ATCEM Awards 2003

Anchorage
Eek
Ekwok
Goodnews Bay
Haines
Karluk
Kwigillingok
Minto
Mountain Village
Newhalen
Nightmute
Noorvik
Pilot Point
St. Mary’s
Togiak
Tuntutuliak

Bill Stokes
State Of Alaska
Department of Environmental Conservation

This year the State of Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation eliminated the Division of Statewide Public Services and the Rural Issues Program. Many people dedicated to providing assistance to rural communities on environmental issues were displaced to other jobs in the department. All of them deserve recognition for their years of direct assistance to rural communities, and perhaps no one person better represents the dedication and consistent high level of service of this great group of helpful people than Bill Stokes. To all former DEC Statewide Public Services employees, your work in protecting public health and the environment in village Alaska was al-ways greatly appreciated and is greatly missed.

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Sandra Petluska
RAVEN AmeriCorps Member
Eek Traditional Council

This is Sandra' second year of duty with the RurAL CAP AmeriCorps program. Sandra has shown great interest in working with kids, teaching her knowledge of environ­mental awareness. Many kids continuously help her with the recycling program started years back. Parents of the kids now recycle their cans as well by collecting them in their homes and dropping them off at the city office to be boxed and shipped out.

During the summer Sandra has also provided some activity time for kids at the Parks & Recreation building. Activities range from playing Savin' Raven or the Salmon Migration board games, making environmental awareness posters, making crafts with recy­cled material, and educating kids about conserving and ways to make the community cleaner.

The AmeriCorps program has been a part of her little family for these past four years. Her companion, John Wharton, was an AmeriCorps member two years ago. It has been a family accom­plishment. Her own daughter loves to help Sandra in crushing

cans at the office or go along with Sandra to complete the Electri­cal Savings Initiative project, with John's help.

Sandra deserves this recognition for her hard work. Sandra has shown a great deal of passion for the health of the commu­nity these past two years of service. She continues to work even though she's expecting her second child due in December 2003. The community of Eek thanks her for her hard work and dedica­tion. Thank you Sandra.

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Charlie Nelson
RAVEN AmeriCorps Member
Ekwok Village Council

Charlie has been very successful in improving the environmental health of our community. He is a dedicated, willing, and ambitious person in getting things done to create a healthy environment.

These are the activities accomplished by Charlie Nelson, which have created a significant impact on Ekwok's efforts to take care of the environment:

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Residents of Goodnews Bay

The community of Goodnews Bay made its village clean by:

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Jennifer Potratz
RAVEN AmeriCorps Member
Chilkoot Indian Association (Haines)

Jennifer Potratz started working with the Chilkoot Indian Association in March 2003. Jennifer has a long history of community environmental work. With AmeriCorps, she helped low income community residents save money on electric bills using energy efficient light bulbs and cleaning refrigerator coils.

Jennifer worked with a group of junior high school students to teach them gardening and wild foods. The group met once a week to plant seeds in the spring. The school greenhouse had not been used for six years. The group cleaned the greenhouse up. The seeds were sprouted in the teacher's lounge and transplanted to the unheated greenhouse. Some hardy plants were trans-planted to the community garden. Jennifer was able to receive money for a native plant garden at the ANB-ANS Hall. As soon as the organization can approve rerouting snow removal, the garden will be installed. Benches have been purchased with community support funds.

In August, Jennifer helped plan a weeklong conference for young adult environmental leaders for Alaska Youth for Environmental Action (AYEA). There were 35 high school students from Native and non-Native backgrounds learning about subsistence issues and project planning for their own communities. Jennifer made hours of phone calls and e-mailed correspondence to people all over the state to recruit guest speakers and presenters for a subsistence panel discussion. Many of the highlights of the week-long conference were a direct result of Jennifer's efforts. The keynote address was made by famed subsistence fighter, Katie John and her granddaughter, Cathryn. Her message for the future included educating hunters about fair harvesting practices. Tom Morphet gave a wonderful speech clarifying some of the legal history and application of federal vs. state subsistence rules. After a week of training, the AYEA group voted to take on bear baiting (and trophy moose hunting) as the statewide topic for action and next year's summer gathering.

Jennifer has been working with teachers and other community leaders to foster more environmental awareness and research in Haines. She is an active member of the Haines Friends of Recycling Board of Directors. She coordinated the daily activities of recycling at the Southeast Alaska State Fair. The community volunteered to monitor the collection stations at the fair and collected a truckload of aluminum cans and #1 plastic bottles. The rest went to a composting facility in Haines. These sorting structures are available for use at other community events.

For the rest of the school year Jennifer will be delivering environmental education in the schools in Haines, Klukwan and Mosquito Lake. She has contacts with all the local wildlife research people and she has been able to garnish their support. Jennifer is pleased with her year of service and looks forward to helping the people of the Takshanuk Watershed share information with each other concerning the health of the environment and all people who dwell here.

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Joyce Jones
Correspondence Teacher, Alutiiq Power Manager
Karluk Tribal Council

Joyce Jones has been involved in every aspect of this community for a few years now. She has taken on duties such as controlling the trash overflow in the community. She has created a program that has cut down on the amount of trash in the community. She is good at enforcing a program that requires individual households to dispose of their trash. It is the first time in years there has been a program like this in place.

Joyce is always available to work with outside agencies to make the environment of Karluk a more beautiful and healthier place to live. Joyce has also been working with all the residents of Karluk on annual village cleanups. Joyce is now working with fixing up the Karluk water tank.

She is working on cleaning up used oil all over the community, along with the main fuel holding tank. These are just a few of the activities Joyce has undertaken. She is also the correspondence teacher as well as the Alutiiq Power Office Manager. She truly is a treasure and we do not know what we would do without her.

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Emma Kiunya
IGAP Coordinator
Rachel Igkurak
RAVEN AmeriCorps Member
Kwigillngok Tribal Council

The Native Village of Kwigillingok has priorities that enhance its livelihood from time immemorial. Health, water, land and subsistence resources are important to protection from harm. It is increasingly becoming a problem because of contaminants in our daily lives.

The Kwigillingok Environmental Service Department (KESD) has done a tremendous job in dealing with the dangers that may hurt our subsistence practices.

The work done by KESD toward the hazardous waste is much appreciated. It has been neglected in the past by not knowing the dangers and harms that affect our resources.

KESD is currently staffed by Rachel Igkurak, RAVEN AmeriCorps member, and Emma Kiunyna, IGAP Coordinator. KESD has done energy conservation work in homes by replacing lighting with more energy efficient fluorescent units. They also checked buildings to see if they had older fluorescent ballast units that contain PCBs, and taught proper disposal methods.

KESD has advocated and worked to improve the village dump site by working with the resident and village council through participation in council and public meetings, and through the community newsletter that they print and distribute to the whole community. They have also worked to keep the community as litter free as possible by organizing spring and fall cleanups. KESD has worked before to mitigate the effects of fall flooding by informing the public of health hazards, such as old sewage bunkers and empty drums.

KESD has originated and made continuing efforts in the re-cycling of aluminum cans, proper disposal of used batteries of all types, and educated offices in proper disposal of toner cartridges. All these efforts contribute to the overall environmental improvement of the village for health and safety of the residents.

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Richard Simmons
Minto Tribal Council

When Richard Simmons took a look at the environment in and around the village of Minto, he saw a potential problem in the making. In addition to a solid waste site that had reached its capacity, there were upwards of 150 abandoned vehicles scattered in the vicinity of the village. Richard was aware of how the fluids, including oil, gasoline and anti-freeze, remaining in these junked cars and trucks could eventually end up in the environment polluting land and water. He worked with his EPA Tribal Coordinator to identify funds and started to look at ways to take care of the problem of the abandoned vehicles. In time, based on feedback from the people of the village and direction from the council, Richard created a budget and a work plan for the preferred option of back-hauling the vehicles to Fairbanks. Congratulations to the people of Minto and to Richard for using his problem solving skills to back-haul the junked cars and trucks and promote a healthier environment for the future.

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Jack Johnson
Ron Larson
Asa'Carsarmiut Tribal Council

Mountain Village, like many villages, has experienced dramatic population growth in the past ten years and with this growth the tough question of, "how do we deal with solid waste?" Asa'Carsarmiut Tribal Council, Environmental Coordinator, Jack Johnson and his assistant, Ron Larson not only asked the question but began looking for answers. The sprawling solid waste dump site was about a quarter mile long and lay between a hillside and the Yukon River. Run-off (snow melt and rain) comes down the hillside through the dump site and runs into the river taking pollutants from the dump site with it. Jack and Ron knew something had to be done to protect the river. Jack's significant administrative skills helped to guarantee the tribal environmental programs grants were accounted for in a way that would allow the tribe to make the best use of available funds. Ron's ability to research information and work with Jack to bring ideas to the Council made for a great partnership. Together both work with the Council to put together and implement a plan for getting control of the out-of-control dump site. With the cooperation and hard work of many others in Mountain Village good progress has been made to clean up the dump site and improve village solid waste management for the future. A great effort by the people of Mountain Village, Jack, and Ron.

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Ron Wassillie
Newhalen Tribal Council

Several years ago participants in a Tribal Solid Waste Management Workshop held in Iliamna visited the Newhalen dump site to view an example of an uncontrolled burning open dump. Ron Wassillie, Environmental Coordinator for the Newhalen Tribal Council, recognized that reductions in state funding to support city governments in villages had made it tough on the City of Newhalen to operate and maintain the site and thought the tribal government should give it try. Working with others in the community, including former Seattle recycling technician now resident of Newhalen, Jay Thompson, Ron took lots of training and researched a lot of solid waste management information in coming up with ways to reduce solid waste volumes, separate recyclable materials, and find ways to get the recyclables to market. With the help and support of his environmental assistant Ray Wassillie, RAVEN AmeriCorps member Wassillie Wassillie, Jay Thompson, the tribal council and others, Ron and the Newhalen Tribal Council now operate and manage a solid waste site that bears no resemblance to the way it used to look (and smell). Congratulations to Ron and all those that work with him at the Newhalen Tribal Council.

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The Native Village of Nightmute

In April 2003 the people of Nightmute recognized an environmental disaster was ready to hit their village. Due to erosion, one edge of the solid waste dump for the village was on the bank of the Toksook River. Usually heavy equipment is used each winter to push the solid waste inland and away from the river bank so that breakup and the natural erosion of the river doesn't result in all of the trash falling into the river. This year the ice was not thick enough for the heavy equipment to go across the river to the dump, and weeks before breakup more than 3 TONS of trash was at the edge of the river ready to fall in.

With the assistance of the former EPA Tribal Coordinator, Jimmy George and his assistant, Ferdinand Matthias, the people, the city and tribal governments, the school, businesses, and other organizations of the village came together to tackle the problem. The dump site was moved 100 feet from the river, a salvage area was set up for metal waste, and fencing and signs were put up to help direct people to the best place to dump their trash. If you ever see the before and after pictures you will not believe it.

The Nightmute Traditional Council IGAP Department has worked very hard to get things done on environmental health issues for the Native Village of Nightmute. They have organized committees for solid waste management and water re-sources. They have met with other organizations regarding solid waste problems so they can work together to take care of the problems. The IGAP Dept. has also done outreach for help on studies and surveys on our problems and how to get equip­ment. They solicit donations from the community for funding to clean up the dumpsite and solid waste in town. Other organizations have donated equipment and material to use for improvement on the dump site and others have donated money.

There is an ongoing recycling program for aluminum cans that are transported to the Bethel Recycling Center free of charge by the airlines. They are also working on how to back-haul the batteries and monitor the solid waste management at both the dump site and the townsite and working on how to approach the community.

Congratulations to the Native Village of Nightmute!

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Marilyn Pungalik
RAVEN AmeriCorps Member
Noorvik Ntive Community

The following is a brief description of AmeriCorps member, Marilyn Pungalik's contribution to the Noorvik Native Community. First and foremost, Marilyn prefers to be called by her Inupiaq name, which is Magaali. Everyone in the community of 750 residents knows her by that name. Magaali has made signifi­cant changes in Noorvik in her brief service as an AmeriCorps member. Listed below are some of her accomplishments:

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Robin Kramer
RAVEN AmeriCorps Volunteer
Pilot Pint Tribal Council

Robin has continually expressed enthusiasm for her work around the village, with the school, tribal council and city. She works well with everyone and expresses a strong interest in environmental issues. Robin is active on our Watershed Council, is starting a recycling and battery collection program, is active on SECAP – our local renewable energy commission - and is currently working a village-wide cleanup effort.

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Serena Alstrom
EPA-IGAP Director Yupiit of Andreafski
St. Mary's

In the last two years St. Mary's has been more active with environmental issues. Serena Alstrom is dedicated to educating the community of St. Mary's (especially the youth) on environmental issues facing rural Alaska. Since the 24-year old program director started in September of 2001, she has expanded environmental awareness in St. Mary's. Here is part of what she is doing:

Serena has coordinated three workshops in the last two years. Her first workshop in December of 2001 involved grades 4-12 in water quality, recycling, the waste stream and leadership sessions. She invited Bill Stokes with the DEC, Stephan Koruba, a VISTA volunteer out of Bethel, and local recycler Rosaline Virg to help with the three-day event.

Serena coordinated the second workshop, the Environmental Education Workshop in September 2002 with Algaaciq IGAP Department Director Ivy Lamont. It was covered in the Tundra Drums newspaper. After the successful workshop she helped organize a youth group that is still running strong in St. Mary's and Serena volunteers as their supervisor.

Since educating the community of St. Mary's she went one step ahead and held a Lower Yukon Water Quality Workshop in July 2003. She invited tribal leaders from Nulato to the coastal villages of Chevak and Stebbins to voice their concerns on the Lower Yukon River. She held teleconferences with environmental coordinators to gather their input on what they wanted from the workshop. She invited guest speakers from the Yukon River InterTribal Watershed Council, DEC, EPA and Fish & Wild-life Service and the Alaska Science Commission to discuss the issues that concerned them the most. Not only did she invite tribal leaders, but youth representatives as well. She helped facilitate the youth sessions where the youth voiced their concerns about their community and brainstormed solutions to the problems. At the end of each workshop Serena made sure the guests were welcomed and thanked them by having Eskimo dancing, a potluck and fiddling, or relaxing boat trips up the Andreafski River.

Serena has been working closely with the Alaska Youth for Environmental Action's Coordinator Polly Carr in the last year on several events. Serena has helped with the Conservation Summit, where youth around Alaska learn about the political aspects of environmental issues in Juneau. She also helped facilitate the water quality assessment session for their annual "Summer Get Together" that took place in August at Fairbanks.

Every spring Serena applies for a mini-grant from the Alaskans for Litter Prevention and Recycling (ALPAR) for the Youth Litter Patrol. During the cleanups she makes sure that the beach and landfill area are free from litter. She also makes sure the youth pick up along the Andreafski River - one of the cleanest and beautiful rivers around. She has contributed much of her time to helping with youth groups, which keeps the youth busy and out of drugs, mischief, and alcohol.

This year during the cleanup the youth collected eight ALPAR bags of aluminum cans to be recycled. To match the funding Serena writes letters to organizations and businesses in St. Mary's asking for donations. This year she received $450 plus two 20" bikes from Hageland Aviation, four $25 gift certificates, 50 gallons of gas, a case of motor oil, food for a barbeque, two days of lunch and six cases of pop. With the cash she bought two 26" bikes, basketball hoops, squirt guns and many other prizes for the outstanding work the kids accomplished this summer! For the past two years the cleanup has been covered by the Delta Discovery newspaper. Posters are also hung around town showing the amount of garbage picked up, commending the youth for their great efforts in keeping St. Mary's a beautiful place.

This summer Serena organized the youth group of St. Mary's to invite the community to a "Recycling Challenge." They registered households who wanted to participate and recorded the amount of recycled items they dropped off. In our community of 500 people, 30 households have registered. Right now they are only collecting pop cans and used batteries. From July to August they have collected 203 pounds of cans and 50 car batteries. The top recycler in St. Mary's will win two round-trip tickets to Honolulu, Hawaii. Serena hopes that this challenge will urge community members to make recycling a habit.

Serena has offered the opportunity to high school students to attend environmental workshops and conferences with her. Each interested youth must submit an essay about their interest in the environment. They are judged by the tribal council or coordinators to determine who will be the youth representative.

On top of all these activities, Serena overlooks her IGAP grant and seeks/applies for other funding to stay on her toes. Serena is rockin' St. Mary's environmentally and making a difference doing it!

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Mary Blue
RAVEN AmeriCorps Member
Traditional Council of Togiak

Mary's strengths are being able to communicate with the youth and getting them to participate. She has gone on many outings on the "Junk into Treasure Adventure Day." More community members are knowledgeable about green cleaning methods and the green cleaning recipes as well as the Energy Savings Initiative. Mary is more knowledgeable on environmental issues, preventive measures, and ways to re-cycle. She is more confident and is better able to voice her opinions and concerns. Being an AmeriCorps member has given Mary a lot of inner strength. Her biggest success is ESI, re-cycling, getting our lead acid batteries out, and the quarterly newsletter.

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Charlie Andrew
RAVEN AmeriCorps Member
Tuntutuliak Tribal Council

Charlie Andrew came on board the TTC-EPA program as a RAVEN AmeriCorps member on the latter part of April 2003, and went on to orientation training in Anchorage. When he came back from training he was very motivated. Charlie went on to get his assignment done, which was the Electrical Savings Initiative (ESI), and besides his assignment he helped in shipping out the old lead acid batteries we have collected, and he has continued to ship out aluminum cans to Bethel for recycling.  Charlie is always in a hurry!! When he says he is going to do something, he says, "I am going to do such and such fast." Keep up the good work Charlie!

David Enoch
EPA IGAP Coordinator
Tuntutuliak Tribal Council

David was hired in August 14, 2000 as Director for Tuntutuliak Traditional Council Environment Protection Agency. He has completed many trainings and has received certificates from each training. He went to trainings covering topics such as: Environment, Spill Prevention and Response, Water Quality and Aquatic Environment Monitoring Project Workshop, Tribal Assessment, Hazwoper training through the Alaska Army National Guard, U.S. Fish and Wildlife as Refuge Technician, and Native American Fish and Wildlife Society for Water Quality training. David also has applied for and received funding for several environmental grants, including several positions from AmeriCorps VISTA. He also completed su­pervisory training for AmeriCorps VISTA at Utah.