Kruzof and Baranof Islands Integrated Natural Resource Management Assessment

Abstract

The Kruzof and Baranof Islands Integrated Natural Resource Management Assessment evaluates and offers recommendations for current management initiatives while identifying strategies for future management, restoration, and outreach plans for the U.S. Forest Service Sitka Ranger District. The project report is divided into three main focus areas: Community Engagement, Restoration, and Education. The community engagement component aims to assess the perceptions and opinions of area residents and stakeholders regarding natural resource management within the study area, utilizing community surveys, participatory GIS (Geographic Information Systems), and extensive stakeholder interviewing. The restoration component evaluates restoration efforts that have been implemented since 1980 on Kruzof and Baranof Islands, by assessing the success of past restoration and gathering baseline information to provide monitoring data and better understand the natural succession after clear-cut harvest disturbances. The education component is geared towards creating awareness of marine invasive species through the creation of lessons and encouraging future monitoring through the development of field labs. Integrated project recommendations for future land management include: (1) limited future old-growth harvesting, (2) thinning of the riparian canopy where stem-exclusion is occurring, (3) increased restoration monitoring, (4) a trial-period of young-growth subsistence firewood opportunities, (5) utilization of hands on educational curriculum, and (6) improved signage and increased restoration and maintenance work on Kruzof Island.