The ongoing federal funding freeze is having an immediate negative impact on my organization and 26 people in Southeast Alaska that earn a living through our work. I run the Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition and we specialize in fixing salmon streams with local communities.
The work we do is often hard, rugged forestry work and construction with heavy equipment contractors. The funding freeze and cuts are going to put our sawyers, equipment operators, and field technicians out of work. A good-paying job in Southeast Alaskan has ripple effects that keep rural communities alive. In addition to protecting the salmon we all harvest, the federal money we spend is also earned back by increased salmon harvests.
On Prince of Wales Island, a remote island with a long history of timber harvest, we’re working with an Alaskan Native Corporation and tribal organizations to restore an important, and formerly lucrative, fishery at Klawock Lake. This week, nine full-time forestry crew members in Craig and Klawock have been laid off because of the freeze. This crew specializes in forest thinning that enhances tree growth and improves salmon habitat. These are blue collar workers. Guys that have pride in a hard day’s work. Guys that otherwise had been left behind in the economy. These guys are going to get laid off because of the federal funding freeze.
In Angoon we’re working with the local Alaska Native corporation to decommission abandoned logging roads that are blocking salmon. We trained up four Angoon locals in saw work and blasting. Now they are supporting their families and paying their bills, and the land will produce more coho. It’s no handout; it’s hard work. This summer they will be carrying saws and equipment miles into remote forestry land, cutting out helicopter landing zones, and then removing abandoned culverts through blasting. We will open and improve miles of salmon stream. The project is at risk of being cancelled because of the funding freeze.
Another frozen project would replace an undersized culvert on the Klawock-Hollis Highway, the only connection on Prince of Wales Island between the ferry terminal, hospital, and airport. The culvert is a flood risk that threatens homes and an important road corridor, and it blocks fish from accessing 10 miles of quality spawning and rearing streams. The frozen funds would go straight to a construction contract that would be bid out to a local business. Jobs for locals, safe infrastructure, and more fish. A win, win, win, at risk of being cancelled.
We are proud of what we do. I invite Sen. Sullivan, Sen. Murkowski and Rep. Begich to come see our work for themselves. But please — come quickly, so we can get back to it. Because I’m worried about how our crews are going to put food on the table. Once you see what we do and how important it is to the region, you will be convinced to put our locally-led, locally-hired Southeast Alaska crews back to work.
• Rob Cadmus is the executive director of the Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition. He lives in Juneau and has worked on salmon habitat restoration and conservation in Southeast Alaska since 2006.
