Kachemak Drive Peatlands
Last summer, the Kachemak Bay Watershed Council has submitted comments on requesting the Kenia Peninsula Barrow to remove two large Kachemak Drive wetland parcels from an upcoming land-sale. In August 2023, the Homer City Council approved an ordinance accepted a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grant for the city’s ongoing KachemakSponge Green Infrastructure Stormwater Treatment System that includes the purchase of lands. The two parcels involved in the land sale are part of a privately owned lot near East End Road and include approximately 26.5 acres of high value peatlands. If kept in-tact, they would continue to provide high-value nature based solutions to the public including providing habitat, mitigating flooding and erosion and sequestering carbon, stormwater treatment, bird and moose habitat.
In addition the monetary gain to the borough associated with the sale of these lands will almost certainly be offset by the cost to the public of developing them, including costs associated with flood mitigation, road repair, culvert maintenance, serious health and safety hazards associated with ice on the road and increased risk of septic system failure.
The Kenai Peninsula Borough (KPB) had an agreement with the City of Homer that the City would purchase these lands from the Borough, but last summer negotiations broke down. Because, the substantial ecosystem services provided by the Peat Lands are too substantial and there is too much at stake to let this vital green infrastructure project fall apart, KBWC and other conservation groups urged the City and Borough to come back to the table and try again.
When the Borough's Lands Committee meeting took up the issue on June 3, however, several Committee members commented that the City of Homers Peat Lands project had been shelved due to lack of funding and the two parcels in question were not part of recent discussions between the Kachemak Bay Research Reserve and the City for restarting the project. This conclusion however, ignored that the fact that with the Borough continuing to authorize out of control development within watersheds and on valuable wetlands, it is all the more important to preserve peatland areas that provide critical ecosystem services to infrastructure and wetlands habitat.
Public pressure to protect the peat lands ultimately paid off however, beginning when at the September 8 meeting, the Homer City Council passed a resolution approving an acquisition of the property for green infrastructure conservation. The land will be purchased using grant funds awarded in 2023 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and marks the first land purchase to be funded by the grant. The transaction is expected to be completed early next year.
There are still more steps before the transaction is completed including NOAA’s 90 day review period before the grant funds are awarded.
