We will provide garbage bags and snacks. Meet at the Sunny Drive pullout, which you can access from old Glacier Highway. You can park in that small lot or along the street. If you have any questions, please give us a call at 907-586-3100 or send us an email at setrust@ptialaska.net.

Help us keep this wonderful place clean and beautiful!

Take a tour through Southeast Alaska and learn what SEAL Trust is doing to protect the lands you cherish!

Download instructions and the Google Earth file at Box.net.

Note that if you don’t already have Google Earth you will need to download it from here: earth.google.com/

With the support of our members, SEAL Trust has been able to continue to fulfill its mission to protect vital, natural areas throughout Southeast Alaska. Since 1996, SEAL Trust has protected more than 3,000 acres of open space, natural habitat, and recreation area. We hope you will consider renewing or beginning a membership in 2012 to ensure the continuation of this critical mission.

But first, let me tell you about what we’ve achieved in the past year, the opportunities ahead, and how you can help out!

In-Lieu Fee Program
SEAL Trust is one of the first organizations in the nation now to be operating under the US Army Corps of Engineers’ new, tough standards for in-lieu fee mitigation. This program supports our continued efforts to preserve critical wetlands and the clean water, fish and wildlife habitat, and recreation opportunities they sustain. Learn more.

Progress on the Mendenhall Wetlands Refuge
Speaking of wetlands, SEAL Trust remains committed to preserving additional accreted Mendenhall wetlands and is currently working to protect 16 acres along the Mendenhall Peninsula. Preserving these lands will help maintain their critical estuarine values, support regional fisheries, and expand protection of a globally recognized ‘Important Bird Area.’ Learn more.

Expanded GIS Mapping Capacity
Did you know you can now explore SEAL Trust properties virtually? Over the past year, we have improved our ability to make rich, detailed maps and to digitally analyze regional conservation priorities. To thank you for your year-end contribution of $35 or more, I’ll send you a digital file that displays the location of our properties on Google Earth. Discover remote areas like our Kake-Gunnuk Creek easements from the comfort of your desk!

Sitka Crescent Bay Easement
Contributions like yours also helped protect the last open, natural shoreline on Sitka’s urban waterfront, which you can see in the photo above. I hope that you are now as eager as I am to see this area between the Sitka Sound Science Center and the National Totem Park as a centerpiece of the Sitka Sea Walk. Learn more.

I hope you are proud of what we’ve accomplished together in 2011. And just think how much more your year-end contribution to SEAL Trust can do to help protect vital natural areas in 2012! Your membership ensures that the areas you cherish remain in place for future generations.

P.S. Remember your gift is tax deductible!

Bethany Wylie

Bethany comes to Juneau from Washington by way of California. In 2010, she graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Arts in Archaeology. Though she became increasingly interested in environmental issues, Bethany wanted to continue to study people. Since she was not quite ready to leave California, Bethany stayed on another year to get a Master’s of Science in Earth Systems focusing on socially conscious conservation policy. To explore this topic, she did thesis research on the local values of an undeveloped, private coastal property on the south shore of Kaua’i, Hawai’i. Through this research, she found that easements are often the most useful conservation tools to mitigate the impact of protected areas on local people. Determined to work for a land trust, Bethany spent a summer researching farmland preservation for the Peninsula Open Space Trust in Palo Alto, CA. She has also, in the past, worked on ecotourism, recycling education, and local fisheries management.  Bethany is excited to be back in the Pacific (far) Northwest and to explore beautiful Southeast Alaska!

Conservation Assistant

Southeast Alaska Land Trust is seeking an energetic individual to join our Juneau-based organization. We’re looking for a person who values natural areas and can help our regional efforts to conserve critical lands and their resources.  We are a staff of three paid professionals working with a volunteer Board of Directors who actively supports and guides SEAL Trust’s land protection efforts.

The Conservation Assistant position:

• conducts annual stewardship monitoring of SEAL Trust’s easements
• develops membership and outreach
• provides organizational and project support
• is a full-time, permanent job
• pays $16/hour – $17.50/hour, DOE
• Start date:  May 1, 2011 (approx.)
• Application Deadline: April 19, 2011

Please click here for a complete job description.

For more than a decade, SEAL Trust has teamed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to utilize certain wetlands mitigation fees, paid by developers when their projects cause unavoidable impacts to aquatic resources. These fees are used to conserve wetlands for public benefit in Southeast Alaska. Federal regulations on the mitigation fees have changed, and SEAL Trust must update its legal agreement with the Corps. As part of our upgrade, SEAL Trust wrote two draft reports that describe SE Alaska’s wetlands, how we will work to conserve wet places for public benefit, and how we will manage the mitigation fees. click here…

The Corps is conducting a public review and accepting written comments on these SEAL Trust reports. Please contact us at setrust@ptialaska.net or 907-586-3100 if you have questions. Your written comments must be submitted to the Corps. Check their website (www.poa.usace.army.mil/reg (under special public notices) or contact the Corps by phone (907) 790-4490 or by email (randal.p.vigil@usace.army.mil) for the comment deadline.

“Southeast Alaska’s natural treasures enjoy increased significance to me the more I kayak along its wild shores and travel around the world.”
-Gretchen Keiser

Gretchen Keiser
Conservation Specialist

Gretchen has a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Science Education from Cornell University and a Master’s of Science in Biology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. In Alaska since the mid-1970s, Gretchen has worked in natural resources as a field biologist, legislative analyst, coastal program manager, city planner and water quality regulatory manager.

She serves on the Board of Directors for True North Federal Credit Union and Rainforest Yoga – two not-for-profit organizations important to the well being of the Juneau community. Gretchen brings her enthusiasm for the conservation of Southeast Alaska’s natural landscapes, coupled with her personal interests in kayaking, gardening, yoga, and travel.

“From exploring remote bays in an old wooden fishing boat to backpacking in the forest and alpine, I am continuously amazed and humbled by the beauty and richness of Southeast Alaska. I have only begun to explore the natural wonders and incredible communities here, and I thrilled to be involved in the exciting and important work of SEAL Trust.”

Rebecca Hartwell 
Conservation Assistant

Rebecca grew up near the small town of Carnation in Washington State and attended Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. During college, she studied in Sikkim, India for a semester where she developed an independent study project on community- based ecotourism, which became the empirical basis for her Honors thesis senior year. Rebecca graduated in 2006 with a Bachelor’s degree in Politics and Environmental studies. After graduation, she traveled to Malaysia with a US Fulbright Fellowship where she taught English in a rural community for one year. Upon Rebecca’s return to the US, she headed north for colder climates as an intern with Sitka Conservation Society through the Alaska Conservation Foundation internship program. Enchanted with Southeast Alaska, Rebecca decided to explore this unique region by water and got a job as a deckhand on a commercial fishing boat, trolling for salmon throughout Southeast Alaska for five months. Now living in Juneau, Rebecca is excited for the opportunity to work for Southeast Alaska Land Trust and continue working for conservation issues in Alaska.

 View of accreted land of a property adjacent to the Refuge, seen from the ground stake to the trees in the distance.

Southeast Alaska Land Trust is currently undertaking an exciting project with Juneau landowners in an effort to secure a fixed boundary around the Mendenhall Wetlands State Game Refuge. Situated in the geographic heart of Juneau, the Mendenhall Refuge is a 3,600 acre tidally-influenced wetlands where the mixing of fresh and salt water in the estuaries and grasslands create critical habitat for more than 140 species of resident and migratory birds, nearly a dozen different mammals, eight anadromous fish, and an abundance of other marine species.

It has become evident that this treasured asset is substantially shrinking due to a natural phenomenon called “isostatic rebound,” where land, once pressed under glaciers, rises. In the case of the Mendenhall Refuge, which has a boundary largely defined by the “mean-high tide line,” lands that were once legally within the Refuge are now being claimed for private ownership by adjacent landowners through a process called quiet title. With low-gradient tidal flats a persistent feature of this area, the Refuge is shrinking by as much as hundreds of feet, in some areas.

Southeast Alaska Land Trust is offering to purchase these accreted lands, or an interest in these lands and hopes to secure a fixed boundary around the Mendenhall Refuge by entering into conservation agreement with willing upland owners. Options include simple purchase agreements, tax-deductable donations of accreted lands, or the establishment of conservation easements. The positive responses from landowners thus far is exciting, and SEAL trust is eager to work with each individual landowner to find the best approach to managing their accreted lands. Our intent is to ensure the long-term integrity of this remarkable resource for wildlife and the for Juneau community.

For more information about the Mendenhall Wetlands State Game Refuge and about the Accreted Lands Project, you can visit our website at http://southeastalaskalandtrust.org/ or give us a call at the office at (907)586-3100.

Aerial map of the Mendenhall Wetlands State Game Refuge. Click for larger image