NRCS Alaska News

March 3, 2006

In this Issue:

Watershed Forum Draws Broad Participation

Watershed councils, tribes, soil and water conservation districts, agencies and nonprofit organizations gathered in Juneau last week for the first Alaska Statewide Watershed Council Forum.  More than 80 people attended at least part of the Forum, which was held Tuesday, February 21 through Thursday, February 23.  Attendees traveled from as far as Kotzebue in the north, Newhalen in the west, and Craig in the southeast. 

The forum was organized by Samia Savell with support from Neil Stichert and Helen Clough of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
(USFWS).  Funding was provided by the Southeast Conference RC&D Council. USFWS’s Juneau and Anchorage Field Offices also paid for portions of the event costs and provided travel assistance funding to attendees.

McKie Campbell, Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G), welcomed participants to the forum.  Tuesday afternoon’s agenda was dedicated to case studies presentations and several watershed councils spoke about projects recently completed or currently underway. 

Wednesday’s agenda featured sessions on communications, media relations, and meeting management. There were also presentations of technical information by resource agencies and more “advanced” watershed councils.  University of Washington Geomorphology Professor David Montgomery gave the Wednesday evening presentation based on his book “King of Fish: The Thousand Year Run of Salmon,” which outlines the natural and human history of salmon throughout the world. 

Forum organizers were fortunate to receive several case studies submissions, so one watershed council and two soil and water conservation district representatives presented information about outreach and education programs on Thursday morning.  The councils presented small gifts to Neil Stichert of USFWS, Samia Savell of NRCS, and Ben Kirkpatrick of ADF&G for their assistance with organizational and project development over the past three years.   

Formation of a statewide support network for watershed councils was the topic for the last few hours of the forum in a discussion moderated by Samia.  John Moriarty of the Network of Oregon Watershed Councils provided some background on his organization.  Several councils and agencies were involved in exploring forming such an organization in the late 1990s, but the effort languished for a variety of reasons.  The forum helped reinvigorate the idea, and most of the attending councils have agreed to follow through with establishing some kind of support organization in the near future.

(back to top)

Soils Staff Aid in Course Development

The Soil Survey staff is currently assisting the Alaska Ag in the Classroom program with an online university credit course. The focus of the course is to instruct teachers on incorporating agricultural concepts into their curriculum and lesson plans.  As part of the course, teachers view PowerPoint presentations prepared by specialists in various agriculture-related disciplines.  The teachers then have an opportunity to email questions to the specialists and receive follow-up answers.  It is an excellent opportunity to educate teachers both on the importance of teaching agriculture and on the assistance available from various agencies and organizations.

Ag in the Classroom is a USDA structured program focused on promoting agricultural awareness and knowledge in our schools.  Alaska’s Ag in the Classroom program is sponsored by the Alaska Farm Bureau and is assisted by other organizations and agencies including the Alaska Association of Conservation Districts, the State of Alaska Division of Agriculture, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

(back to top)

Conservation Planning Course to Be Held this Fall

Plans are underway to conduct a Conservation Planning Course October 2-6 in Wasilla.  The course will be open for NRCS employees, district employees, and prospective Technical Service Providers.

Modules 1-5 of the online Conservation Planning Course need to be completed prior to July 15 to be eligible for the October training. In addition to completing the modules, interested participants must attain a score of at least 75% on the online exams to advance into the October training course. The online modules can accessed at http://www.nedc.nrcs.usda.gov/catalog/consplan.html .

Other prerequisites are required and interested participants should contact Gene Schock for a complete list.

The final requirement for Conservation Planner Certification is to complete and have reviewed a conservation plan. A mentor will be assigned to students at the course in October to help complete this assignment.

Please notify Gene by May 1 if you would like to participate in the training by calling 907-761-7715.

(back to top)

CSP Signup Underway

A CSP public information meeting was held February 22 at the Kenai River Center in Soldotna.  Tom Hedt, Gene Schock, and Meg Mueller presented information about the program and its eligibility requirements to local landowners and land users.  Farmers, a Homer Chamber of Commerce member, Kenai SWCD supervisors and a Alaska SWCD supervisor were in attendance.  The 2006 CSP sign-up closes March 31.

(back to top)

Clarification on EQIP Allocation

During the listening session held as part of the AVI Small Business Conference, Regional Assistant Chief Sara Braasch announced that Alaska had received a $1.7 million EQIP performance bonus for FY06.  This amount has already been incorporated into the total allocation of $5.1 million we received at the beginning of the year.  Without the performance incentive, Alaska’s FY06 allocation would have been $3.4 million. 

(back to top)

Bear Deterrent – What’s Your Best Option?

With two and a half field seasons under my belt, I am finally feeling more in tune with my surroundings. Getting used to Kodiak’s internationally larger-than-life megafauna also took time. According to ADF&G, bear population densities on the Kodiak Archipelago are greater relative to most other locations owing to fact that we have "the best bear habitat in the world" -- there are about 0.6 bears/sq. mile. Given the lack of cropland here and a predominance of brushy rangeland, much of my NRCS work here is in close proximity to bear habitat at one time of the year or another.

With these thoughts in mind, I wanted to pass on a few reminders concerning BMPs in bear habitat. And what is the best deterrent? We are permitted to carry more than just shotguns according to the Alaska Safety Handbook, provided they are non-lethal deterrents. Bear spray is my first choice.

In an article written for Outdoor Life titled “How to Outrun a Grizzly...,” Christopher Batin shares some information about one man’s study in the use of bear deterrents.  Essentially, in more than 500 documented bear-human conflicts in Alaska, bear pepper spray was used in 65 cases and deterred 61 curious or aggressive bears, for a 94 percent success rate. Of 258 incidents in which firearms were carried or used for bear defense, they were effective in 175 of them, for a 65 percent success rate.

The article has other useful and interesting information and might be worth the five-minute read. It can be found online at http://www.outdoorlife.com/outdoor/hunting/biggame/article/0,19912,1155373,00.html .

(back to top)

Demystifying the Email Distribution List

In an email from 2004, IT Specialist Chuck Reeves outlined how the new email distribution lists work.  Here is a refresher.

The format for individual email addresses is firstname.lastname@ak.usda.gov.

The format for groups is as follows:

• ug-ak-allfac                All USDA employees throughout the state (FSA, NRCS, RD).

• ug-ak-nrcs                 All NRCS employees throughout the state.

• ug-ak-fsa                   All FSA employees throughout the state.

• ug-ak-rd                    All RD employees throughout the state.

• ug-ak-it                     All IT Specialists within the state.

• ug-ak-sfac                 All state FAC leaders.

• ug-akanchorag-nrcs    All NRCS employees in Anchorage. 

• ug-akbethel-nrcs          All NRCS employees in Bethel.

• ug-akdeltajun-nrcs        All NRCS employees in Delta Junction.   

• ug-akdillingh-nrcs          All NRCS employees in Dillingham.  

• ug-akfairbank-nrcs        All NRCS employees in Fairbanks.  

• ug-akhomer-nrcs           All NRCS employees in Homer.

• ug-akkenai-nrcs            All NRCS employees in Kenai.

• ug-aknome-nrcs            All NRCS employees in Nome.

• ug-akpalmer-nrcs          All NRCS employees in Palmer.

• ug-akwasilla-nrcs           All NRCS employees in Wasilla.

  (Note:  first eight characters of all city names longer than eight characters)

For those in areas without servers try:

• ug-akdialup-nrcs            All dialup users.  At this time it is only Paul Coffey - paul.coffey@ak.usda.gov still works.

• ug-akvpn-nrcs                All VPN users.  Joanne Kuykendall, Tom Lance, Tom Thomas, and Samia Savell.  Individual email addresses still work.

Email groups in other states can be extrapolated from the above.

• ug-state-xxxx                use 2 letter state abbreviation.  xxxx = nrcs, fsa, rd, it, sfac, etc.

• ug-statecity-xxxx           use 2 letter state abbreviation and up to the first eight characters of the city.

(back to top)