Sitka Collaborative Stewardship Group meeting with USFS and SCS staff on Kruzof Island to discuss future stewardship opportunities.
Project Name: Sitka Collaborative Stewardship Group
Community: Sitka
Support Organization: SCS
Support Organization Staff: Zia Brucaya
Target Outcomes: Community Visions
Strategies: Engagement and Empowerment, Capacity Development, Storytelling
P&P Funding: $12,000
Partners: Sitka Economic Development Association, City and Borough of Sitka, Sitka Tribe of Alaska, U.S. Forest Service, USDA Rural Development
Other Funding: $13,800
Narrative Description: The Sitka Collaborative Stewardship Group (SCSG) project seeks to build community engagement and empowerment around collaborative stewardship of our natural resources. The project will engage diverse community stakeholders in consistent communication with natural resources managers in the U.S. Forest Service, and strengthen working relationships between agencies, community organizations, businesses and others throughout the Sitka Ranger District.
The goal is to create a mechanism for engaging in collaborative stewardship that becomes a natural part of resource planning in the district, and in which a wide range of individuals and entities participate and invest. This project will help to advance the USDA Transition Strategy by focusing on broad and creative natural resource opportunities that meet community needs and objectives (social and economic), while protecting the ecological integrity of the Tongass.