Fieldnotes Blog

Community Based Wetland Management and Watershed Planning Petersburg and Wrangell October 17th, 2011 [two_columns ] SAWC was invited by resource management professionals in both Petersburg and Wrangell to come to their community and host a discussion and training on Wetland/Aquatic Resource Mitigation and Community-based Watershed Management and Wetland Planning. This is part of SAWC's Wetland and Aquatic Mitigation Initiative, which includes: [list style="arrow" color="teal"] Facilitating Scoping Discussions on Wetland and Aquatic Mitigation: Strategies, Frameworks and Opportunities Hosting community-based watershed management trainings Developing a third party mitigation program Offering consulting services [/list] to communities, landowners, developers, agencies, and non-profits interested in and being impacted by SE Alaska's wetland management decisions and lack of mitigation opportunities. Petersburg October 17th, Council Chambers Participants: [list style="orb" color="green"] Leo Luczak, Director Community Development, City of…

25 professionals from around Southeast Alaska, including Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, Yakutat and Haines received two days of both class-room and field experience learning the basics of wetland delineation. We would like to send out a big thank you to the Chikoot Indian Association, the Alaska District United States Army Corps of Engineers, and all 22 participants that gathered in Haines on July 18th and 19th for the community-based wetland delineation training. Participants had access to the three staffers from both the Juneau and Anchorage offices of the the USACE, as well as an abundance of knowledge and experience brought to the training by participants. Based on the feedback we received on the training the two days were full of resourceful information and networking opportunities that provided participants with knowledge, skills, awarenesses…

Watershed Councils in Haines, Skagway and Juneau hosting films in their communities... Juneau Watershed Partnership: 2nd Annual Wild and Scenic Film Festival Takshanuk Watershed Council: Back Country Film Festival: Friday February 25th, 9pm at Fort Seward Lodge Taiya Inlet Watershed Council: Baked Alaska: Saturday February 19th, 7pm at the Skagway Brewing Company

The work of a watershed council is to help bridge ideological gaps, bring everyone into the conversation, move past the roadblocks, and get on with the work of restoring the watershed... "Watershed Councils: It Takes a Community to Restore a Watershed". Rebecca Flitcroft (Jan. 2011). Pacific Northwest Research Station.

"Top 10 lists are often relentlessly negative: the 10 most-polluting industrial plants, the 10 most befouled beaches, and so on. The spirit of this list is slightly different: Good or bad, these are environmental moments in 2010 that are most likely to reverberate in the world of environmental news in 2011 and beyond." Felicity Barringer reports for the New York Times' Green blog December 31, 2010. SEE ALSO: "Science, People and the Planet in 2010" (Dot Earth) "2010: The Year in Environment" (Guardian) "Year In Review: Science Stories Of 2010" (NPR) Source: Green (NYT), 01/03/2011 These articles are provided by the Society of Environmental Journalists. The Society of Environmental Journalists was created in 1990 by a small group of award-winning journalists. Its mission is to strengthen the quality, reach and viability…

This will be the world’s first large-volume exports of water via tanker: companies have tried unsuccessfully for more than two decades to break open the bulk water export market. Past attempts have been thwarted by daunting logistics, concerns about natural resource sovereignty and commodification as well as the availability of cheaper local sources. [caption id="attachment_153" align="alignnone" width="614" caption="Persistent water shortages are driving creative thinking about the water crisis. Luke Robinson (flickr)"][/caption] Read Article

What the Taiya Inlet Watershed Council is doing to foster community stewardship and improve local fish habitat Pullen Creek Fish Passage Improvement Project: In accordance with its mission to preserve and protect the health of the Taiya Inlet Watershed through research, restoration, education and communication, the Watershed Council and partners including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, identified a series of restoration objectives for Pullen Creek, a salmon spawning area in the heart of Skagway.  The culvert project was planned in response to two perched culverts which inhibited sediment transport and inhibited fish and spawn passage in the creek. At 13.5 alley, the extant culvert was carefully removed and replaced with a larger and properly sloped culvert.  Again care was taken in locating work sites for heavy equipment, bank slopes were…