The local Forest Service Resource Advisory Committee (RAC), which covers the areas of Wrangell, Petersburg, and Kake, held a meeting last Saturday to discuss a variety of projects the Forest Service is considering in the near future. Among these projects is a Kaatslitaan Culture Camp.
The idea for the culture camp was brought before the RAC by Wrangell resident and Alaska Native Virginia Oliver. The camp, she said, would be held in the summer where everybody could come together and learn sustainable harvesting practices, as well as native traditions and culture from several elders from the Wrangell, Kake, and Juneau areas. This would include learning how to fillet, brine, and dry fish, process seal meat, harvest vegetables, formline drawing, as well as Tlingit language classes, among other things. The camp would be held at Old Town, or Kaatslitaan, which was the old village site of the Wrangell clans. While the camp would be meant to pass down the history and knowledge of the Tlingit people, Oliver emphasized that this camp would be open to all adult members of the public who are interested.
“We never get any time [for the adults] because we’re always supervising, maybe you guys do understand that, we never get the time to learn how to put the seaweed up or get the time to learn from the people that we bring in,” Oliver said. “When we were doing all the things we were doing, we were taking care of children.”
Tory Houser, with the Forest Service, added that the proposal was still being workshopped, but that so far it was meeting all RAC guidelines for projects, especially in the areas of resource stewardship. In the proposal, Oliver is seeking $8,200 in Title II funds to get the camp set up and to pay for travel for guest speakers and transportation to Old Town. The committee thanked Oliver for her time and, after a brief discussion, decided to more formally consider the proposal in their next meeting in August.
Another project discussed by the committee was to seek a new design for a better structure along the Blind River rapids, in Petersburg. The plan was for the Petersburg portion of the RAC to spend $5,000 to research and find a design, be it a larger cabin, or a pavilion, or something similar. This was approved by the committee quickly.
Other projects approved by the committee include improvements to the boat ramp at the Blind Slough picnic area, in Petersburg, and trail survey and design for Kunk Lake.
Several other projects were deemed not quite ready for approval yet and were delayed until August, such as trail survey and designs for Rainbow Falls and STEM support for Evergreen Elementary School, among other things.
Bob Dalrymple also took the opportunity to speak to the committee during this meeting. Dalrymple retired from the Forest Service in January, and a large celebration in his honor was held in Wrangell last March. He came by the meeting to say goodbye and to wish them all luck.
“I hadn’t had an opportunity to say goodbye to you guys, which is a regret of mine, I had hoped to do that, but now I have the chance,” he said. “It was probably one of the highlights of my career, working with the RACs the last nine years.”
The next RAC meeting will take place on August 14, at 6:30 p.m. For more information, contact the Wrangell Ranger District at (907) 874-2323.
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