Will Work for Fish

Commercial fisheries provide thousands of jobs for Alaskans and millions of dollars to local economies. By demonstrating a direct link between quality of life and fisheries health, TWC connects members of the community to the value of their watershed resources. The communities of Haines and Klukwan are home to over sixty commercial fishing permit holders, and many residents rely on subsistence fishing to supplement their diet. While the link between a healthy, sustainable fishery and the Haines Borough’s economy is clear to most residents, we seek to make that connection evident in the minds and the practices of all residents.

A Community Resource

The TWC is a community resource. We gather data for public use and are creating a resource library for use by citizens, local government and developers. By increasing the availability of watershed information we will participate in improving the quality of development decisions made in the community. Our information sources include: existing research, the knowledge of local elders, and the results of research projects in progress. As we gain knowledge through our own research and gather more from other sources, our library will continually grow and help to provide a clearer understanding of the relationship between us humans and the land and waters we inhabit and use. This clearer understanding will help ensure that the changes we make will have maximum benefits and do minimum damage to natural systems.

Local Streamkeepers Groups

TWC fosters local landowner stewardship and awareness of the habitat value in local watersheds. We encourage rehabilitation, creek clean-up, and creek awareness by all landowners in our smaller, urbanized watersheds. We do this by contacting individual landowners, facilitating Streamkeepers meetings, and organizing activities such as yearly creek clean-ups.

Given a rising population and the documented water quality problems associated with independent sewage disposal systems there is a need for discussion of the relationship between residents and the creeks which flow through their neighborhoods. In addition, habitat quality has been affected by the forms of development in the area. TWC can be a technical and funding resource for fixes for these problems but active involvement of the landowners is crucial in accomplishing them.