Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

The Chilkat Valley Historical Society received a $27,000 U.S. Department of Food and Agriculture grant to fund development of a fruit tree industry in Haines over the next two years.

“With a warming climate, improved tree fruit varieties and rootstocks and Alaska-region growing methods, there exists significant unmet potential for orchards and tree fruits to make a greater contribution to the Chilkat Valley economy and to community food security,” the grant application reads.

Haines has a rich history of agricultural production. A pre-1925 Haines Chamber of Commerce brochure at the Haines Sheldon Museum describes Haines as “the garden spot of Alaska.”

Burl Sheldon, project manager for the grant, said the idea for the project began with the Chilkat Valley Historical Society’s “relevance of history” campaign and the story of Charles Anway, a homesteader who experimented with horticulture in the early 1900s.

Anway pioneered fruit tree cultivation in the Chilkat Valley. He imported a strain of early-ripening apples from the Lower 48 to start his orchard. Some of these trees, more than 100 years old, are still alive in Haines, including one in front of the Haines Sheldon Museum. In the 1930s, Anway started a sweet cherry orchard that thrived until the 1950s. He also grew a variety of other crops including potatoes, raspberries and strawberries the size of chicken eggs.

Today, a number of individuals in the Chilkat Valley are engaged in fruit tree cultivation, growing sweet cherries, tart cherries, apples, pears and plums, Sheldon said. Some are employing innovative growing techniques including use of greenhouses and experimentation with grafting. However, there is room for expansion of fruit tree cultivation knowledge in the valley.

Year one of the grant will focus on the education of anyone in the community interested in learning about the cultivation of fruit trees and the gathering of data about growing potential in the Chilkat Valley. Year two will work toward using the newfound knowledge and Haines-specific data to begin orchards, including an experimental orchard at Henderson Farm with support from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Sheldon said although the design phase of the experimental orchard is still more than a year away, areas of experimentation could include root stock, plant nutrition, fruit variety and grafting. The grant will not cover the actual construction of the orchard, so that will require a separate funding source, he said.

The project has received broad support from individuals and organizations involved in agriculture-related endeavors. The application was submitted with 15 letters of support including letters from the Haines Economic Development Corporation, the American Bald Eagle Foundation, Klukwan tribal council and Takshanuk Watershed Council.

Climate change considerations will factor into the project design, Sheldon said. “In this regard, we might be winners in the changing climate.” Warmer weather conditions could allow for the cultivation of a wider variety of fruit trees than Anway could have imagined at the time he was growing apples and cherries.

Funding for the project is expected at the end of October. Once the Chilkat Valley Historical Society receives the money, Sheldon will begin reaching out to property owners with fruit tree cultivation potential and planning for a fruit tree growing conference in the spring of 2021.

The Chilkat Valley Historical Society applied for the orchard grant well before the coronavirus was on the community’s radar. However, news of the award comes at a time when food security issues are receiving increased attention. In recent weeks, both HEDC and the Haines Borough’s Emergency Operations Center have started food security task forces, and local seed farm and vendor, Foundroot has been inundated with seed orders fueled by supply chain concerns.