The Hoonah Community Forest project promotes opportunities to develop a sustainable forest stewardship economy that reflects customary and traditional practices of the local people.
A partnership between the Tongass People and Place Program, SEACC, Hoonah Indian Association, the City of Hoonah, the US Forest Service, Alaska Department of Labor, and SEAWEAD has developed the Hoonah Community Forest project in an effort to promote engagement and empowerment, capacity development, ecological restoration, sustainable economic development, and storytelling in the community of Hoonah.
The purpose of the Hoonah Community Forest project is to provide tools and recommendations for management of the landscape that is immediately accessible to the community of Hoonah, Alaska i.e. “The Hoonah Community Forest” and to support collaboration on creating a blueprint for the development of healthy social and ecological systems in the Hoonah landscape. The project seeks to:
- Identify places for logging that would have the least impact on important fish and wildlife habitat;
- Identify areas where restoration of fish and wildlife habitat would have the greatest impact in terms of community use and ecological value; and,
- Actively build the community’s uses and needs into a landscape design through the concept of a Community Use Area.
In 2009 SEACC and SEAWEAD collaborated to complete the Hoonah Community Forest project report. This report included a summary of community and ecological values for the community of Hoonah as well as descriptions for opportunities to develop a sustainable forest stewardship economy that reflects customary and traditional practices of the local people. Existing data, experiences from ground-truthing visits and interviews with locals were synthesized in the production of a management guide map that includes three general land use designations: Wilderness Opportunity, Fish and Wildlife Priority and Timber Opportunity.
Ongoing work is currently focused on a RAC (Rural Assistance Center) funded project to use forest restoration in the Kennel Creek watershed as a vehicle for ecosystem workforce development.
For more information on this project, please contact: Bob Christensen, Coordinator Tongass People and Place Program baidarkabob@gmail.com (907) 209-3006
or
Daven Hafey, Community Organizer Southeast Alaska Conservation Council daven@seacc.org (907) 586-6942 If you would like SAWC to promote your community based project or program, please contact Angie Eldred SAWC Communications Coordinator angie@alaskawatershedcoalition.org (907) 766-3745 (616) 481-2101 (c)