A group of tribes in Southcentral Alaska partnered with a federal agency last month to form a tribal conservation district, part of a larger effort to advance agriculture and mariculture projects.
The Chugach Regional Resources Commission is a non-profit that represents seven tribes: Chenega, Nanwalek, Port Graham, Tatitlek, Valdez, Eyak in Cordova and Qutekcak in Seward. The consortium’s new agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service establishes the Chugach Region Tribal Conservation District.
“Partnering with NRCS in this way helps us access funding for mariculture development as well as some of the agricultural streams that we're trying to work on,” said Carolyn Spencer, the environmental director with the tribal consortium.
Tribal conservation districts are entities across Alaska and the country created to manage natural resources on Native lands, with technical or financial assistance from the federal government.
“There's been a couple culvert replacements to support fish passage and salmon habitat,” said Jackie Kragel, the acting state tribal liaison for the program. “We have different infrastructure opportunities for community gardens, for food sovereignty.”
The seven tribes in the Chugach Regional Resources Commission are spread out across Prince William Sound and the Lower Cook Inlet areas. Spencer said the tribes are already using some innovative approaches to food sovereignty, like a mariculture operation in Seward that cultivates shellfish and kelp.
“A lot of our tribes have interest in hydroponics,” she said. “They want ways to access healthy food in their backyard, without having to pay the shipping costs because they're so remote.”
The tribes started to form the conservation district back in 2019, but the COVID-19 pandemic put a pause on the work.
Now that the agreement is signed, one project Spencer said the partnership might make easier is high tunnel construction in Port Graham. That’s a covered structure that traps solar heat for growing vegetables. She said the USDA team has experience with projects like this and can assess the land and fund the delivery of the tunnel.
“Then it's up to the tribe to construct it as well as then operate it,” she said.
She said the district will also help tribes collaborate with other communities that might be working on similar projects.
“It's kind of like this really beautiful stream of like, ‘We've done this and tried this this way. We know this works, so this is the way that we'd recommend,’” Spencer said.
The tribes also hope the partnership will also help get resources from one community to another, to assist with food production, Spencer said.
The USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service has faced challenges so far during the second Trump administration, with staff cuts and grant cancellations. But Kragel said she doesn’t have any concerns about their ability to provide technical or financial assistance.
Spencer said the partnership would only provide a portion of the funding needed for the tribal consortium’s projects.
“It's just another avenue for us to find funding to help do the work that we're trying to do,” she said.
Correction: An earlier photo caption in this story said that the photo showed a kelp harvest near Seward. The harvest was near Port Graham.
