1. FIRE PREVENTION AND PUBLIC SAFETY
Emergency Preparedness
SBB provided $17,500 funding for two exercises in 2001 designed to assess the capability and readiness of Alaska Division of Forestry (AKDOF) and and KPB Office of Emergency Management (OEM) to respond to an urban-interface fire. The first wildfire exercise was a tabletop exercise simulating a wildfire starting at the corner of Greer and East End Road. The second exercise was a field exercise held by Alaska Division of Forestry at South Cohoe Loop.
Evacuation Route (Right-of-Way) Treatment
SBB Right-of-Way projects have removed hazard trees rights-of-way and on the adjacent private property to help protect access and egress within the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI).
Firefighter Funding
The SBB has helped sponsor training for fire fighters and has been involved in peninsula emergency response exercises. SBB has provided 70 weeks of funding for the AKDOF Kenai Crew.
Fire Suppression Support
To assist the fire suppression activities, the Spruce Bark Beetle Program (SBB) GIS staff have provided firefighting agencies with hazardous fuels maps, satellite imagery, the location of property with structures, information for fire behavior prediction models, and evacuation planning information.
Fuel Reduction
SBB has provided $2.1 million to Homer Electric Association (HEA), Chugach Electric and Seward Electric for removal of hazard trees near facilities and power lines. The most recent assistance was provided to HEA to clear hazard trees along major transmission lines from Sadie Cove to Tutka Bay.
2. TIMBER MANAGEMENT AND REFORESTATION
Timber Management
Since the Kenai Peninsula Borough (KPB) passed ordinance 2000-50 in December 2000, 3,700 acres of spruce bark beetle-killed timber have been harvested on borough land. KPB parcels were prioritized for fuel removal according to the risk they posed to adjacent communities. Each proposed timber sale was reviewed by the public and Advisory Planning Commission, then received final approval by the Assembly. Forest Management Sales Reports were prepared for all timber sales detailing the components of forest stands, the soil types, the existing residual regeneration and the recommended methods of harvest.
Reforestation
Harvested areas were reforested using seedlings grown from native spruce seeds collected by AKDOF from various locations on the Kenai Peninsulafor KPB in 1998. The SBB Program uses this local seed stock for all forest restoration plantings. 654,000 trees have been replanted on harvested borough parcels.
SBB has provided funding for 300,000 trees to be planted by the AKDOF Forest Stewardship Program and also provided funding for 397,000 trees to be planted on Native land. Cook Inlet Tribal Council received $1,048,350 from the SBB program to remove fuels and reforest native in holdings and federal lands.
Collectively, over 1.3 million trees have been planted using SBB funds.
3. FUEL MODELING AND RISK/HAZARD/FIRE BEHAVIOUR ASSESSMENT
Vegetation and Fuels Analysis
3.5 million acres of detailed vegetation/fuels/risk mapping have been completed to date. This information is used to determine risk/hazard assessments and to predict fire behavior.
4. PUBLIC EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATIONS
FireWise Workshop
In April of 2001, the Alaska Wildland Fire Coordinating Group in cooperation with the Kenai Peninsula Borough hosted the Alaska Regional FireWise Communities Workshop. This workshop was created to educate homeowners, planners, architects, builders, insurance professionals, financial institutions and fire managers about FireWise principles and to facilitate communication between these individuals to achieve a common goal of safer communities in the borough. SBB contributed $45,000 toward the event.
In the Community
In addition to radio interviews and public service announcements, SBB staffs a booth at local health fairs, home shows, sportsman shows, and the State Fair at Ninilchik to provide information to the public regarding mitigation of risks related to beetle-killed trees.
Resources for Children
SBB provided $2,520 toward the publication of "Spencer and the Wildfire" by Hannah Watkins. The SBB program also supports the DOF Project Learning Tree and Caring for the Kenai, an environmental awareness contest for high school students.
5. PUBLIC ASSISTANCE
SBB provides support to Division of Forestry programs to help individuals create defensible space and to plant trees. The SBB program funds have also provided slash disposal sites in Kenai, Sterling, and Moose Pass.
6. SCIENCE AND RESEARCH
Provenance Trials
SBB has provided funding toward research involving pine, larch and spruce. Provenance trials were established on five KPB Timber Sales to test for superior seedlings for planting on the Kenai Peninsula. Over 13,000 pine, larch, and spruce seedlings, representing seed stocks from around the northern hemisphere and all five regions of Alaska, were planted in a cooperative effort between the Spruce Bark Beetle Program Office, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the US Forest Service Institute of Arctic Biology, the Natural Resource Conservation Service, and the Alaska Division of Forestry. The purpose of this applied research project is to help provide public and private landowners information on how to successfully re-establish superior tree species on beetle-impacted land.
Public Response Study
SBB supported recent research by Courtney Flint, a Pennsylvania State University graduate student, that sought to provide information on the views of community residents on the impacts of the spruce bark beetle outbreak and on local actions in response to forest risks.
Spruce Bark Beetle Literature
SBB provided funding toward the publication of Insects of Southcentral Alaska and the production of an interpretive spruce bark beetle poster by Dominique Collet.
INFEST Symposium
In February 24-26, 2004
scientists and researchers gathered in Homer to discuss the results of over seventy research and management projects that were launched to understand and consider the management of the massive die-off of spruce that resulted from the spruce bark beetle outbreak. Presentations ranged from discussions of current knowledge of the effects of spruce beetles to management options for forest ecosystems and communities in south-central Alaska. SBB contributed $25,000 toward the facilitation of the symposium. Research findings can be found at
http://depts.washington.edu/nwfire/project.php?projectID=411.
7. LONG TERM PLANNING
In the fall of 2004, the Spruce Bark Beetle (SBB) Program was awarded a Wildland Urban Interface Grant to assist Kenai Peninsula communities to complete their Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPP). The SBB program contracted a facilitator to work directly with members of the community and agency landowners in each community. With guidance from the handbook sponsored by Communities Committee, National Association of Counties, National Association of State Foresters, Society of American Foresters, and Western Governors' Association, extreme risk rated communities began meeting in February 2005.
Eight CWPPs that included twenty-one extreme-risk communities have been developed. These working documents are to be updated annually by core team members of each community. The plans provide direction for local groups to reduce wildfire risk and increase wildfire preparedness by following recommendations for hazard tree removal projects and other activities discussed in the plans.
8. CONTINUITY OF EFFORTS
In accordance with the 1998 Task Force Action Plan the Kenai Peninsula Borough hired a Spruce Bark Beetle Coordinator in June 1999 to coordinate the implementation of Task Force recommendations. The KPB Spruce Bark Beetle Program Manager was hired in January 2001 to supervise all KPB spruce bark beetle projects.
To ensure the continuity and efficacy of long-term wildfire mitigation and forest health restoration projects the KPB Wildfire Science Technical Committee and the KPB Reforestation Technical Committee were established in January of 2000. The Kenai Forest, Wildland Fire, and Fuels Management Coordinating Committee was formed in 2003 to provide direction and oversight for future wildfire mitigation and forest health restoration projects. The All Lands/All Hands Action Plan of 2004 provides continuity of effort for mitigation projects through 2010. For more information contact Michael Fastabend .
