07Oct 2013 by Angie Eldred
Community Snapshot: Sitka

Community Snapshot: Sitka

Community Watershed Stewardship
[caption id="attachment_1439" align="alignleft" width="711"] Sitka, Alaska. Image from City & Borough of Sitka website[/caption]   Last month, the Coalition teamed up with Bob Christensen, coordinator for the People Place Program and Mike Skinner, a sustainable economic development specialist from Bainbridge Graduate Institute in Seattle to spend a week in Sitka checking out the happenings at Southeast Conference's Annual Meeting and meeting with members of the community working firsthand on informed resource management and sustainable development issues.   We first met with Lisa Sadleir-Hart, Board President of the Sitka Local Foods Network. She gave us a brief history of the organization, born of a community need for access to more nutritious, locally produced foods. Sitka Local Foods Network promotes and encourages the use of locally grown, harvested, and produced foods in Sitka…
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03Jul 2013 by Angie Eldred
Kake Oyster Farm Apprenticeship Program

Kake Oyster Farm Apprenticeship Program

Community Watershed Stewardship
Kake Oyster Farm Apprenticeship Program   Shellfish farming has proven to be a viable, sustainable business opportunity for many communities in Southeast Alaska. Rodger Painter, President of the Alaska Shellfish Growers Association, has been in the regional shellfish farming industry for years and has teamed up with the Organized Village of Kake to bring an oyster farm management apprenticeship program to the community of Kake.   [caption id="attachment_1279" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Rocky Pass Oysters. Photo from Pearl of Alaska[/caption]   The program, funded through a grant with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, creates business opportunities for local entrepreneurs looking to go into the shellfish farming industry.   Over the course of the three year program (which follows the three year cycle to produce mature oysters), a group of four…
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