Anchorage Daily News

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Story tools

Comments

E-mail a friend

Print

Digg this

Seed Newsvine

Send link via AIM

Font size : A | A | A

EDITOR'S NOTE: The hurdles to a successful business in Bush Alaska are numerous: tiny markets, remote geography, harsh weather, massive fuel and transportation costs. But some do thrive. One study looked to uncover what it takes for businesses to succeed in rural Alaska. Here's what they found.

The Yukon River village of Galena has had its share of drama.

In the 1990s, it lost a major employer: the Galena Air Force Station.

Instead of hemorrhaging jobs, the village temporarily gained 50 or 60 when the Air Force hired an Anchorage-based Native contractor to keep the base running on standby.

But this year, it's all bad news: The Air Force station is closing for good in September. Fuel prices are astronomical, and some people are leaving the village.

Jobs aren't the only saga. After decades of military use, the land around Galena is contaminated.

A decade ago, thousands of 55-gallon drums were marooned in nearby Yukon River wetlands. Millions of gallons of fuel penetrated the village's aquifer.

Making the best out of a mess is typical for some successful rural businesses. In Galena, for example, tribal leaders protested the pollution of their land but also turned it into an opportunity.

Back in the '90s, foreseeing a major military cleanup, the tribe set up a company to pursue some of the environmental work. Outsiders would get the jobs if village residents didn't get trained to do it themselves, said Alex Tatum, general manager of the company, Yukaana Development Corp.

Eventually, more than 100 people from Galena and surrounding villages received hazardous cleanup training, and Yukaana went to work in 1998 as a subcontractor on the $2.7 million cleanup project at the Air Force station, according to a case study published by the University of Alaska's Institute of Social and Economic Research.

The workers removed thousands of drums and a few Yukaana employees continue to monitor the underground pollutants, according to Tatum and government reports.

The tribal company's accomplishments were highlighted in the University of Alaska's recent study of rural businesses, "Viable Business Enterprises for Rural Alaska." Nearly half of the 196 business owners in 19 randomly selected villages reported problems starting up their companies. Through in-depth interviews, the university's researchers also found that a number of rural entrepreneurs were able to bring new income to their villages even when the prospects looked grim.

In Chevak, that resource turned out to be 360 degrees around them -- migratory birds in the air and nesting on the tundra.

Chevak is a traditional fishing village on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta with seemingly few opportunities for wage-paying jobs. The best-paying are teaching posts at the local school. And local jobs in commercial fishing have declined because the herring fishery crashed, according to Ulric Ulroan, the mayor.

The village has no majestic mountains to woo the conventional tourist, but it is surrounded by one of the world's biggest meccas for waterfowl, the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge.

"Birds are like a natural resource we have an abundance of. People have always said (bringing bird watchers) would be a good idea, even 20 years ago," he said.

Ulroan recently graduated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks with a degree in rural development and has started a local company, Chevak Bird and Culture Tours. Over the past two years, he worked closely with state officials, nonprofit organizations and other businesses that helped market Chevak as a bird-watching destination. Ulroan also received a $25,000 business prize from the Alaska Federation of Natives' Alaska Marketplace competition, which awards thousands of dollars annually to rural entrepreneurs who pitch innovative business ideas.

The marketing push seems to be paying off: Last month, a national magazine, Birders World, published an article that praised the Yukon delta's bird-watching potential and described what it was like to travel to "very birdy" spots with Ulroan.

Chevak Bird and Culture Tours plans to host at least 14 bird-watching tourists this June. The visitors will stay in a tent camp on the tundra to watch eiders, geese and gulls by day and "listen to them singing" at night; they will also spend time in Chevak, where they will have a chance to visit local artists and purchase their work, Ulroan said.

The university reviewed another Southwest Alaska business that emerged amid local economic troubles.

Tribal leaders in Igiugig, a village of about 54 perched on Iliamna Lake, created a for-profit civil construction company after becoming concerned about the scarcity of jobs in the community during the 1990s. The commercial salmon fishing industry in the region was in crisis due to declining prices triggered by cheaper farmed fish. Because of the hard times, a number of the village's fishermen sold their fishing permits or moved away.

The tribe's new firm, Iliamna Lake Contractors, focused on creating a local work force trained in civil construction. Its first big project: replacing phone lines at a remote radar station run by the Air Force. The company also picked up road projects and, like Galena, military projects.

The companies in Igiugig and Galena now say that military work is drying up, driving them to again look for other business opportunities.

Though Iliamna Lake Contractors is pessimistic about military contract jobs, other projects are coming up, such as road building and public housing construction, said general manager Helene Herndon.

"Fortunately, most of our village is employed," she said.

Tatum said his priority is finding a new long-term and better-diversified revenue stream for Yukaana. To that end, the tribe has created a new company, SEA Inc., to pursue jobs in management services.

"We're at a major turning point. ... The survivability of the company is in question," he said.

"It's always making lemonade out of lemons."

The series

MONDAY: Study on what works for rural Alaska businesses.

TODAY: Finding success amid military contamination in Galena.

WEDNESDAY: Nunivak Island rallies around Native art cooperative.

THURSDAY: Too much business too quickly hurts Prince of Wales Island logging company.

ADVERTISEMENT