A professionally diverse group of Wrangellers gathered Dec. 3 to help develop a future focus for the local Indian Environmental General Assistance Program (IGAP) office.
Working through the Wrangell Cooperative Association, the office's new coordinator Chris Hatton invited representatives of the borough's local government, healthcare, education and industry to come conduct some brainstorming, while also learning about where IGAP is currently at with projects.
“I'm stepping in at a challenging time, but an exciting time,” Hatton told the group. Locally, the program has just entered the fourth and final annual budget cycle of its current grant, and Hatton was hoping for some ideas as she looks ahead to its next two-year grant cycle before that begins next October.
Some concerns related to furthering use from discarded items, such as waste oil, glass and old electronics. Making better use of wood-waste was of particular interest, as were finding other value-adding measures to make the most of a possible timber sale.
New items Hatton hoped the program could look into included examining the effects of neonicotinoidal-based insecticides, which some studies have linked to bee-death. Harmful algal blooms and invasive plant species like hawkweed and Japanese knotweed are other areas of interest, as well as gauging local effects of broader issues like ocean acidification.
IGAP operates under the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency, in Alaska seeking to build working partnerships with 30 Native groups across the state in order to improve quality of life.
“The goal of the IGAP program is to create something sustainable, of its own volition,” Hatton explained. Critical to that sustainability is working with local actors and facilitating contact between them. Different IGAP offices also share ideas for solving similar issues, forming a wider knowledge pool.
Current areas of focus in Wrangell include air quality monitoring, with a Tulalip Foundation-sponsored study measuring cordwood moisture content in a survey and comparing that to the content put off by briquettes they have provided. The study in Wrangell is one of four being conducted in Southeast Alaska.
Another area has been IGAP's refuse cleanup project, which initially focused on 54 dump sites around the island. More recently, the project expanded to cover cleaning up local elders' properties. So far about 50 households have benefitted from the effort, with a variety of items then being taken to the landfill for disposal.
Hatton's predecessor, Trevor Kellar, also put together a list of local places that will dispose of unusual, yet recyclable items. She hopes to build on that by making the listing more accessible for people to use.
Water quality is another issue important to the community, from sunken batteries to high-profile mining projects upriver in Canada. IGAP has secured funding to soon help conduct a baseline study for area shellfish, testing for heavy metals near Shoemaker Bay.
“Everything is supposed to be done by the end of March,” said Hatton.
While he said there was no data yet available, Public Works Director Carl Johnson mentioned that an initial round of metals testing this year by the Byford dump was nearly due.
“It was meant to be a small start,” Hatton said of the meeting afterward. “For me it was introducing who we are, where we're at, pondering new ideas for the next grant cycle.” With the input she received, she seemed optimistic they were off to a good start.
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