive watershed restoration study, discussion, and field visits on Prince of Wales Island this May. Led by a cadre of Restoration Practitioners from The US Forest Service and the US Fish and Wildlife Service based in Oregon, the workshop brought new perspectives on watershed restoration goals and objectives, design, implementation, and monitoring. Instructors shared their expertise and experience working on watershed restoration efforts throughout the Pacific Northwest, and facilitated lively discussion around the opportunities, needs, challenges, and successes of restoration in Southeast Alaska. Participants spent a day in the field on POW at a reach of…

30Mar 2016 by Angie Eldred

SAWC to assist with Shelikof Creek restoration project

Community Watershed Stewardship, Restoration & Mitigation

SAWC will be partnering with the Sitka Conservation Society, The Nature Conservancy, and the Tongass National Forest with their efforts to restore fish habitat in Shelikof Creek on Kruzof Island this year. Shelikof Creek is an important recreational, subsistence, commercial, and sport-guided salmon and steelhead stream near Sitka. Approximately 26% of the streamside forests in this watershed were logged in the 1960’s and 70’s. During that harvest, segments of the stream were also “cleaned”. This was a common practice back in those days where stream beds were used as roads to access timber stands and large wood was actually removed from the stream. These activities occurred before unharvested stream buffers were mandated, in order to protect habitat, by policy in 1990. Restoring habitat in Shelikof Creek was identified as…

Author: Angie Eldred