On Wednesday, July 10 the US Forest Service, the Wrangell Resource Council, and Southeast Alaska Conservation Council held a community collaboration workshop exploring opportunities for stewardship contracting in the Wrangell Ranger District.
Keith Rush, a conservation forester with The Nature Conservancy provided background on the Stewardship Contracting Authority, which allows local Forest Service districts to retain excess receipts from timber sales for use on conservation and restoration projects. Stewardship Contracting has been widely implemented in National Forests in the western states and has effectively streamlined the process of getting projects from the NEPA phase into local contractor’s hands.
The key to making this program effective, according to Wrangell District Ranger Bob Dalrymple, is effective collaboration.
“Community engagement is critical and absolutely necessary in order to make Stewardship contracting work for economic development and to enhance forest resources,” Dalrymple stated.
During the meeting Tim Piazza, the team leader on the Wrangell Island Project, spoke broadly about the themes of the alternatives and volumes available. The District also provided a list of projects to be included effectively making the sale a stewardship contract, but clearly stated a need for greater community engagement in determining the conservation measures to be funded with excess receipts.
Within the Stewardship Contracting Authority emphasis is placed on local capacity building and the line officer can determine the weight placed on bids which support local hire, training, and contractor capacity development.
Stewardship contracting is unique in that it provides a space for contractors at the negotiating table and encourages collaboration with the land manager in order to match the size and scope of the activity with the capacity of the local contractor.
Around Southeast Alaska many communities are rallying to understand the full potential of the Stewardship Contracting Authority.
Hoonah partnered with SEACC to develop the Hoonah Community Forest Project, which provided technical details on local forest management and supported the Kennel Creek restoration project. Though the project was ultimately grant funded, Kennel Creek is an example of a community generated restoration project, which has trained and employed a local crew in forest management and restoration activities.
“Retaining local, high paying, skilled jobs in forest management are at the foundation of the Tongass Transition,” Erik Wortman of SEACC stated. “Stewardship contracting is a way for local communities to reinvest in their natural capital as the timber industry begins to focus on second growth utilization.”
Following the afternoon meeting, UAF Masters student Britta Schroeder presented ongoing work she is doing to map forest assets and resources on the Wrangell Ranger District. The series of maps she produced highlights the forest assets available on the district and included timber available through the Roadside EA, proposed forest thinning, and productive deer habitat among others.
Schroeder is seeking community input to determine additional forest assets that she can map and provide for the benefit of the community. She also presented the findings from her survey this past winter in which she asked community members to place landscape values on a map.
“Together, the map of forest resources and community values says a lot about how people interact with the environment and the opportunities available in timber, recreation, subsistence, conservation,” Wortman added. “Schroeder has been working with SEACC, and the Wrangell Ranger District, to transform the maps into a comprehensive integrated assessment, which will be a tool for the community and local contractors in the collaboration process.”
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