For many high-school students, junior year is a whirlwind of academics, extracurriculars, and test prep. One group of students in Sitka has added something else to their load – a class on how to navigate the Federal Subsistence Board process.
In a conference room at University of Alaska-Southeast in Sitka, Mt. Edgecumbe High School students Elizabeth Griggs and Naomi Jones are eating strips of smoked salmon and talking about what subsistence means to them. Jones, who grew up in the village of Tyonek on the Kenai Peninsula, harvests moose and salmon with her family.
“It’s a good snack to have as a family or as a meal, and it helps bring up the stories of when my papa was little and how he shares those with us and makes it all fun,” she says. “It just makes me happy.”
Griggs considers the smoked salmon in her hand as she talks about her experience in the western village of Koliganek.
“It just reminds you of home,” Griggs says. “And it kind of grounds you. You could be feeling some sort of way, or anxious or homesick, and you just want to go home, and then just having that little pick-me-up reminds you of home and your family and just your way of life. Because that’s what it is, it’s how you live your life.”
Jones and Griggs aren’t sharing this information just for fun – they’re preparing testimony to share with the Federal Subsistence Board when they meet next week in Anchorage. They’re part of a class offered by the US Forest Service and Sitka Conservation Society that prepares high school students to navigate the board process.
Heather Bauscher is the Fisheries Community Engagement Specialist for Sitka Conservation Society and Salmon State. Bauscher has been teaching this class for seven years now, and she says the goal is to make students more comfortable with a challenging, bureaucratic process. The Federal Subsistence Board oversees subsistence harvest of fish and wildlife on federal lands and waters. They’re also tasked with assigning rural designation – a designation that Ketchikan is currently seeking.
“As many people in this community and other communities know, engaging in these processes can be really difficult and can feel very overwhelming at first,” Bauscher says.
It’s a process that can be especially difficult for rural Alaskans and elders, who may have limited connectivity or ability to travel. Bauscher and her co-instructor, Forest Service fish biologist Ashley Bolwerk, are helping students to break down the process into bite-sized pieces. Today, they tackle the structure of the board and the regional advisory councils. Later this week, they’re meeting virtually with the board chair, Tony Christianson. And next week, the students head to Anchorage.
“I think it’s really important to provide experiential learning opportunities to go into these spaces and learn how to navigate this, because I don’t think there’s a way to learn it through books,” Bauscher says. “You have to show up in these spaces, and you have to practice going through it and being there.”
In Anchorage, students will attend the three-and-a-half day meeting and testify in front of the board, using the material they’ve practiced. They’ll meet members of the board, follow proposals, and learn how to network. Griggs says she’s nervous, but excited, to testify.
“I’m pretty anxious about it, but I think it will be a good opportunity for me to be able to talk about this and advocate for this and show that youth are getting involved, and youth do care,” she says. “So I’m nervous. But for the most part, I’m pretty excited, and excited to learn more about how I can use my voice to really advocate for the things I believe in.”
The Federal Subsistence Board meets April 2-5 in Anchorage.
