Homer, Alaska - News - NRCS head tours area; impressed by findings 08/20/08

Story last updated at 9:24 PM on Wednesday, August 20, 2008

NRCS head tours area; impressed by findings

BY MICHAEL ARMSTRONG
STAFF WRITER

Along with the usual summer visitors to the end of the road, Homer has seen several high-ranking government officials this season. Earlier this month, Adm. Thad Allen, commandant of the Unied States Coast Guard, visited Homer. Last week, Chief Arlen Lancaster, head of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, took a helicopter tour of NRCS projects in Kachemak Bay.

Lancaster came to Homer as part of a larger tour of Alaska. After his visit here, he went to Palmer, Tyonek, Nome and St. Lawrence Island, where he saw reindeer herds in the Siberian Yupik community. Appointed in 2006, Lancaster had served earlier as USDA deputy assistant secretary for congressional relations and as a staff member for Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah.

Much about Alaska surprised him, Lancaster said.

"I've always thought of Alaska as wide open, with lots of forest land in its natural state," he said. "What surprised me is how little agricultural land there is in Alaska."

Accompanied by Homer district conservationist Mark Kinney, state conservationist Bob Jones, East End Road rancher Chris Rainwater and the Homer News, Lancaster saw a diversity of NRCS projects from the air and close up in the Homer Soil and Water Conservation District area.

Two sites showed the importance of water conservation efforts. At a snow survey station near Nuka Glacier in the Bradley Lake watershed, Lancaster saw how precipitation is monitored, with real-time data transmitted to users. Under a contract with the Alaska Energy Authority, NRCS built and maintains the survey station. AEA uses that information to figure out how much water is available for the Bradley Lake Hydroelectric Plant another stop on the tour.

"Water conservation takes on a whole new meaning when you're generating power," Kinney said.

Lancaster said he came to understand the importance of snow survey sites and how Alaska's rugged terrain makes that work difficult.

"The logistical challenges our staff face it's helpful for me to get that first-hand exposure," he said.

At the head of Kachemak Bay in the Fox River Flats grazing area, the tour visited Bruce Willard's cattle herd, one of several Fox River Cattlemen's Association herds in the 16,700 acres of the Fox River Flats Critical Habitat Area and 4,300 acres of the Kachemak Bay Critical Habitat Area. NRCS staff in Homer manage those leases to make sure cattle don't overgraze. At Willard's grazing area, tour members also looked at an exclosure, a fenced-off area to compare ungrazed vegetation with grazed vegetation.

Kinney said the main concern with cattle grazing in the critical habitat areas is its effect on wildlife habitat. Lesser Canada geese feed in the Fox River Flats. Shifting tides a "moving fence," he called it keep the cattle from staying too long in lowland areas.

Lancaster met Willard at his ranch and saw some of the Environmental Quality Incentive Program projects on Willard's ranch, such as a water well and pipeline. Like other cattlemen, Willard raises and sells grass-fed beef. He told Lancaster of the tenuous food supplies Alaska gets, most of it barged up from the Lower 48.

"In a few days, this state's out of groceries," Willard said of a possible disruption to that supply chain. "We think agriculture's pretty important."

Willard's homestead also showed how dependent cattlemen are on growing hay to feed herds through the winter.

"The limiting factor (to ranching) was the availability of hay," Lancaster said he learned. "That's unusual."

Returning to Homer, the helicopter tour swung by Caribou Lake, the recreation area popular with snowmachiners and other off-road vehicle users. Long tracks snaked through wetlands from trailheads off East End Road toward the lake. To encourage off-road vehicle users from damaging wetlands, the NRCS worked with the Snomads and the Cabin Hoppers to build boardwalk trails.

On his Alaska tour, Lancaster said farmers, ranchers and reindeer herders all told him the same thing: how young agriculture is in Alaska.

"We're still a relatively young industry up here," he said people told him.

"We need that basic conservation assistance to make sure we're doing it right from the beginning."

Later this month, Lancaster visits NRCS projects in Utah, Hawaii and Colorado. Like many visitors to Homer, Lancaster came away impressed.

"You live in a beautiful place," he said. "When we work on our top 20 places to retire, we're going to add Homer."

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