Environmental education grants awarded to the Takshanuk Watershed Council in Haines and the University of Alaska Anchorage will allow collaborative partnerships in Haines and Homer to implement education programs for coastal restoration and peat conservation.
The Takshanuk Watershed Council will use its $97,640 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its Jilkaat Aani Ka Heeni (Chilkat Watershed) Stewardship Project to create education programs and recruit volunteers in coastal restoration.
The watershed council will partner with local Tribes to link Indigenous knowledge and environmental education to implement culturally relevant and inclusive instruction.
Stream Team, a citizen science project that uses nationally recognized Global Learning and Observation to Benefit the Environment — or GLOBE — protocols will connect youths and teachers from Skagway School and underserved Title 1 schools in Haines and Klukwan to their local watersheds through hands-on and inquiry-based learning.
The project is also to focus on marine education and restoration through harmful algal bloom and paralytic shellfish poisoning monitoring and education about debris and removal procedures.
The project aims to nurture environmental stewardship and civic responsibility through weekly field experiences for students and teachers in Haines, Klukwan and Skagway, and engage the general public in educational workshops. The project also boasts a volunteer component, which — in collaboration with the city of Homer — includes conservation groups and regional tribal organizations creating classroom and outdoor learning spaces for hands-on education on a peatland conservation parcel the city of Homer recently acquired.
The project plan is to allow students to propagate, grow and transplant Native plants they raise during the school year, providing a sense of stewardship and connection to this ecosystem.
UAA officials recognize peatland conservation as the most efficient method of counteracting the threat of climate change in Kachemak Bay’s coastal communities.
Impacts of climate change include increased flooding, coastal erosion and unpredictable weather events such as drought and excessive rain, threatening landscape stability and freshwater drinking sources. Healthy peatlands effectively absorb stormwater runoff, store carbon in the landscape and protect coastlines from erosion and pollution.
The Connecting Communities Through Peatland Ecology project will work with schools on Alaska’s Southern Kenai Peninsula, including six Title I schools. The project will provide school visits and field trips engaging students directly with local peatlands and building native plant gardens at schools or city sites — developing their science monitoring, observation, and stewardship skills.
Teachers from the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District will attend a three-day district-led peatland and Orchids in the Classroom curriculum training, including a professional development opportunity for credit through the university. Internship opportunities will be offered for post-secondary students at the local university campus to assist with peatland monitoring and education.
Peat itself is not a simple substance, notes Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Proulx, author of “Fen Bog & Swamp,” a short history of peatland destruction and its role in the climate crisis.
“The raw stuff is partially rotted and compressed plant material — seasonal deposits of leaves, reeds, grasses, mosses and fibers that fall and settle in the water,” she writes. “The water locks out oxygen, the main agent of decay. The spongy deposits build up over centuries, each bog or fen or swamp developing an individual character. Peat contains free cellulose content, high moisture and less than 60% carbon.”
Proulx notes that there are indications that permafrost thaw in the Arctic is now irreversible.
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