LUTHERAN QUILTERS – Members of the Quilts for Comfort Group stand between pews draped with some of the 205 quilts they made, in the Sitka Lutheran Church Tuesday. The group made the quilts for five local non-profits and one in Anchorage. The remaining quilts are sent to Lutheran World Relief which  distributes them to places around the world in need, such as Ukraine, as part of Personal Care Kits. Pictured are, from left, Helen Cunningham, Kathleen Brandt,Vicki Swanson, Paulla Hardy, Kim Hunter, Linda Swanson and Sue Fleming.  (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)

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Daily Sitka Sentinel

Anti-COVID Action Needed in Woods, Too

By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer

U.S. Forest Service crews will be working on a number of projects in the woods this summer, from cabin maintenance to watershed restoration, but Sitka District Ranger Perry says maintaining proper social distancing by workers and the public alike is important, even in the backcountry.

“We are asking people to continue social distancing in adherence to outdoor ethics and principles,” Edwards told the Sentinel. “It’s interesting when I go out and hike on trails that I see people who I see in town wearing a mask and they are doing great social distancing and then they come up to each other on the trail... and they are five inches apart. We kind of forget that is not OK. We’re human. We are going to occasionally do that, but I hope that everyone can, in non-threatening ways, keep their social distancing.”

He added that people should also remember to bring their own cleaning supplies when they rent a Forest Service cabin.

Edwards said the Forest Service is continuing its routine cabin maintenance, though the pandemic did push the process back by a fortnight.

“We do have the general cabin maintenance and firewood cutting and making sure that the oil stoves are still running. We had a late start due to the pesky pandemic,” he said.

Standard mitigation measures presented some problems, Edwards said.

“How do we put more than one person inside the cabin of a boat?” he asked. An initial plan to have the captain in the cabin with the others spaced out on the deck didn’t pan out.

“Some of our cabins are two or three hours away, and if it’s raining sideways and the seas are high, that doesn’t work,” he said. The compromise is to have everyone wear a mask and to respect each others’ personal space as much as possible.

Among the projects this summer is installation of new toilet facilities at the parking area atop Harbor Mountain, Edwards said.

He said work crews used the time that was lost on cabin maintenance to work on improving the Starrigavan Recreation Area, where the Forest Service has plans for major improvements.

He hopes the agency will be able to restore some of the ATV trails and watershed areas damaged in the 2014 landslide at the east end of the valley.

“We are actually in the process of an Environmental Analysis on that. It’s both restoration and enhancement of recreation and watershed,” Edwards said. “I think we have sufficient funds to do the stream restoration and get the original ATV trail back up to par.”

But Edwards said that the Forest Service has some bigger plans, too, though they will not be on this year’s list: the rerouting of the rough trail to Starrigavan Ridge.

“Instead of it being a user-created trail, where in some places it is really mucky and has a lot of erosion going down the hill, to something that is more of a real, created trail,” he said. He added, “We have a good example of where we did the same thing, the Herring Cove-Beaver Lake Trail.”

Moving forward, Edwards said, the Forest Service is interested in formalizing the trail to Eagle Dip Lake, also known as Spirit Dog Lake, at the far end of the valley. Looking ahead even further, he said there’s a chance of linking in with old logging roads in the Katlian Valley.

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20 YEARS AGO

March 2004

Advertisement: Tea-Licious Tea House & Bakery 315 Lincoln Street Grand Opening! Freshly Baked Scones, Cakes & Pastries Innovative Salads, Soups & Sandwiches Harney & Sons Tea. Lunch * Afternoon Tea * Supper.

50 YEARS AGO

March 1974

Photo caption: National Republican Chairman George Bush takes a drink of water offered by Jan Craddick, Sitka delegate, during the Republican convention held here. Mrs. Craddick explained to Bush that the water was from Indian River, which means, according to local legend, that he will return.

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