The Wrangell Resource Council has received a grant for their “Wrangell Forest Stewardship Contracting and Resource Mapping Project,” which was submitted for funding by the council in June.
The $24,000 grant, which was awarded by the National Forest Foundation, will allow the council to fulfill what they call, “strengthening” the Forest Service’s capacity for collaboration with local stakeholders, including small businesses, the Wrangell Cooperative Association, the borough, conservation groups, and small mills.
The NFF was founded in 1991 by an act of Congress to work with the U.S. Forest Service to care for forest and grasslands across the nation.
According to Southeast Alaska Conservation Council organizer Jeremy Maxand, the grant will also allow use of an integrated assessment process and geospatial tools to identify natural forest resources in the Wrangell area. Those tools can help determine what quantity and duration the resources will be available for business investment planning capacity purposes.
“It will help us make sure that we’re using our natural resources to maximize local job production,” he said. “That way we don’t just exist as a place where we export our resources to other communities or other countries.”
According to the documentation of the grant, the process will begin this summer of 2012 and last for one year.
The primary activities will include bringing land managers and users, local government, and businesses together to better understand how forest stewardship opportunities can enhance the local economy, and how to better utilize stewardship contracting tools to support the Tongass Transition Framework.
The TTF is a USDA sponsored program to provide jobs and economic stability for communities in Southeast Alaska.
Maxand added that looking ahead is of the utmost importance when it comes to our regional timber industry.
“We want to make sure that what we cut matches what we process,” Maxand added. “That way, we have a long term vision for a sustainable timber program that is based on our small mill operators and other high-value, or value-added products.”
The expected outcomes of the grant, according to its narrative, include broader community knowledge and support of stewardship contracting, more involvement by existing and potentially new local businesses in stewardship contracting opportunities in the Wrangell area. It also includes the development of an asset map to identify current and future natural resources in the Wrangell area available for economic development.
The award is valid from Aug. 1 through Aug. 1, 2013 and all project activities and expenditures must occur within that period.
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