Taiya Inlet Watershed Council

Dear Community of Skagway,

I’ve had the pleasure of serving you as the director of the Taiya Inlet Watershed Council for the past 4.5 years. Together we’ve protected riparian areas, built rain gardens, raised salmon from eggs to fry (and released them!), planned the Pullen Creek StreamWalk, held four Pat Moore Memorial Game Fish Derbies, written a Stormwater Best Management Practices Manual, and pulled a lot of invasive plants. My time here in that capacity is almost over, and I’m passing on my position. The Taiya Inlet Watershed Council (TIWC) now sits within the Skagway Traditional Council (STC). My hope is that together TIWC and STC can bring funding and projects to address the community’s environmental concerns and continue to work towards healthy salmon habitat in the Taiya and Skagway watersheds. I have to especially thank TIWC’s local supporting partners who have given time, space, and staff to our projects: Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad, Skagway School District, Municipality of Skagway, Skagway Public Works, Skagway Recreation Center, Skagway Brewing Company, Skagway News, You Say Tomato and of course, the Skagway Traditional Council. While the Pat Moore Memorial Game Fish Derby is cancelled this year, I have briefed the Skagway Convention and Visitors Bureau on the event and have given them all assets. They plan to get together a committee to run the event in the future. Thank you all for your help and your enthusiasm. Please feel free to stop by the Skagway Traditional Council building to meet the new face of TIWC and the STC Environmental Program, Nicole Kovacs – but maybe give her a few weeks to get her feet on the ground 🙂

Sincerely,

Rachel Ford

P.S. Follow me on my blog: www.racnatfo.blogspot.com

I found some great volunteers to help me clean out the rain garden. For more information on rain gardens, click on Projects > Current Projects > Rain Gardens in Skagway.

Thanks to a cooperative team of audio/visual enthusiasts, the Taiya Inlet Watershed Council presented the Wild and Scenic Film Festival with sound and video on March 19! We have to say a big thank you to the Skagway Brewing Company, an ever supportive partner of ours who allowed us space, staff time, and 10% of their beer sales for the night. TIWC made $152 U.S. dollars and $10 Canadian dollars that night, all of which will go towards future projects and programming. Thank you to Eric Wortman, Claire Barrett, Abby Jo Kramer, and Andy Miller for their help in getting this going. And thank you to everyone who came and watched me panic for 45 minutes before we got the video going.

This position is located at the Skagway Traditional Council Community Center in Skagway Alaska, with the primary responsibility being the planning, coordination and execution of environmental projects that address environmental concerns in the Skagway area. The secondary responsibility of the position is to act as the Taiya Inlet Watershed Council representative for the community of Skagway. The Environmental Protection Agency’s Indian Governmental Assistant Program (IGAP) mainly funds the position. Other funding sources come from state and federal TIWC grants.

For the full Job Posting, please click the link below.

STCEnvironmental Coordinator Job Description

Interested in helping to improve environmental health in Skagway? Check out the Environmental Assistant posting on the Skagway Traditional Council website:

http://www.skagwaytraditional.org/employment.html

Join the Taiya Inlet Watershed Council and Corvus Design on Wednesday, September 30th anytime between 4pm and 7pm at the Skagway Traditional Council Building on 11th and Broadway to review full-size printouts of the StreamWalk Interpretive panels. We’re looking for community feedback before printing. Hope to see you there!

Rachel