Kenny Lake Community Blog

Copper River Country Stories Map and Associated Projects

2009-02-02T17:02:00.001-08:00

COMMUNICATIONS PLAN

Copper River Country Stories Map and Associated Projects

COMMUNICATION GOALS

Foster community support of the project.
Share opportunities and incentives to potential stakeholders for becoming a group participant.
Update public and stakeholders on the groups’ achievements, action plans, and new directions as well as opportunities for further input.

PROJECT BACKGROUND

The McDowell Group's 2006 "Profile of Visitors to Rural Alaska and The Copper River Basin." notes that "when asked why they chose to visit the Copper Basin area, three-quarters of visitors said they were 'passing through.'” A likely reason so many travelers just "pass through" the Copper River area rather than stop is a lack of information about visitor opportunities. There is currently no single product that meets the need of introducing people to the potential and possibilities of the 23,020 square mile Copper River Country. Visitors and local residents must piecemeal together the information they need to explore and learn about the area. The Copper River Country Stories Map will fill this gap.

The Copper River Country Stories Map will keep a local face on the growth of tourism in this region and will encourage a respectful and thoughtful visit to our communities. By depicting the area's rich heritage resources and by showing off some of the many wonderful possibilities for adventure and learning, the map will not only attract more visitors to Copper River Country, but also will attract the type of visitor who wants to slow down and listen to local voices rather than just travel quickly through.

The Copper River Country Stories Map will be an opportunity to impart to visitors and residents alike an understanding and appreciation of this region's living landscape, a place where people actively hunt, recreate, gather berries and fish. It's hoped that this increased understanding and appreciation leads to better resource stewardship. No one wants to see trash or debris lying around; the map will encourage people to be more thoughtul about what they do with their sewage and solid waste. Multiple users, including hikers, mountain bikers, equestrians, and ATVers, enjoy the many trails in Copper River Country; this map will help alleviate conflicts between these different groups by conveying the need for trail etiquette and respect for all users. It will also help to disperse travelers to a variety of recreational opportunities.

KEY MESSAGES:

The goals of the final product will be to:

Facilitate opportunities for connection to the meanings of the natural and cultural resources of Copper River Country;
Create authentic products that are informative, attractive and useful to stakeholders who both want to use and distribute them.
These products will add value and depth to visitors’ experiences.
Orient readers to the scale of the region in regards to time, distance and unique aspects of the region’s rural culture.

TARGET AUDIENCES

(note: you can keep this simple, or you can make it detailed, whichever serves the group best).

Internal

Listserv Members

External

State of Alaska legislators: Rep. John Harris, Rep. Woodie Salmon, Sen. Gene Therriault, Sen. Al Kookesh

State of Alaska DNR - Region ?

State of Alaska Dept of Fish and Game – Glennallen Offices

Copper River Country Communities, Native Villages and Corporations: (list them out? Or not?) Mentasta, Slana, Chistochina (Cheesh’Na), Gakona, Gulkana, Sourdough, Paxson, Tangle Lakes, Maclaren?, Eureka? Lake Louise? Mendeltna, Nelchina, Tolsona, Glennallen, Copperville? Tazlina, Copper Center (Kluti-Kaah), Willow Creek, Kenny Lake, Chitina, Tonsina, McCarthy, Kennecott? (I can never remember which spelling is which, can someone help me out here?).

Copper River Country Businesses

Copper River Country Organizations

Local Media: Copper River Record, Valdez Star, Wrangell St. Elias News, KCHU, KCAM, KMBQ.

Statewide Media ??

COMMUNICATION PRODUCTS

News Releases

Radio Bulletin Meeting Notices

Newspaper Meeting Notices

Q&A Sheet

Listserv for Participants

Other? Handouts?

Presentations at potential partner meetings?

Responsibility Action Due Date Completed

Who will do this? Newsrelease – Update on January Meetings February 2009

Who? March Meeting Notice: Radio PSA and Newspaper Invite March 2009

Who? Newsrelease – Update on March meetings? April 2009

Sample Radio PSA:

Insert a previous radio announcement here.

Sample Meeting Announcements:

Insert or attach a sample flyer or Newspaper announcement here.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Begin to think of questions that the public or potential stakeholders are likely to ask. Then we can all work to answer these questions.

How can I participate in this project? While there are many ways to participate in this project, please start by sending an email to? Or calling? so that the group can begin to include you in meeting notices and provide you with updates….(whatever we want to say here).

Will there be opportunities to provide further input? Answer.

Who is funding this project? Answer.

Who is sponsoring this project? Answer.

Question? Answer.

Question? Answer.

Question? Answer.
For more information or to contribute:

Marnie Graham
Public Affairs Specialist
BLM - Glennallen Field Office
P.O. Box 147
Glennallen, AK 99588
907-822-3217
marnie_graham@blm.gov

Kenny Lake Fair 2008

2008-08-16T21:04:00.001-07:00

more coming!

National Premises ID coming to rural Alaska

2008-01-04T18:29:00.000-08:00

According to local first-hand reports, Copper River area farmers have already been "asked" to fill in these voluntary premise ID forms. What exactly does voluntary mean to a communitarian? One way to find out is to see how other places implement these voluntary type of programs.

Officials in North Carolina tied emergency purchases of hay to their new version of voluntary:

"Hay buyers must have an N.C. Farm ID Premises Identification Number. If you do not have one, download the registration form (PDF file), fill it out and bring it with you to a distribution site. This will start the Farm ID registration process and qualify you to purchase hay."
http://www.ncagr.com/HayAlert/EmergencyHay.htm

For local news and updates on the emerging National Animal IDentification System, visit Alaskans Against the NAIS, www.naisinfocentral.net

Mercantile's Christmas Dinner at Tonsina River Lodge

2007-12-21T12:40:00.000-08:00

Kenny Lake Mercantile's Christmas 2007 Dinner Party

Tonsina River Lodge, AK. Hosted by Sharon and Jim.

Mix and mingle with a jingling beat...

Jack frost nipping at your nose..

Let's take that road before us and sing a chorus or twooo00..

There's a happy feeling nothing in the world can buy..

The holly green the ivy green the prettiest picture you've ever seen..

He knows if you've been bad or good...

In the air there's a feeling of Christmas...

This is Santa's big scene...

We three kings of Orient are..

City sidewalks, busy sidewalks, dressed in holiday style..

Rudolph the shinny gunned cowboy..

When they pass around the turkey and the pumpkin pie..

Away in a manger no crib for his bed.

These wonderful things are the things we remember all through our lives..

While sheppards watched their flock by night..

Ho ho ho.

The presents are scattered and broken I fear,
and St. Nikolaus won't come again for a year.

Thanks to Sharon and Jim for a wonderful time had by all.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hannakuh, and to all a goodnight!

Fun in the sun!

2007-08-12T11:08:00.000-07:00

girls on bikes

2007-04-17T22:15:00.000-07:00

climb every mountain, search high and low

2007-04-10T22:35:00.000-07:00

The roof beams for GerTee.

Look how fast breakup came!

Northern Lights and a Full Moon! Whoohoo!

2007-04-01T23:09:00.000-07:00

Northern Lights & full moon over Kenny Lake, Alaska

It's been a beautiful week in Kenny Lake! With temps rising above 40 degrees people are out and about. Lovely spring weather is pushing GerTee 2007 ahead of schedule. I'm thinking now of making this one the musuem and starting collecting items and creating an inventory asap.

We're almost ready to officially launch Sharondipity's Shopping Mall. Be sure to let us know if you have a business you'd like to add to our mall. We also need your local links, and anyone interested in learning to use our ezsite program to upload to the website is welcome to come learn. Many of the community pages needs some TLC from local volunteers.

The website expands!

2007-03-25T21:29:00.000-07:00

Sunset tonight over Kenny Lake and Mt. Blackburn

Lots of great new pages were added to the site this past week. I'd like to welcome all our new stores in Sharondipity's Shopping Mall (including my own!). We've got a lot of work left, not the least being putting out flyers describing the website, explaining the shopping mall plans, and expressing our hopes and goals for marketing at kennylake.com. I've decided on three basic store formats depending on how much information you want on your page, and how to charge for additional pages on the sites that want to grow (adding new items and ebay auctions, etc.)

Tim Redington's newest dogsleds!

Springtime in Kenny Lake

2007-03-13T18:55:00.000-07:00

Making lots of changes to the website. Added sections for every community in the Copper Basin, please be sure to email me any businesses that should be included on these pages. I will be travelling to as many of these communities as I can this summer to take pictures and interview Sourdoughs, but until then I'd still like to have as much info on these pages as possible. Also added many new Community pages that will provide additional information about local rentals, the fire dept, land for sale, and of course "government" and community economic and rural development.

The Merc is doing a preliminary plan to build a Kenny Lake Museum. I'm very excited and honored to be part of this. Thanks to Tim Redington and Bill Sutton for offering to donate and lend us portions of their collections for public display. Please look around your cabins and yards for things and photos you think would be of interest to visitors and locals both.

Lots of possibilities for marketing and expanding our web audience; there are more than a few ways to promote our Region on the web.

Welcome to Kenny Lake Community Blog!

2007-02-22T14:25:00.000-08:00

This blog was created by Niki Raapana (website developer for kennylake.com) to provide a discussion/posting space for residents of the greater Copper Valley Basin. Here you can add yor "two cents worth" on any topic you feel like addressing. It's also a great way to share pictures and make announcements about your family, businesses, vacations or anythng else you'd like to share. Everyone is welcome to add comments.

Everyone is also welcome to join the blog as a contributor and I hope to see this list grow over the years to include someone from every villiage and town and road in our region. There are a lot of changes coming to this area of Alaska; this blog is your opportunity to keep up on what's going on around here.

Contributors must have or create a google account to upload posts to this blog. Please email me and put "contributor's account" in the subject line. Looking forward to seeing where this goes!

Responsibility	Action	Due Date	Completed
Who will do this?	Newsrelease – Update on January Meetings	February 2009
Who?	March Meeting Notice: Radio PSA and Newspaper Invite	March 2009
Who?	Newsrelease – Update on March meetings?	April 2009