The purpose of this award is for the chugach regional resource commission (crrc) to connect patterns of subsistence use to wetland habitat in the chenega region of prince william sound in southcentral…

The purpose of this award is for the chugach regional resource commission (crrc) to connect patterns of subsistence use to wetland habitat in the chenega region of prince william sound in southcentral alaska. Crrc in partnership with the alaska center for conservation science (accs), proposes to develop subsistence use summaries and map patterns of subsistence use in the evans island-latourche island watershed. Summaries will describe the typical plant community for each wetland or deepwater habitat type and the subsistence activities that support these native alaskan communities. Activities:crrc, in partnership with accs will describe subsistence use for wetland and deepwater habitats for the evans island-latouche island watershed. Subsistence use information will be spatially associated with updated wetland and deepwater mapping for the same project area. Final products will be made available to crrc member tribes and the greater pubic through a combination of social media and direct community outreach and online data service. Patterns of subsistence will be displayed geospatially through connection to the national wetlands inventory (NWI) map for the same watershed. Final products will include one-page subsistence summaries for each habitat type, an NWI standard geodatabase attributed with habitat and subsistence use information, and a final report presenting the project methods and conclusions.subrecipient:no subawards are included in this assistance agreement.outcomes:the work proposed herein will advance the crrc tribal wetland program by allowing the member tribes to more effectively manage their natural resources for the greater benefit of their peoples, communities, and ecosystems. The habitat-specific subsistence use information provided back to the tribal membership will build the capacity of tribal managers to: prioritize restoration, management, and acquisition opportunities for wetland habitat, and to protect subsistence resources when implementing development projects. This project will tie subsistence use to wetland and deepwater habitat that is mapped in accordance with a national mapping standard, the summary products will be easily scalable to the greater prince william sound region. Additionally, the final product would provide a method for incorporating cultural and traditional knowledge into a federal wetland habitat mapping database (national wetlands inventory); a precedent that has particular importance in alaska where tribal lands comprise 20% of the total land area and statewide wetland mapping is only 50 % complete. Intended beneficiaries are the alaska natives in the chugach region, known as alutiiq, sugpiaq, and eyak, which are comprised of over 3,000 members located in remote villages in the copper river delta, prince william sound, and lower cook inlet.