HomeMy WebLinkAboutState Forester C Maisch Letter (2)STATE OF ALASKA SEAN PARNELL, Governor
DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES 550 WEST 7TH AVENUE, SUITE 1450
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA 99501-3650
DIVISION OF FORESTRY PHONE: (907) 269-8463
FAX: (907) 269-8931
“Develop, Conserve, and Enhance Natural Resources for Present and Future Alaskans.”
February 2, 2010
Matanuska-Susitna School Board
Dear School Board Members,
I’m writing you today to extend my support for the Susitna Valley High School Research Forest and
the associated woody biomass project to provide space heat for your new school. This project has
so many potential benefits, that it would be difficult for me to enumerate them all, and to do them
justice with regard to their merits. Instead, I’d like to touch on two key aspects of this project which
I think are crucial to your community, our state and our country.
Energy that is sustainable and locally produced is a concept that has come full circle. Most of our
communities were energy self-sufficient in the early days of settlement. As a society, we didn’t
have the technology and means to transport energy very far from its source. Wood, water and wind
played important roles in meeting our energy needs in the past and their time has come again to help
us address our present energy requirements. The use of wood for space heating at your new school
is an opportunity that you don’t want to pass up. Your community can be one of the leaders in our
state in demonstrating this technology while doing your part in lessening our dependence on fossil
fuels. Both the state and the nation have set goals for renewable energy use and each alternative
energy project that comes on line will help us move closer to attaining these goals.
Education resources that offer vocational and college preparatory opportunities are wise and
efficient uses of your budget dollar. The proposed research forest is a “working” forest that will be
managed for a variety of multiple uses. There will be opportunities for your teachers to incorporate
science, mathematics, art, chemistry and a host of other disciplines into their daily classroom
activities. Along these same lines, there will be ample opportunities to demonstrate and have
students learn vocational skills that go along with harvesting and managing the forest and in the
operation of the wood yard and heating plant.
A project that brings together adults in your community and students at your school has a rich
potential to move all in a positive direction. I urge you to fully consider this opportunity and to not
be timid in your approach to education, both in a social and instructional context. To quote a
speaker (Mr. B. Karl) at a recent energy meeting; “When the oil stops flowing, the trees will still be
growing!”
Sincerely,
John “Chris” Maisch, C.F.
State Forester