Tsunami Relief: Are We Ready?

Sen. Mark Begich today requested $15M for tsunami debris relief be rolled into the Hurricane Sandy  relief package.  This is a well-meaning and important request.  But is Alaska ready to act on those funds?

Marine debris clean-up in western Kodiak. Tsunami debris
visible in foreground.  Brook Kourmetis photo.

A recent paper published by Washington Sea Grant suggests 15,000 to 187,500 tons of MD will make landfall not in Washington at all, but in Alaska.  This accounts for approximately half the tsunami debris estimated to make landfall in the United States.  This shouldn't surprise anyone, since according to the National Ocean Service, Alaska accounts for 65% of the "general seacoast" of the pacific U.S.  

The cost of cleaning up this coastline is massive, with costs per pound of marine debris from remote Alaska ranges from $1.00 to $2.50 per pound, even with volunteer labor.  

Still there are early indications that the existing relief fund, $5M provided by the government of Japan, will be divided equally among the five pacific U.S. States (California, Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, and Alaska).  We feel that receiving only 20% of the funding would shortchange Alaska, who is saddled with half of the tonnage of marine debris and costlier clean-ups.  

But the state of Alaska has not done much to recognize the environmental threats caused by tsunami debris.  They have commissioned an aerial survey of the Gulf coast and are currently crunching the data.  But there is no agency with a mandate to respond to the findings.  The natural choice, the Department of Environmental Conservation, has no money in their budget to address marine debris issues and has not requested it for 2013.  Is Senator Begich asking for funding for a state that does not want it?

We feel this issue deserves the Governor's swift attention.  At a minimum, a mandate must be given to ADEC to prepare to organize a statewide response.  A much stronger message could be sent by declaring a  state of emergency.

Alaska's  should not send mixed messages to Washington D.C. about our coastlines.  The threat caused by marine debris is real,  it is imminent...and it affects us all. 

Thanksgiving Musings

ITN has much to be thankful for, and as another successful season winds down, we feel the love coming in from the community as well.  Thanks in large part to the support of our membership, we have measurably improved the health and well-being of the people of Kodiak by providing them with a low-impact way to experience the outdoors.  We have also improved the environmental health of the island by providing bridges at important salmon stream crossings, reduced the erosive impact of a 350-mile trail system on Kodiak's fragile soils, and removed over 40 tons of marine debris from our otherwise pristine shores.

We continue to mature as an organization by developing technical expertise among our staff and volunteers and by building capacity for trail construction and coastal stewardship. Our full-time staff has grown to three and as we enter our seventh year, I feel we are no longer a young organization, but rather are just beginning to hit our stride. As it happens, the rapid growth we have experienced since our inception has, for the first time, leveled off. As I draft the the 2013 operations plan, I am forecasting a slight to moderate decrease in our project budget.  We may not always be able to do more, but we will strive to always do better.

The work we are doing is perhaps more important than ever.  The impacts of the 2011 Tohoku tsunami are just starting to be felt here.  In sharp contrast to the terrible devastation that hit the east coast during Hurricane Sandy, the total impact of this event may take decades to fully comprehend.  The tsunami wreckage is spread across tens of thousands of miles of uninhabited shores, and even the most conservative estimates of the debris expected to make landfall in Alaska are in the tens of thousands of tons.  The impact of all these synthetic materials  into the food web is still unknown, but the body of science is growing.  We do know that we need to respond to this environmental crisis, and hope to boost our efforts in marine debris removal while maintaining the other services we provide to this community.

Bike Path in Jeopardy

After two work sessions this the city has balked at entering an agreement  with Alaska Department of Transportation (DOT) to design and construct the first phase of a multi-use path from downtown to Bell’s Flats. 

The project would connect Pier 2 to Deadman's curve, with subsequent phases extending to Bell's Flats. Such a path would make travel safer for pedestrians and cyclists, reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and the associated air, water, and noise pollution that goes with it, provide a measurable boost to our economy and provide exercise and recreational opportunities for an overweight population. The route is used for transportation by an  increasing number of non-motorized commuters, and for recreation by local events including the city-sponsored Crab Festival races.

Originally estimated at $3.1M, a 50% contingency fund  placed on Phase I of the project brings the estimated cost of the project to $4.65M. Before the contingency requirements were added the city had obtained the required 10% matching funds through a legislative grant. With the new, higher price tag  the city finds itself $81k short of their match requirement. Through a private donation and reallocating other trail funds we have been able to donate $25k to the shortfall. The Borough Assembly has the option of kicking in another $25k from cruise ship head tax funds, leaving the city with an out-of-pocket expense of only $31k. This sum is less than 1% of the total funds raised to date, a token gesture to a hard-won  public project.

Though the price seems excessive to some, the majority of expense in Phase I is centered around engineering difficulties involved with the short segment of road at the foot of the rock slide between Pier 2 and Pier 3. Subsequent phases of the path would likely not need the same level of engineering. In fact the recent passage of the Transportation Bond, which contains a project to renovate Pier III, may resolve some of these engineering issues and drive the cost down to something closer to the $3.1M original estimate.

But the fact that we don't know the total cost is part of the problem, as is the sinking feeling among council members that once they enter this agreement, they are writing a blank check. It is apparent that communication is poor between the city and DOT, and so far the questions have not been as probing and the answers not as definitive as we need them to be. DOT needs to reassure the city that the project can  be kept within budget or be re-scoped to do so before requiring full commitment of all these public resources. If we find out we can't afford the path, or the cost is simply beyond the limits of taste and decency, we don't build it. That's just good business.   

Maintenance has also been an ongoing concern of the project. Seeing this coming, we obtained a resolution from  the borough assembly to authorizing the borough to assume maintenance of all  future phases of bike path in perpetuity. So far this hasn't done much good because it conflicts with some boilerplate language of the contract, and  the three entities aren't communicating well enough to figure out if the borough can legally assume maintenance or whether snow removal is required.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on this contract and DOT may take steps to re-program the funds if an agreement cannot be reached within the next few weeks. If the council does not act quickly, there are 14 lower-ranking pedestrian projects in Juneau, Fairbanks, Talkeetna, Kotzebue, Cooper Landing, Naknek and Sitka which will gladly snatch them  up.   

For Kodiak, there may never be a better time to build the path-- the cost of building a healthier infrastructure is only outpaced by the rising costs of fuel and the cost of caring for a sedentary society. 

If the Kodiak multi-use path is viewed as boon to public health, what kind of return on our investment? Consider it in the context of the cost in dollars of an unhealthy country; last year our taxpayers footed the bill for a $500,000 increase in medical insurance premiums for city employees, and collectively we paid millions if not tens of millions out-of-pocket more for our own health insurance as well. To put it another way, the $56k funding gap is less than the medical costs of one heart attack in Kodiak.  Perhaps that should be the benchmark--one life saved.

Ajango earns Prestigious Reb Gregg Award

This week while attending the my first Wilderness Risk Management Conference (WRMC) in Portland Oregon, I was lucky to be one of a handful of Alaskans to see our friend and mentor Deb Ajango receive the ever Charles (Reb) Gregg Wilderness Risk Management Award.  

Deb has made outstanding contributions to the field of risk management, mentoring organizations like ours and authoring two books on the subject, which are now required reading for our staff.  Each of our full-time staff members--myself, Tom and Nick--have taken the 80-hour Wilderness First Responder from Deb, which are widely considered to be some of the most diverse, practical, and challenging WFR classes you can find.  Deb's wilderness medicine classes and in fact her entire risk philosophy are rooted in her experience as a guide on Mt. McKinley, as a one-time director of a large outdoor program which experienced a multiple casualty incident, and as a bear attack survivor where her husband was seriously mauled.  Deb has dealt with more adversity, tragedy, and the painful healing process than anyone I know in the outdoors profession.  It is thrilling and inspiring to see her not just remain in the outdoors profession, but to witness her rise to a level of national prominence in risk management and to receive this prestigious award.

Deb has a visit to Kodiak planned for December of 2012 to teach another Wilderness First Aid course.  I highly recommend this course for anyone spending a lot of time outdoors or at sea. 

http://www.safetyed.net/

Alaska Kayak School offers 10% discount to ITN Members

Catch the new wave of modern sea kayaking skills development. Following a hiatus since the sea kayaking skills festivals in July and September of 2009, the Alaska Kayak School returns to Kodiak for a 4 day skills and safety festival. If you’re a beginner or have never had formal training from certified instructors and sea kayak coaches, you will benefit from the introductory courses and trips: skills, rescues, navigation and journeying. If you’re an old hand and have trained with certified instructors, have dome paddling assessments and have practiced your skills over the years, you will benefit from the Open Water Program: skills tuning, intro to open water, open water rescues and towing and open water journey. All equipment can be provided, but if you have a sea worthy sea kayak, dry suit, and all the safety tools, you can use your own gear (and get a small discount). Hope you can join us the 5-8 July for 4 days of fun and learning.

For a limited time, AKS is offering a 10% discount to ITN members in good standing. 

For details and pre-registration go to http://www.alaskakayakschool.com/2012/Kodiak%202012%20Skills%20and%20Safety%20Festivalaa.htm

June Executive Director's Report

Our marine debris Octopus "Ophelia" was completed by Bonnie Dillard, Eva Holm and a few volunteers from Kodiak High School just in time for Crab Festival  this year.  Instead of entering her into the parade we were allowed to showcase her right downtown near the fisherman's memorial outside the harbor office.   There, she drew thousands of admirers and hundreds of photo-takers, and brought attention to the kinds of things washing up on our beaches and their potential impacts on the marine environment.

"Ophelia" guards the fishermens' memorial outside Kodiak Harbor Office. Merrick Burden photo.

We received word this month that NOAA reconsidered our grant request for a clean-up of Tugidak Island, and increased the funding from $90k to $120k.  This will expand our clean-up from seven back to our original proposal of ten weeks on the ground.  Half of these will occur in 2013, the other half in 2014, leaving us plenty of time to  recruit volunteers, to arrange logistics, and to avoid sensitive times at Tugidak around migratory bird nesting and seal pupping seasons.

 

On May 22 we began our first trail crew of the season, a six-week hitch for Kodiak High School students and grads called the "Frontcountry Crew".  True to their name, this professional conservation crew consists of seven young individuals and two crew leaders working on trails and public lands near Kodiak.  Beneficiaries of their work include state, local and federal agencies including State Parks, the City of Kodiak, Alaska DOT and the Fish & Wildlife Service. The crew blog provides a project-by-project account of their work, which is co-authored by crew leaders Nick Kesling and Lesley Seale.  You can see short bios and photos of Nick, Lesley, and all ITN seasonal crew leaders here.

(From left) Joey Mauer, Andrew Caballa, Marina Reckner and Jon Richard lift a retaining log into place on a new section of trail at Ft. Abercrombie State Park while Jaymi Bethea looks on.  

The first project for the Frontcountry Crew (FCC) was to complete the boardwalk on the mist net trail for FWS, a project we had intended to complete last year.  This trail serves a citizen science program where refuge volunteers capture, band, and monitor migratory songbirds throughout the summer and the mist net operations began June 6th.  We were eager to complete trail work in time to leave the habitat untouched during the study, and are glad to have wrapped up one of the few outstanding projects left over from last year. 

Next up for the Frontcountry Crew was to provide a path in Fort Abercrombie between the new Camp Host site (located near the newly constructed pole barn) to the new tent sites to be constructed later this summer.  The completed project left a 4' tread of full-bench construction, with a critical edge on steeper sideslopes composed of  native logs.  The bench will receive a gravel lift during Ft. Abercrombie Trails Day in late July and until that time park users are asked to please stay off this vulnerable section of new trail as the ash layer sets up. 

Here and there, the crew has also been performing maintenance and small trail improvements that you may enjoy--stump removal from Rotary Park trail corridors, a trailhead overhaul and litter removal  from Island Lake Creek Trail, even cleaning out the pedestrian access over the Buskin River bridge (did you know it was paved under all that gravel?).  This crew knows that it's the little things that count, and they've set out to beautify Kodiak in this way.

On June 9th and 10th we welcomed four seasonal crew leaders.  Maya Edgerly, Andrew Martone, Alex Maros and Ethan Zubkoff will lead the Backcountry Crew (BCC) comprised of volunteer interns from Columbia Preparatory & Grammar School.  Longtime ITN fans will remember CGPS from previous years.  This high school has furnished an ITN trail crew each year since 2009, and provided countless hours of volunteer service for us.  They conducted two of the three marine debris clean-ups we've done at Shuyak Island, installed over a mile of geoblock at Spruce Island and Anton Larsen Bay, built several bridges and played a large role in the construction of Rotary Park trails.  This year, Columbia Prep is sending fourteen students--the largest crew ever.  Add to that two chaperones and four crew leaders and you've got a small army of do-gooders.  This year CGPS's focus will be continuation of the marine debris clean-up begun at Halibut Bay last year, and construction of bridges on the Ouzinkie to Sunny Cove easement trail.   Between June 14 and July 4 you can catch updates on this crew several times a week on their blog.

But before Columbia Prep's arrival on June 14th, we're training our crew leaders on sustainable trail construction and maintenance, provided this year by Christine Byl.  Together with her husband and partner Gabe Travis, Christine owns and runs Interior Trails out of Healy, Alaska, just outside of Denali National Park.  Christine has been working on trail crews from Montana to Alaska for sixteen years and brings a wealth of experience to our training classroom.  She is providing this training with the help of Alaska Trails, a statewide non-profit that supports community organizations like our through training, consulting and technical assistance.  We have based our training out of the FITC (Fish Tech) center on Near Island, a great classroom facility with trails nearby.  This week we've covered topics such as tool safety,  trail sustainability, new trail construction, trail maintenance, design and layout, tread structures, retaining walls, climbing turns and switchbacks, and rigging.  We are grateful for our partnership with Alaska Trails and Interior Trails, who impart their hard-earned wisdom to me, our six crew leaders and seven members of the Frontcountry Crew. 

After the trails-specific training ends on Wednesday June 13th, we will conduct in-house training on items specific to crew leaders and spend a few days on logistics.  Beginning June 15th we will conduct training on Wilderness Survival and Bear Safety training before mobilizing to Halibut Bay and Spruce Island to embark on our backcountry projects for the year.

Wilderness survival training is a much-expanded topic for ITN crews this year, thanks in part to guest instructor Jim Dillard.  Jim covers topics such as how to dress for the outdoors, what to put in your day pack, how to build a shelter or start a fire in difficult conditions, and the many uses of a knife, saw or axe.  These are critical skills for anyone growing up in or moving to Alaska, and the woodwork he teaches has numerous crossovers to trail building techniques.  I'm thrilled that Jim's been willing to share his expertise with our crews. 

With that training under our belt, we'll be ready to undertake the season's work.  I look forward to reporting on our progress throughout the summer.

May Executive Director's Report

As usual, spring has turned out to be our busiest time of year.  There's a lot going on and I didn't report last month (too busy), so let's get started:


Our second annual Kodiak Outdoor Film Festival was a success, drawing over 265 people for an evening of great entertainment.  Local filmmakers Shane Onders and Kathryn Symmes took home top honors, and all the videos had the standing-room only crowd cheering, laughing, and yelling for more.   For ITN staff and board members, the best part of the night is meeting and greeting all of our loyal supporters (But we can say that partly because we get to see all the films in advance during the selection process).  ITN thanks our members, volunteers, and many sponsors for making the Outdoor Film Fest a Kodiak institution. 

We have a full slate of activities and events scheduled for this summer.   Something is going on nearly every weekend this month.  In the interests of space, we have not listed them all here, but you can check out all ITN happenings on our website calendar.

This month saw a host of grant applications come back--all approved!  Here is a taste of what ITN will be doing in the new few years.

We received a legislative grant to construct 2600' of hiking trail on municipal land located on Near Island in the city of Kodiak, Alaska. This one will go right alongside the channel, teeing off an existing trail in North End park and contouring the hillside to the city parking lot near the St. Herman harbor launch ramp.  We believe (and often say) that a robust system of trails on Near Island serves the recreational needs and provides healthy alternatives to automobile travel for all members of the community. By providing hiking experiences easily accessible from downtown this trail in particular will add to the visitor experience and provide an economic return to the city of Kodiak. We can't take credit for the idea though.  This trail was first proposed in a 1987 Near Island Comprehensive Development plan adopted by the City of Kodiak and the Kodiak Island Borough. In 2011 City of Kodiak renewed their commitment by passing a resolution (2011-34) specifically supporting Near Island Phase III.

We've also received a small grant to "clear the way" for the coming bike path.  As you may know, $3.1M has been allotted for the design and construction of Phase 1A which will span from Kodiak Pier 2 to Deadman's Curve. Phase 1B of the bike path will span from Deadman's Curve to the USCG base and will closely parallel Rezanof Drive but may depart from the D.O.T. right-of-way (ROW) where (1) the trail can service nearby population centers, business and recreational areas or (2) natural terrain features and drainages render ten-foot trail corridor impractical. A paved bike path is a large public works project, and something beyond our means to construct.  But as the project is likely to take years to complete, we have offered to punch through and make some soft-surface trail improvements to make the half-finished trail usable in the intervening years. 

We received a legislative grant to resurface an existing 800' trail linking residents and businesses of Marine Way to Mission Road via Father Herman St. The trail resides entirely on City of Kodiak land and enjoys frequent use by downtown residents, dog-walkers, hikers and those seeking a nearby refuge from nearby industrial zones.  This 6-foot widened tread will allow for comfortable two way foot traffic and slow two-way bicycle traffic. Increased use and lack of proper drainage has caused incising along the tread and led to ponding and muddy conditions along the trail. The resurfacing project will incorporate natural and artificial drainage features such as outslope, crowning and grade dips to ensure adequate drainage.

To round out the list of "terra trail" grants, we received funding to make improvements to a short  trail that links residents of Sharatin Drive and adjacent subdivisions to the Trinity Islands subdivision via the Perenosa Drive right-of-way. Parts of Perenosa were platted decades ago but never fully developed as a street (that's why you never hear of Perenosa Drive except through ITN). In the ensuing years, some forgot about the right-of-way and thought of it as their backyard, while others used it to shortcut to nearby neighborhoods.  The construction of a backyard fence in the Perenosa right-of-way in 2010 brought the purpose of ROWs into sharp focus.  Were they intended for streets and public utilities only, reverting back to the adjacent landowners if utilities and streets weren't needed?  Or did they retain their public value as conduits for moving people on bikes, on foot and in strollers through a maze of dead-end streets built for automobiles?  After public review, the KIB Planning and Zoning commission and KIB Parks & Recreation committee chose the latter, and we are following up by improving the trail to meet the current use patterns.

We continue to make conservation of our coastlines and watersheds, and have had some recent fundraising successes here as well.

ITN was awarded a grant this month from the Marine Conservation Alliance Foundation for marine debris clean-ups at Halibut Bay, Long Island, continuation of our incentive program for set net fisherman, and project to remove derelict crab pots from Womens Bay.  We also received a grant from NOAA to conduct seven weeks of marine debris clean-up at Tugidak island in 2013.  This will be our largest single clean-up yet, and is focused on the heaviest concentration of debris we’ve found on the Kodiak archipelago.  Together, these grants account for a significant increase in our efforts at coastal conservation over the next two years, which seems like good timing—the impact of marine debris from the 2011 Japan tsunami is just beginning to be felt here.

There has been extensive media coverage of marine debris caused by the tsunami, mostly as a human-interest piece.  The autographed soccer ball on Middleton Island which was traced and returned to a Japanese youth and the Harley Davidson motorcycle that washed up in British Columbia both made national headlines.  An anchorage network affiliate picked upon a local effort to map the appearances of team-logo fly swatters from Kodiak to Montague island near Prince William Sound.  These flyswatters, novel are they are, are most likely not related to the tsunami.  Rather, they along with the hundreds of customized water bottles, and miniature foam basketballs are the contents of a container spill from a passing freighter.  ITN President Patrick Saltonstall first blogged about them after a deer carcass survey on the west side of Kodiak, only later discovering that the phenomenon has spread over hundreds of miles of coastline.The curious absence of any of these sports novelty items from locations east of PWS or in southeast Alaska suggests they arrived by different means than the large plastic oyster floats and polystyrene cylinders that have impacted the entire state. 

Regarding these larger, latter types of debris, they started showing up by ones and twos in Alaska in late 2011.  Kodiak first reported finding these large, apparently foreign objects in a late December KMXT article, but the majority of reports on the SeaAlliance facebook page, which was launched by MCAF to monitor tsunami debris findings, were coming from Yakutat. 

Around April 20, Kodiak pilot Dave Hilty flew his personal plane from Sitka to Kodiak after working as a herring spotter.  He passed Cape Fairweather, Icy Strait, Middleton and Montague Islands and finally Shuyak, Afognak and Kodiak island for his return home.  Hilty told me that he’d flown this route for many years, and always seen one or two oyster floats per year along the way.  This year he began counting soon after taking off from Southeast Alaska, noticing right away an increase in debris levels.  Then he began counting by twenties.  In all he estimates he saw 4000 floats along his flight path.  

On April 26 Nick flew with Hilty to look more closely at the Kodiak archipelago and found dozens of oyster floats scattered around Shuyak and north Afognak islands.  The numbers were lesser in quantity than HIlty observed around Montague island and the north gulf coast but far more than we would normally see here.  On May 3^rdNick and I traveled by kayak from Monaskha Bay to Anton Larsen Bay to inspect our work sites and counted two tsunami debris pieces--one rigid black one at Termination Point and one polystyrene white one near Kizhuyak Point.  Passing Ouzinkie we saw Herman Squartsoff, who first reported the flyswatters to me back in March, and he told us he’d found 28 more. 

The flyswatter epidemic and the tsunami-generated Oyster floats may be from different sources, but they all signify an increasing amount of marine debris washing up.  ITN will continue to monitor and document these sightings to target future clean-ups and to make the case, if needed, for additional funding to protect our shores.