The Hoonah Native Forest Partnership met in person on May 6-9, 2025 to review progress from last year, ensure that projects are meeting project priorities for landowners, and discuss needs and projects for this year. This year marks 10 years of the Hoonah Native Forest Partnership! Thank you to all partners who were available to make this call in person or online.
Quote of the week – “These partnerships are built for the hard times. ” – Steering Committee Member
The first part of the meeting focused on steering committee updates and their priorities for the partnership. We used what we heard about the priorities to discuss projects for the summer and how they do or do not align with the priorities stated. Below is an account of priorities heard from the Steering Committee Members
City Of Hoonah
- Watershed monitoring is a priority to model water storage
- Blueberry and Trail development
- Borough development
- Road Access and Development
- Upper Gartina Bridge
- Working together and partnering on projects
HIA
- Capacity building in construction and operating of equipment
- Lessen reliance on contracting to achieve better pricing and build people up
- Bringing community members to restoration sites to see them
Huna Totem
- Working together through partnerships and the HNFP
- Working on seeing through the active projects like AOPs in Spasski and Westport culverts
Sealaska
- Be a model for other communities and forests
- Have all of our lands operating at their highest potential
- Road management plan
- Better identifying what assessments have already been done and also what has not been assessed
- Building a 2027 and 2028 action plan
- Setting longterm plans for Westport
- Updating the BIA TPP inventory as much as possible with HIA
- Build training into all projects
- Bring in other funding and non-federal funding
USFS
- Leveraging USFS skills and resources with other funding
- Maintaining the monthly and annual meeting structure for the HNFP
- Finish the projects we’ve started – AOP construction in Game Creek, thinning, and others
- Continue to pilot LiDAR for multiple uses
- Write up a monitoring and accomplishments report
TNC
- HIA projects in stream restoration and road surveys
- LiDAR analysis and helping with private money the have for that work
NRCS
- Spending down the RCPP
- Getting HTC funding for the culvert
- These Partnership are built for the hard times
Action Items
- Westport FS plan – do we need to relook at easements here?
- Look at Westport Bathy map for potential landing zones
- Model snow in Gartina with SASSi data weather stations
- Review field map culvert data with tech team
- Fish ladder in Gallagher?
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