The goal is to conduct research prioritized by each community to support local decision-making.

“For example, if a community is concerned about storm flooding, then we will work to align partners with expertise to address this,” said Hazel Nelson, a local consultant to the Chignik coalition.

“We will also work to provide community-based monitoring methods combined with ground surveys to measure and map this hazard,” she said.

The Alaska Coastal Cooperative chose the Chignik region for its first major project because the  Arctic Coastal Geoscience Lab of the UAF Geophysical Institute has worked with the Native Village of Chignik Bay and other Chignik coalition communities for over six years as part of the Stakes for Stakeholders community-based erosion monitoring program.  

The region’s multiple salmon fishery disasters of recent years also factored into the decision. Maio said the fisheries trouble has caused major changes in the communities such as seasonal outmigration.

“This has been hard to watch,” he said. “This project was brought about by a desire to do something positive in the region and support the local priorities for research with the goal of improving the region’s long-term outlook.”

Initial funding for the Alaska Coastal Cooperative was provided by UAF Vice Chancellor for Research Nettie LaBelle-Hamer, the UAF College of Rural and Community Development and the National Science Foundation’s Permafrost Coastal Systems Network.

The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation was founded in 1988 by philanthropists Jody Allen and the late Paul G. Allen, co-founder of Microsoft. It invests in communities across the Pacific Northwest.

Geophysical Institute

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  chignik, grant, mapping, salmon, uaf, watersheds