Several organizations have come together to keep Alaska’s boat harbors clean and protect the environment. The Alaska Clean Harbors Certification Program offers guidance to harbormasters and marina managers on how to operate their mooring facilities in an eco-friendly way.
Natural resource agencies in Alaska have historically focused on preventing major pollution and oil spill incidents. Those of us working on the waterfront know that there are many smaller pollution incidents occurring in our harbors everyday. The Alaska Clean Harbors Guidebook was developed to provide harbormasters with information on best management practices and provides the framework for harbors interested in participating in a clean harbor certification program.
The Alaska certification effort took the best features of clean marina programs found elsewhere in the country and customized them to specific conditions found in Alaska. Harbors interested in becoming certified by the program need to look at the measures they take to deal with solid wastes, liquid wastes, hazardous materials, petroleum products, vessel maintenance, sewage, vessel operations and facility management. Read More
Naturalist John Muir first explored Alaska during a trip to the Island of Wrangell on July 14, 1879. Muir wasn’t impressed, saying “the most inhospitable place at first sight I had ever seen…There was nothing like a tavern or lodging-house in the village, nor could I find any place in the stumpy, rocky, boggy ground about it that looked dry enough to camp on until I could find a way into the wilderness to begin my studies.” Fortunately Muir fell into a group of Presbyterian missionaries that would leave their own historic mark on the state. One was the well-known Reverend Sheldon Jackson who started the Wrangell mission and was seen as a national spokesman on Alaskan affairs. Working with Benjamin Harrison, he obtained funds to begin a school system in the state and later established a self-named college in Sitka.
