A Southeast Alaska coalition is hosting a landslide conference in Sitka next month.
Southeast Alaska Landslide Information Preparedness Partnership, or SLIPP, is a regional coalition that formed several years ago with a goal to reduce the risk of landslides in Southeast Alaska and help communities better understand and prepare. In the last decade, 12 people have died in landslides across the region.
Lisa Busch, the group’s director, joined KCAW for the Morning Interview along with KK Prussian from United States Forest Service on Thursday (2-19-26).
“So the idea of SLIPP is really a community of practice. It’s this idea of sharing between communities,” Busch said. “In Southeast, we all live in our little own town, and we’re all on our separate island, literally, physically, and what can we learn from each other?”
Next month, the coalition will host a conference in Sitka, where they’ll share recent research, planning information, and provide opportunities for attendees to ask experts questions. An engineer will be available to answer homeowners’ questions about mitigating landslide risk, along with a representative from the Division of Insurance.
A representative from the Green Cross will also join the conference. That’s an organization that provides mental health first aid and training, something Busch said is critical in a small community like Sitka, which experienced a deadly landslide in 2015.
“Once there is a landslide, a tragedy, we have these very unique circumstances in our small Southeast Alaska communities, where we have to help people in a very, very, very tender, vulnerable, tragic time. And do we have the skills to do that?” Busch added.
The conference runs March 3-4 at Sitka’s Harrigan Centennial Hall and online. Learn more and find a link to register here.
