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Stanford Students to the Inian Islands!

Fishing Boats at the Sitka waterfront.  Photo by Rob Dunbar.

Fishing Boats at the Sitka waterfront. Photo by Rob Dunbar.

In September 2013, our team brought our first group of students out to the Hobbit Hole as part of a Stanford University Sophomore College course.  It was a big step for Inian Islands Institute!  Two years in the making, this fantastic course brought 12 Stanford undergraduates to Southeast Alaska to study natural resources and sustainability.  Approaching Southeast Alaska as a Social-Ecological System, students dove into the complexities of managing 4 crucial resources of this region: forests, fisheries, energy, and tourism.  We started in the town of Sitka — the historic capital of Russian America, later turned pulp-mill town grinding up the Tongass, and more recently a picturesque waterfront destination for tourists and sport fishermen.  Interacting with locals, measuring old-growth and logged-over forest stands, spawning salmon at the local hatchery, and viewing the hydropower dam expansion, students puzzled over how to meet the needs of both people and the environment, in this place where the connections between the two are so inescapable.

Stanford Professor Rob Dunbar grills veggies at the Hobbit Hole.  Photo by Josh Newman.

Stanford Professor Rob Dunbar grills veggies at the Hobbit Hole. Photo by Josh Newman.

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