ALASKA – As restrictions, quarantine orders and social distancing recommendations went in effect across the nation, educators and festival organizers worked hard to find ways to deliver quality programs to their audiences. Increased telework and school and business closures created unique challenges and unprecedented requests for educational programs and content for all ages. At the same time, in-person events and education programs, large and small, were being cancelled or postponed.  

Events on the Chugach National Forest were no exception as the Forest rushed to reimagine annual community educational events. When the pandemic began, the 30th anniversary of the Copper River Delta Shorebird Festival loomed, as the annual event is timed to bird migration in early May. Guests had been invited, the schedule was in place, and record attendance was anticipated. The Shorebird Festival needed a quick pivot from an in-person event.

The committee rapidly re-tooled the event to serve a virtual audience, incorporating activities that local attendees could participate in, while observing Covid-19 guidelines. A host of new skills including video collection, live event hosting, and connecting with remote sites was required and implemented within weeks of the event and in some instances as the Shorebird Festival was taking place.

The Copper River Shorebird Team used Facebook and the Copper River Shorebird Festival website to connect with current registrants as well as past attendees. The efforts surprised even the committee. Over 25,000 participants were reached and 11,600 actively engaged in fresh content and live online content.

The challenges posed by switching to a virtual festival were quite extensive and the Copper River Delta Shorebird Festival team rose to those challenges and exceeded expectations. Many of the lessons learned will be folded into upcoming shorebird festivals, making the wonder and spectacle of migration and the Copper River Delta available to a worldwide audience. As one of the first events on the Chugach National Forest to pivot to an online presence, this virtual festival was used as a template for virtual online learning by other Chugach National Forest units and partners.

Taking their clues from the Copper River Delta Shorebird Festival, the Cordova and Glacier Ranger Districts implemented a virtual platform for their annual community fungus fair events. This year the two districts joined forces with the Bureau of Land Management Campbell Creek Science Center to host a four-day event over Labor Day weekend. The virtual event, dubbed the “Gird-ova” Fungus Festival, was packed with virtual talks and activities. Participants were encouraged to explore the northernmost coastal temperate rainforest’s fungal diversity on their own or through virtual forays led by knowledgeable fungophiles from across the Forest. The fungus festival also boasted an iNaturalist mushroom observation competition, a photo contest, mushroom preservation and cooking classes, a virtual recipe swap, and fungus crafting and art workshops.

As in-person gatherings return, Forest Service programs will undoubtedly move back to in-person events when conditions are safe. Yet, as these two successful Chugach National Forest events illustrate, employees in the Alaska Region have discovered new tools for delivering fresh content to larger audiences that may even outlast a pandemic.