HNFP Joint Tech Team and Steering Committee Meets to Discuss next 5 years

In May 2022, the Steering Committee and Technical Team of the Hoonah Native Forest Partnership met to discuss the first five years of the partnership and look towards the next five years. This was the first in-person meeting since the beginning of the pandemic and was an opportunity get new members together and discuss where we have come from and where we are going. The HNFP has received another 1.8 million dollars through the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) to continue to do work on the land and improve watershed health. That work is guided by the watershed plan that was finalized in 2020.

Central Topics included:

1. What work has been done to date?
2. What are the opportunities for the future?
3. Should we transition our thinking in the work to be a “climate ready landscape”?
4. How do we prioritize the work of the next 5 years?
5. A review of the Riparian Light penetration analysis (comparing how much light gets to the ground in young growth stands instead of old growth stands)

Tasks coming out of the meeting included:

1. Developing a cost estimate for the opportunities across the landscape and provide it to the steering committee
2. Organizing a comprehensive transportation plan across the whole road system by holding meetings this winter. This will help us decide where work needs to happen and the timelines of that work
3. Completing the project tracking and inventory in GIS so that we can quantify the past work and share it with the community and steering committee
4. Host a winter Steering Committee meeting to review prioritization of projects and develop a 5 year plan for projects to fund through the NRCS and priorities to fund through grant writing
5. Have a discussion on data sharing and what’s allowable for each partner. This is especially needed as online GIS resources make it easier to share information back to the community and to share data with other partners
6. Work during the winter to reengage the community on their priorities and help that shape the next 5 years of work