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Discover the heartbeat of Juneau's cultural and community landscape with 'Capital Chat.' This series explores the vibrant world of the community, arts, and dynamic cultural and social events happening in Alaska's Capital City. Tune in to 'Capital Chat' for your essential guide to the pulse of our community, where every story is an adventure and every voice matters.
And now Capital Chat on KINY, where we connect you with Juneau and Southeast Alaska's community organizations only on KINY.
Speaker 2:KINY ninety four point nine FM and always 800. It is Capital Chat and I'm Justin Miller filling in for Greg Knight this week. And we have the U. S. Forest Service, especially we have Barb Miranda, Deputy Forest Supervisor here in the studio.
Speaker 2:How are we doing this morning?
Speaker 3:I'm doing great. Thanks for having me here, Justin.
Speaker 2:Well, thanks for coming on the program, and kind of give us an update. It's been a little bit since we've had you on.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I was here about a month ago with Monique Nelson, who's our new forest supervisor for the Tongass National Forest. But I really wanted to come talk to you about all the things we got going on across the forest because it actually feels a little bit like summer now. So, there's a lot going on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, especially now that we've kind of got the initial ball rolling. Now, I feel like we always kind of get thrown at it. It's summertime, April hits, and then
Speaker 3:we have a day
Speaker 2:flies by. Then June and July kind of like I worked in the tourism industry and I've always saw that June and July was kind of like that moment where you kind of got locked in as far as the operations goes.
Speaker 3:Yeah. In the meantime, we've been preparing for summer, right? So a lot of safety training has been going on across the forest with partners and with our employees, everything from chainsaw operations to shoreline survival and boat operator training. So that happens for months before the summer ever starts to make sure everybody's safe out there.
Speaker 2:That's great. Yeah. So what's kind of been going on lately as far as maybe May, June goes or the rest of May?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So we've got a lot of things going on out there. We've been working with partners across the forest. And one of the bigger projects includes a watershed restoration work out at Cube Cove on Admiralty Island. Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:In partnership with the Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition, the Forest Service acquired a bunch of land out there that had been logged and eroded pretty heavily, and it's being restored because it's part of the wilderness area over there. And so we've got the Kootenaiwoo crew and the Kequan crew. These are community forest partner crews from Cake and Angoon out there working side by side with the Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition and the Forest Service to do some major restoration work out there, and that'll be ongoing for the next couple summers.
Speaker 2:So when you say restoration work, what specifically
Speaker 3:needed to be done? Removing bridges, doing some stand treatments to the trees that were logged in our second growth to make them have old growth characteristics when they grow, Doing some work to remove roads and culverts that block fish passage. So really trying to restore the natural processes in that area. So it's a big project and it's a big deal, and we couldn't do it without the partners that are out
Speaker 2:Well, sounds like a great project going on. And like you're saying, a lot of people involved with that. So, as we always say in Southeast, it takes a village to make it happen. So, you
Speaker 3:know. You'll see that theme in everything I got to say that we couldn't do without the partners that we've got out there.
Speaker 2:So, what about the Menin Hall Visitor Center? What's kind of been going on as far as operation goes over there this summer?
Speaker 3:Well, as we are all feeling here in Juneau, the cruise ships are in, and so the Menin Hall is busy. We do have some wildlife activity out there. There's bears that are cruising around, and bears with cubs, and so you might be one of the lucky people that gets to see them if you head out there too. We do have the visitor center open from ten to five. The Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area, the entire recreation area is open as normal hours from 6AM to 12PM.
Speaker 3:Yeah, 12PM every day. But the visitor center itself is open from ten to five. We have the Tlingit and Haida Cultural Ambassadors out there helping us with educating visitors as they come in, as well as Discovery Southeast who runs the bookstore. So we've got enough staffing to keep those doors open for those hours. It's a little less than what we normally would do.
Speaker 3:But people are having a good experience out there
Speaker 2:with their partners, And kind of jumping back to wildlife, most of us here in Juneau and locals that grew up in the Sierra, we all kind of know what to anticipate during this time of year, especially now that it's summertime and bears maybe mating. What kind of advice can you throw at maybe some people that are listening to KONY that are popping into Juno or that are going to head out there and what to expect or kind of be aware about?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, respectful, right? So, at the Mendenhall, there'll generally be staff on-site to help guide folks safely away so that wildlife can continue to act. And they do act pretty naturally out there at the Mendenhall. For us living here in town, of course, keeping your food away and not putting your garbage out till the morning, it's gonna get picked up. Those are sort of the normal things.
Speaker 3:But out in the wild, be bear aware, make some noise, and have respect for the wildlife that's around you. We're so, so lucky to live in a place where we get to observe the wildlife that we live side by side with. Just deepest respect to them.
Speaker 2:I've yet to see a bear this year. I have yet to get a bear sighting. Know some people always check that off their list. Like, I saw my first bear this summer. So it's always great to share that with the community.
Speaker 2:Maybe now that we're kind of in the summertime, has there been any sort of educational programs as far as for youth or even just any community members that's been happening?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So a couple things are going on. We have Alaska Youth Stewards Programs in Huna, Angoon, Cake, and Prince Of Wales. And they all gathered in Glacier Bay National Park just last week for a big training to kick off. And they do work across Southeast.
Speaker 3:But we also have annual kids fishing days are happening across the forest. These are days where kids can go out fishing with youth, with Forest Service colleagues. I don't see a date here for Juneau, but they're happening in Huna, Wrangell, Yakutat, Petersburg, and Prince Of Wales. And then of course, there's always stuff going on with Discovery Southeast and their Discovery camps. And Discovery Southeast runs the bookstore at the Menin Hall.
Speaker 3:And a lot of the proceeds that they get from the bookstore at the Menin Hall Glacier Visitor Center funds the youth programs that they do for Juneau kids.
Speaker 2:I love Discovery Southeast, kind of not to shout them out on the air right now, but yeah, growing up here in Juneau, that was always a cool thing when they came into the classrooms and took you out on outings and showed you about local wildlife and just like animal tracks. It's great that they're affiliated with the Glacier and the Mental Visitor Center and
Speaker 3:all that. Yeah, I mean, proceeds we get at the bookstore there go to fund all those programs that our local kids benefit from, so it's really a nice relationship. It's a wonderful relationship that we have with Discovery It's a great cause, for sure.
Speaker 2:Is there anything other updates that you'd like to throw out and share with the community?
Speaker 3:Yeah, just I know that when I've been on here before, we've talked a lot the Tongass Forest Plan revision, which we've been working on for a couple years now. We are about to release the assessment, the final assessment, which is the best scientific and indigenous knowledge, a collection of it, which builds the foundation for the forest plan. So people can look for that final assessment. We're gonna release it probably sometime towards the July. And we'll give some more updates on the status of entire process there.
Speaker 3:But it's a big master plan for the Tongass, and we haven't redone that plan thoroughly or fully since 1997. We've embarked on that long process to redo the plan, and we're getting the first big foundational step released here in July.
Speaker 2:Wow. Well, I'll be on the lookouts for that. We'll be sure to cover it here on KINY and share it with the community. Anyone in the community wants to maybe volunteer, how could they get in touch with you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, if they want to volunteer for the Forest Service, they should get in touch with their local ranger station. So, in Juneau, that would be the Juneau Ranger District. Just do a Google search. I don't have that phone number in front of me. I should, but I don't.
Speaker 3:So just, you know, look, give the Ranger District a call and see what kind of volunteer opportunities are available.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, maybe we'll throw that into our episode notes when we upload this episode and people can just click on that link and be able to find it super quick and easy. Is there anything else we'd like to throw out there?
Speaker 3:I think that's it, Justin. Thanks for having us.
Speaker 2:Well, thanks for coming on. Barb, Deputy Force Supervisor, and that should do it for Capital Chat here on KINY.
Speaker 1:You've been listening to Capital Chat on KINY, your connection to the people and organizations making a difference in Juneau in Southeast Alaska.