Daily Sitka Sentinel

August 16, 2019, Community Happenings

Ryan J. Allen

Dies in Sitka

Ryan James Allen, 35, died Thursday, Aug. 15, in Sitka.

An obituary will be published later in the Sentinel.

Climate Connection: The Burden of Choices 

By Leah Mason

We talk a lot about choice. We like to have choices in most things - supermarkets, toothpaste, toilet paper, political parties, cars, airlines. So how do we feel about the things we seem to have no choices about? I’m thinking about the things that I buy every week but don’t or CAN’T use. Things that add to the cost of waste disposal in Sitka, and which also add to the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Packaging is one thing that we don’t have a lot of choice about when we shop at a supermarket (more on that in another column), but even things that come from the store without packaging give me a lot to think about. For instance, bananas are good to eat, but banana peels are not. Corn in the husk looks great, but what does that husk and cob cost me? I can put all of these things in my worm composter but there are just some things I can’t face buying anymore. Then there are the leftovers, and other items in the “Oops! I forgot I had that, and now it’s moldy” food group. Again, I can give most things to the worms, but for people without a compost or worm farm, life is harder. 

Both of these “unavoidable” and “avoidable” food wastes are full of water, and take up space in our garbage cans, making them stinkier and heavier than need be. Leaving them in our garbage cans means we spend a lot of money moving that water to Seattle! But help is at hand ...

A program called “Love Food Hate Waste” helps people save money and greenhouse gasses by reducing the amount of actual food that they throw away. It provides tools and tips for planning your meals and your grocery shopping, cooking more often, and using leftovers in new meals. Although the U.S. doesn’t have its own Love Food Hate Waste program, you can see how the rest of the western world saves on the Canadian, UK, Australian (NSW) websites. Google “love food hate waste” and prepare to be amazed.

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Leah Mason hates putting food in her garbage, and is a member of the Sitka Citizens Climate Lobby.

FROM THE WEIR 

Sockeye Running Wild

By Ellie Handler

The sockeye run at the Redoubt Lake falls is still going strong! We’ve now counted over 50,000 sockeye at the Forest Service weir. The run has been so large this year that the Alaska Department of Fish & Game opened up Redoubt Bay to commercial harvest. At 50,000 sockeye, the lake is starting to approach its carrying capacity – at this level there are so many fish and potential competition amongst the fry that fewer will actually survive to reach adulthood. So, yet another reason to keep coming out to Redoubt and harvesting your annual subsistence sockeye! 

Now that we’re in the middle of August, we’re starting to see other salmon species at Redoubt as well. Coho have started to enter the lake – we have counted about a hundred so far, and their run at Redoubt is just beginning. Pinks are also coming up the falls and into the lake in increasing numbers. Their large black spots stand out strikingly as we peer down on them from our perches on the weir. 

Most of the salmon that enter Redoubt Lake will make their way about six miles back northwest of the falls, to the end of the lake. There is a cool stream that leads another six miles away from the lake, full of spawning habitat for the various species especially coho and sockeye. Female sockeye will lay about 2,000 to 5,000 eggs in four or five redds, hollows that they make along riverbeds. Male salmon can fertilize eggs in multiple redds. After a few months baby salmon, known as fry, will hatch from the eggs. The majority of the sockeye fry will spend a year feeding on zooplankton in the lake before migrating out to the ocean. They’ll feed and grow for a few years in the saltwater and then return to Redoubt Falls. Like the generations of sockeye that have made the journey back to Redoubt, we can pass on the subsistence harvest knowledge and continue to fill our freezers with this vital salmon resource for generations to come. 

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Ellie Handler is a Student Conservation Association AmeriCorps intern with the Forest Service, monitoring the Redoubt weir this summer. She loves the ways that salmon connect people, the Pacific, and the forest in Southeast. She came to Sitka with the Alaska Fellows Program, working with the Forest Service and the Sitka Conservation Society. 

United Way of Southeast Alaska 

2019 Day of Caring

United Way of Southeast Alaska will hold its third annual Day of Caring in Sitka on Tuesday, Sept. 17.

Local nonprofit agencies will offer up a service project to be completed. Volunteers can be individual residents, schools, organizations, or local businesses.

In the 2018 event, more than 12 volunteers donated almost 40 hours of service at two Sitka nonprofit agencies. 

“I was appreciative of all the organizations and employees that donated time and energy to the effort,” said Warren Russell, United Way board chair and Southeast Regional manager for GCI. “Boots on the ground doing great work for communities and organizations make me proud to be a part of United Way of Southeast Alaska.”  

Volunteers will receive a “LIVE UNITED” T-shirt and a complimentary breakfast at a soon-to-be-announced location to kick off the event. Each volunteer will donate up to four hours to complete the designated service projects.

‘‘We are still in the planning and coordinating stages of this event, and are still in search for either non-profits who have a service project they need completing or volunteers who would like to take a day and give back to their community,’’ Russell said.

Agencies and businesses interested in participating can sign up online at https://www.unitedwayseak.org/2019-day-caring-scroll-down-sign-form.

For additional information call Sabrina Boone, office administrator, at 907-463-5530 or email at staff@unitedwayseak.org.

Kaagwaantaan

Meet Sunday

Sitka Kaagwaantaan will meet 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 18, at Blatchley Middle School in classroom 114, to discuss and plan this fall’s memorial ceremonies.

‘‘This is a good opportunity to learn more about traditional culture and ceremony,’’ a press release said.

For information call Roby at 738-4004.

‘Charity Bin’ Open

To Non-Profits

Non-profit or charitable organizations seeking donations can stop in to register for a portion of the proceeds of Alaska Wild Game Pull Tab Parlor’s drawing from its ‘‘charity bin.’’

The parlor, at 426 Katlian Street, Suite D, is open 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

For information or to sign up with contact information, contact Serena DeTemple at serena.detemple@sitkatribe-nsn.gov.

Grief Support

Group to Meet

A free four-week closed grief support group, sponsored by Brave Heart Volunteers and SEARHC, will start Sept. 9 at the Pioneers Home Manager’s House.

An open and ongoing grief support group will follow, and those attending the closed group are invited to join.

Call the BHV office at 747-4600 with an email address for online registration.

Salmon Lunch

Fundraiser Set

St. Peter’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church is planning a salmon lunch fundraiser 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Aug. 20 on the front church lawn.

Lunch will include salmon, cole slaw and chips. Cookies also will be for sale. Proceeds will go to the recent emergency roof repair on the historic See House.

The church is located at 611 Lincoln Street. For more information, call 747-3977.