Mitch Michaud is a retired federal forester with the National Resource Conservation Service. On a recent sunny afternoon, he led a small group of people on a short hike near the Kenai River to highlight local forestry projects.
The walk was all part of the Alaska Community Forest Council's Friday meeting in Soldotna. The advisory board is made of foresters from across Alaska that provides guidance to the state’s Division of Forestry. The group meets quarterly, but hasn’t met on the Kenai Peninsula in about two decades.
“This walk is to showcase the projects that are being done in southcentral Alaska and on the Kenai Peninsula,” Michaud said.
The walk highlighted several stream bank stabilization projects in the area. One was a multi-agency project implemented last summer where timber was anchored, laid out and covered in mulch to prevent further degradation of a heavily used fishing area at Centennial Park in Soldotna. Native vegetation was also planted and has since taken root.
“We know the Kenai River, it's death by 1000 cuts,” said Kevin Duffie, Trout Unlimited Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula community engagement coordinator. He says healthy streambanks support healthy salmon habitat.
“So any way you can erase one of those cuts, then we're building towards a better future,” Duffie said.
A major topic of conversation during last week’s forestry meeting was spruce bark beetle mitigation. The area around the Centennial Park campground has been hit particularly hard by the insect over the last few years. The city has taken advantage of that, chopping down hundreds of trees and selling them for firewood. Sales from that have funded seasonal positions with the city.
But forestry concerns like these aren’t just local to the Kenai Peninsula. Elise Huggins is a forester with the council who came down from Anchorage. She says these issues have spread to other parts of Alaska.
“The more you learn about one aspect or multiple aspects of the same problem, you're not repeating the same mistakes,” Huggins said. “You're hearing how other people have made mistakes which you don't want to go through, or how other people have had successes. So it's saving dollars, saving public resources.”
Michaud, who led the walk, says it's one thing to talk about forestry projects. But he says seeing them in person can be an educational experience.
“We always have a tour," Michaud said. "And here at the Centennial Park campground, you can see a lot of different things, and you can do it all, like on the loop. It gets the chance for everybody to have some side discussions as we’re going.”
Last week's meeting wasn’t just a walk around the park. Representatives from the City of Soldotna also sought guidance from the group about the city's tree ordinance and proposed landscaping projects.
