The Sitka Community Wilderness Stewardship project brings together people and wilderness in an original and exciting way. Funded by the National Forest Foundation and the Sitka Conservation Society’s Living Wilderness Fund, this project creates a working partnership between the USFS Sitka Ranger District, the Sitka Conservation Society, and a broad spectrum of community members to conduct scientific research expeditions and community monitoring in the two Wilderness Areas surrounding Sitka. By kayaks, float planes, skiffs and on foot, volunteer Sitka residents and Wilderness Rangers are exploring some of the most wild and remote places in Southeast Alaska this summer. Working together for the common goal of stewardship, they are experiencing wildness first hand and gathering needed baseline data about these significant areas.

The South Baranof Wilderness and the West Chichagof-Yakobi Wilderness are two Wilderness Areas near our home of Sitka that possess extraordinary natural beauty with rich ecological abundance. With a rugged landscape of mountains, glaciers, fiords, old growth temperate rainforest, and a myriad of islands, these important regions are home to whales, sea lions, puffins, deer, and wild salmon and support one of the highest densities of Brown Bears in the world. These Wilderness Areas are cherished by Sitka residents and visitors who seek solitude and the rare chance to encounter a place permitted to flourish in its natural wild state. Many residents also use and depend upon these Areas for subsistence hunting and gathering, recreation, commercial fishing, and for many more activities that comprise the Sitka community’s unique way of life.

In an effort to ensure the continuation of good stewardship of these vital areas, a partnership of caretakers and community members has formed to launch the Sitka Community Wilderness Stewardship Project. This project is a major effort to enhance our understanding of these areas and their use by collecting baseline data in our Wilderness Areas, some places so wild and remote that monitoring has never before been conducted. On the calendar for 2009 are dozens of events and trips, partnering Wilderness Rangers, specialists and enthusiasts on kayaking, bushwhacking, stream-wading, and GPS toting wilderness adventures to gather the baseline data, such as the monitoring of invasive species, air quality, recreational use levels, as well as one’s opportunity for solitude. In addition, over fifty volunteers including:  guides, Wilderness rescue workers, commercial fisherman, float plane pilots, hunters, kayakers, outdoor educators, and many more individuals who depend upon and enjoy Wilderness are volunteering to conduct solitude monitoring surveys in these Wilderness Areas throughout the summer and fall of 2009, data that will contribute to our knowledge of whether these Areas provide opportunities for solitude, a key criteria for Wilderness under the 1964 Wilderness Act.

The Forest Service Sitka Ranger District recognizes the importance of Wilderness as a significant local and national asset. They are committed to the challenge of being exemplary Wilderness Stewards, and Sitka Conservation Society is proud to work with them on this exciting project that integrates Wilderness users as a stewardship team. SCS is thankful for The National Forest Foundation and Sitka Conservation Society’s Living Wilderness Fund for making this exciting project possible. Stay tuned for further project developments and community presentations on the Sitka Community Wilderness Stewardship Project.

Photo of Red Bluff Bay