NRCS Alaska News

March 16, 2007

In This Issue

New Hydrologic Unit Boundaries Developed

New Hydrologic Unit Boundaries for Alaska have been developed by the Bureau of Land Management working under a cooperative agreement with funding provided by  NRCS, U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA, BLM and the State of Alaska. 

The development of this new GIS dataset took several years and stemmed from a need for finer scale watersheds beyond the 4th level sub-basin boundaries that were previously the best available. The new watershed map provides detail down to the sub-watershed size (10,000-40,000 acres), which is also referred to as the 6th Hydrologic Unit Level. The table below illustrates the names and sizes for each of the six hydrologic levels.

The shapefile of the new HUC boundaries can be found on Field and State Office GIS Servers under the F:/geodata/hydrologic_unit directory. The associated attribute table not only contains the HUC codes, but also local names and acres for each of the sub-watersheds.

Table 1. Hydrologic Unit Size and Number Criteria (Alaska Specific)

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March Snow Survey Report Released

The March Snow Survey Report released this week by NRCS reveals extreme variations in snowpack levels across Alaska. Five survey sites in Southeast Alaska set new record highs for snow depth and water content, while sites in the Copper, Upper Susitna and Koyukuk basins are all recording record lows.

Alaska received very little (if any) precipitation during the month of February. The only areas of the state to receive precipitation of more than .2 inches in February were Bethel and areas along the Gulf of Alaska coast continuing into Southeast.

The temperatures varied from above normal (+9° F) at Bethel and Bettles to below normal along the coast and in Southeast at Juneau (-3° F).  McGrath, Anchorage and Homer were at average for the month.  For most of the state, the first ten days were above normal, especially the first two days, and the last ten days were colder than normal.

The complete March Snow Survey Report with detailed information from all areas of the state can be viewed at www.ambcs.org. Visitors to the site can also find hourly updates on air temperature, precipitation, snow depth and wind speed and other climactic conditions.

Snow Survey data is used to forecast river flow volume, breakup flooding potential, avalanche danger, summer forest fire probability, and fresh water availability for municipalities and power generation.  Snow survey information also contributes to an index on the winter severity with respect to wildlife and reindeer calf survival.

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Russian Ag Officials Visit Kenai Office

A delegation of Russian agriculture and rural development officials have been visiting Alaska to investigate infrastructure and programs. The group was led by UAA an included talks with Division of Agriculture and University staff.

The Kenai area was an area of interest for the group because of local Russian history. They included a stop at the Kenai USDA Service Center to learn about local program delivery. Michelle Hoffman, Rural Development Area Director, gave a presentation on RD programs and included the Homer Library as a Community Facilities success story. I gave a synopsis of Conservation Planning, CTA, working with SWCD's and cost-share programs summing up with two success stories: a compost facility installation and a fish passage project. All exchanges went through an interpreter. 

The Russians had some very agriculture and conservation specific questions, but like many visitors to the Kenai were very interested in the cost of a fishing license!

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Homer Students Prepare for Envirothon

Over the past month the Homer Soil Survey staff spent three class periods with Homer High School’s natural resources class covering soils and soil survey.  Many of the students will be participating in this year’s Envirothon competition which will be held in late April at Chena Hot Springs.  Mike Mungoven gave a lecture on soil properties and formation, while I spent a couple class periods on what a soil survey is, why it is useful, and how to use it.  The students completed a land use planning exercise involving the Soil Survey of the Lower Kenai Peninsula Area.

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Your Favorite Charity Can Benefit from CFC

Every once in a great while, an opportunity presents itself that allows a simple process to snowball into a mammoth mound of good. Even less frequently an agency or individual can be the catalyst that starts the reaction that ends in something magnificent.

In the not so distant past the folks assigned to the Kenai Field Office found that they could put themselves in this most favorable situation. They could be the hero. The goal was to raise money for the Kenai Peninsula Boys and Girls Club.

Our heroes - being less than super wealthy - could not give enough of their own income to meet the needs of the Boys and Girls Club. With the forward looking thought process of a forester, and the explore-every-option mindset of a resource planner, they began their search.

While searching for something which would catapult their efforts into a windfall for the “Club,” our heroes came upon an old pay stub. There lay the answer in black and white; payroll deduction. Of course! But how? The old pay stub said the money went to Code 85: charitable contributions. If only they could get this Code 85 to give some money to the “Club.” Our heroes investigated this Code 85 and found out it had ties to the Combined Federal Campaign, aka, CFC. If only the “Club” had some connection to CFC, then maybe the “Club” could get some money too. But where could they find this connection.

A quick web search held the answers they sought. CFC was a way worthwhile organizations had established to allow themselves to receive monies through payroll deduction or Code 85.  All federal employees could have money taken from their paychecks and given to charities of their choice.

Our heroes gathered up the CFC application and zipped to the “Club.” A couple of handshakes, signatures and a stamp later, and the connections were made. The “Club” could receive donations from our heroes and other federal employees all over the state thru CFC for years to come. Our heroes and the “Club” lived happily ever after.

You too could be the hero to a charitable organization by helping them make the connection to CFC. Our heroes here broke the trail. All you need to do is call Joy Star at 907-263-3843 to start your charity’s journey to happily ever after.

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Personnel Actions

Transfer

• Barbara Creech, Contract Specialist, to US Army, Fort Richardson, effective March 30.

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