Projects

In 1994 KHLT expanded to become a regional land trust and now serves the entire Kenai Peninsula. Currently KHLT is involved in 15 conservation projects peninsula -wide. These include a nearly signed conservation easement preserving 26 acres of City owned tidelands for shorebird habitat on the Homer Spit. As you know, Kachemak Bay has been designated as a Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve, and Homer's annual shorebird festival is quickly becoming an economic mainstay of the community. We are also involved in a partnership with the City of Homer and The national conservation organization the Trust for Public Land to preserve an additional acreage in Beluga Slough and on the Homer Spit through purchase from willing landowners. KHLT is a sponsor of the effort to designate Kachemak Bay as a national estuarine research reserve to provide coordinated education and research for the watershed. We are also working on a historic preservation easement in Kasilof, acquisition of historic and habitat land at the head of Kachemak Bay, and a conservation easement on the Resurrection River in Seward, among other projects.

Living in Harmony with Moose is a project of the Kachemak Heritage Land Trust in Homer, Alaska. It is designed to help people co-exist with moose in Alaska. The idea came from a similar publication called Living with Mule Deer in the Methow Valley, in northeastern Washington. We are indebted to its authors.

The land trust recently created a comprehensive policy and procedure manual based on the National Land Trust Alliance's Standards and Practices guidebook so that our regional effort would would be consistant and professional. We also spent two years working on an intensive mapping project from which we determined our conservation strategy. Our focus is riparian corridors and moose habitat with particular attention paid to the Kenai River and the Homer bench. In the coming year, we will be co-sponsoring a community visioning process to work together with the business community, developers and area residents to determine common goals and needs for land use We hope to see many of you take part in this timely project.

KHLT also acquires trail easements to provide public access across private property to enhance outdoor recreational opportunities, and to date has built and maintains the Homestead Trail and the Calvin and Coyle Nature Trail and observation platform near Beluga Wetlands and accessable to Paul Banks Elementary School.

KHLT conducts a Summer Program of activities to help residents and visitors enjoy and appreciate the splendors of the Kachemak region. The schedule includes hikes on the Homestead Trail, beach walks, wetland tours , and visits to properties protected by KHLT conservation easements.