Anchorage Park Foundation Grant

Steve Johnson at the sign post with the plaque in memory of Erin.

The Erin K Johnson Memorial Fund donated funds to the Anchorage Park Foundation to support maintenance of the biking, skiing and walking trails in the city of Anchorage. They have a program that recognizes donors of these funds and they place a plaque on one of the signposts for five years. Since the advisory board for Erin’s fund agreed to donate funds, the plaque was recently installed in memory of Erin. The plaques are placed on both sides of a sign post on the moose loop as you enter Russian Jack Springs Park on the bridge across Northern Lights Blvd closest to East High School . This is an appropriate placement since Russian Jack Springs is the closest park to where Erin lived in Nunaka Valley and she loved to bike and ski there.

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Nature Journaling Workshop Held at Cabin!

On August 17, 2025, a nature journaling workshop was held at the Korohusk Cabin. A total of 7 people attended the event and hiked out to the cabin to learn more about nature journaling and to put some of the techniques taught in the workshop into practice. It was a beautiful, sunny day and everyone enjoyed the views on the deck and opportunities to connect with nature through observing, recording, sketching and painting.

Barb Johnson, Erin’s mom, lead the workshop. She used to love to journal and watercolor paint with Erin, especially on outdoor adventures, so this was a special event to have at the cabin. Barb mentioned that it helps her be more connected to nature and to Erin. She says it can be very healing and she often refers to her journals to reconnect with dates of various events throughout the seasons and she encourages all journals to include meta data such as the date, the weather, and other pertinent information when journaling.

Cabin Opening Celebration a Success!

It was a gloriously sunny day on July 13th, 2025 when the Eagle River Nature Center officially celebrated the opening of Korohusk Public Use Cabin. A slide show was put together by the nature center showing construction of the cabin from start to finish along with a few videos of the helicopter sling loads. Mimosas and savory and sweet charcuterie boards with cheeses, crackers, meats, fruits, cookies and sweets were served to over 70 people. Laura Kruger, the executive director, thanked the many contributions made by people and organizations responsible for helping to make the cabin project a reality.

After she spoke, Steve and Barb Johnson also said a few words, stating their gratitude and an acknowledgement that the cabin was only made possible due to the generosity of so many in the community. They said they are happy that so many people will get to experience memorable outdoor adventures using the cabin as a shelter, and they hope that it will also provide a steady revenue source for the Eagle River Nature Center for many years to come. Barb and Steve spent a lot of time in Eagle River Valley throughout the years and seasons backpacking, hiking, skiing, and packrafting with Erin, so it is a fitting place to remember her and to help others experience this incredible place.

Everyone was then invited to hike out to see the cabin. There were around 30 people who hiked the three miles out and at least 19 had never seen it before! We celebrated with more food at the cabin and many hiked down to the water’s edge to check it out. The cabin is mostly booked a year out, so if you want to stay there, book online early to reserve it at: cabin rental

It was a wonderful day of celebration. See a few pictures below.

Celebration of the Korohusk Cabin on July 13, 2025

Friends of the Eagle River Nature Center will be celebrating the opening of the Korohusk Cabin on July 13th from 11:30-12:30 at the Visitor Center. The public is invited to this event. After recognizing all parties involved in this project and showing photos of the construction of the cabin, everyone will be invited to walk out to see it from 1:00-4 pm. It has been extremely popular and difficult to reserve, so this is your chance to come take a look! We hope you will join us! It is a three mile walk each way.

Korohusk Public Use Cabin in Memory of Erin Goes Online!!

It has finally happened!! We are SOOO excited to share the news that after over three years of planning , fundraising, collaboration, and effort by sooo many generous people, companies, and organizations, the Korohusk Public Use Cabin in memory of Erin, is finally a reality!! And what a GEM it is!! No words can express our heartfelt gratitude to the generous donors who contributed to make this a reality!! We are forever grateful to Matt Vogel and Jason Arnold of RIm Architects for their time designing the cabin and ensuring that it is the amazing cabin it is! Also to the Eagle River Nature Center Staff, Chugach State Park staff and the advisory board, Kuchar Construction who built the cabin, to Alpine Air and SBS for their discounts to help make it more affordable. A huge thanks to so many people who came out and volunteered to help in clearing and construction, and to Barb Henjum for the gorgeous mosaic above the door. It’s all come together thanks to a loving community and we hope everyone gets a chance to stay in it. The cabin will be available to rent starting on Sept. 3rd, 2024 for members of the Eagle River Nature Center and to the general public on September 5th. Erin, we love and miss you with all our hearts, but you will never, ever be forgotten, and your legacy lives on. Get after it, everybody and thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Overwhelming Community Support for Cabin Fund!

Since the EKJ Memorial Cabin Fund was established in June of 2022, the amount of feedback, interest, and support has been overwhelmingly positive. We received numerous extremely generous donations and a matching fund donation of $25,000 from an anonymous donor. Currently, we have raised $70,000!! The Friends of Eagle River Nature Center (FERNC) has also been extremely supportive by advertising about the cabin on their website and staff also wrote two grants to resulting in an additional $35,000 (Rasmusson Foundation $25,000, and MEA $10,000) In addition, the Nature Center’s annual fall fundraiser on October 29th was successful in raising an additional $18,000 in their “For the Cause” focus. All together, we are now at $123,000! To see information on their website about their efforts, go to https://www.ernc.org.

State Parks trail planner, Blaine Smith, has recently spent time out at the site with FERNC the Trails and Grounds Manager for FERNC, Michael Gus Gustafson, to identify the best route in to the cabin site and work on building that trail may begin very soon. In addition, plans for building the cabin next summer are beginning. We have a lot of fundraising still to do and price estimates for the cabin construction continue to change and increase, but we are very hopeful that we can raise the money by next spring.

We are incredibly grateful for all of the support and generous donations we have received to help make this cabin become a reality. We are getting there! Heartfelt thanks and we will try to keep everyone informed as this project moves forward. To donate specifically towards the cabin, you can go to: Memorial Cabin Fund.

Cabin design

Young Erin and her dad skiing up Eagle River near the proposed cabin site.

Memorial Cabin Construction Fund Opening!

It is hard to believe that this coming June 19th will be five years since Erin was killed by a predatory black bear.  There is not a day that goes by that we don’t think about her and feel the hole left by her absence.  Anniversaries are a difficult time, but we are so grateful for all of you for your generous support to keep Erin’s happy, nature-loving, adventurous spirit alive through donations to support science education, getting people outdoors, and protecting Alaska’s wild places. 

Since Erin’s Memorial Fund was first established, we have talked about how to honor Erin’s spirit not only through giving to organizations she cared about, but also through the creation of a physical space in her memory. After consultation with family, friends, organizations, and different user groups, we are pleased to announce that the Chugach State Park Superintendent, CSP Citizen’s Advisory Board, and the Eagle River Nature Center Advisory Board have all agreed to support building a new Public Use Cabin about three miles up Eagle River Valley on a point overlooking the river near Echo Bend. While the cabin will be created in Erin’s honor and with support from her Memorial Fund, construction and maintenance of the cabin will be overseen by the Eagle River Nature Center.

Eagle River Valley is a special place for our family, so it is a fitting location to construct a cabin in her memory. Erin spent a great deal of time hiking and camping in Eagle River Valley from the time she was very small. She continued to spend time exploring the valley with her friends as a teenager and adult.

The current plan is to build the cabin during the summer of 2023. Initial estimates for cabin construction costs is $80-100K, however, that is subject to change given how volatile construction materials are and the need for helicopter sling loads. Any additional funds raised in excess of construction costs will be saved for future maintenance and upkeep costs.

A huge thanks to Jason Arnold of Rim Architects, and retired architect Matt Vogel, for working on the concept design and volunteering a significant amount of time and energy to identify a good site and developing the final plans. We are extremely grateful to have their expertise and their willingness to see this project through completion, however long it takes.

To ensure that donations for the cabin will go directly to supplies and constructions costs, we have set up a separate fund at the Alaska Community Foundation.  It is called the EKJ Memorial Cabin Fund (https://alaskacf.org/funds/ekj-memorial-cabin-fund/ ). The cabin will be named Korohusk Cabin after Korohusk Peak nearby.

We are very excited that this public use cabin will further support Erin’s legacy and the goal of her fund by encouraging people to enjoy nature with friends and families while supporting science education at the Eagle River Nature Center.  We are sincerely grateful and honored to have Dick Griffith, a strong backer of the Eagle River Nature Center and someone who knew Erin since she was a little girl, help us get the fund started by giving a generous donation to get the project off the ground.  Thank you so much, Dick!

We hope you will consider donating to help make this Public Use Cabin in memory of Erin a reality! 

Very Sincerely,

The Erin K. Johnson Memorial Fund Board:

Barb and Steve Johnson, Abe Schmidt, Annie Brownlee, Kyle Shedd

Parents, Steve and Barb Johnson, with view from close to the selected cabin site.

Saddle Trail Access to Kachemak State Park Supported

The Erin K. Johnson Fund Trustees had been hearing for the past few years about a huge concern regarding private property up for sale that has been the main access to Kachemak Bay State Park. The Conservation Fund has been working hard to secure the Saddle Trail property acquisition. Erin’s fund has donated to help with this huge financial effort which is a top priority for the Kachemak Bay State Park and the community of Homer.

The Conservation Fund is scheduled to close this month or early January! They will purchase the property on a loan, to secure the opportunity and allow for more time for fundraising in 2022 so that the land can be purchased in full, At that point, ownership will be transferred over to Kachemak Bay State Park for management as public land. This is an exciting project for The Conservation Fund and we are very glad to support this important effort.

Below is the link to the Conservation Fund’s page that explains the project and the heavy financial lift to secure this property forever. We are glad that we could contribute to this effort in 2021 and will continue to support The Conservation Fund’s work on this effort until it becomes public property.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/halibutcoveak

Binoculars and Bird Books for Machetanz Elementary!

The Erin K. Johnson Memorial Fund recently donated $1000 to support students at Machetanz Elementary in the Mat-Su Borough School District. With teacher and community support, students at this STEM school have been learning to become citizen scientists by being involved in learning to identify birds and complete surveys for a local project in cooperation with the University of Alaska and the Alaska Department of Fish & Game. It is called “Bird and Bogs”. This project looks at trends in a select number of species in area wetlands in south-central Alaska. The project has been very successful and students monitor Reflections Lake in the Palmer Hay Flats State Game Refuge.

Machetanz Elementary has been involved for a number of years but they were borrowing a set of binoculars from Alaska Department of Fish & Game. This became very limiting because the binoculars are in demand by educators and not readily available to teachers for use. For students to be successful, students at Machetanz needed regular practice with multiple classes.

The Fund helped support purchasing enough binoculars for the school so that a class of students could share with one partner. Good,, quality, bird identification books were also purchased and used by all of the classes participating in the surveys ( 5th graders) and those students who are practicing and learning so that when they are 5th graders, they can take over this responsibility.

Students were thrilled to get to use both the binoculars and bird identification books multiple times and now they can use them and become familiar with both through the school year.

Way to go, students and teachers! The Erin K. Johnson Fund Board is proud to encourage young scientists involved in citizen science! We appreciate donors who continue to contribute to help make these donations possible! Erin became keenly interested in birds in 3rd grade and it became a lifelong interest of hers. We hope many of these students become drawn to nature and the wonderful world of birds too.

There is no question that there are a lot more students who are now much more aware of birds, their behaviors, their calls, and how to identify them. This appreciation, connection, and understanding of the natural world is needed more than ever in today’s world.

Inspiring Girls Expeditions’ Modified Summer Programs Due to COVID.

This is the second year that the Erin K. Johnson Memorial Fund has supported the Inspiring Girls Expeditions Summer Program (https://www.inspiringgirls.org/who-we-are). It was a challenging summer, but overall, the program was a success, despite having to move away from its in-person programming format. All expeditions were cancelled due to COVID, but staff offered online programming they called 'Expeditions@Home.' Inspiring Girls Expeditions is about getting girls away from devices and screens and into nature, so it was a ground breaking summer!. Before starting such an approach, applicants were asked if they would be even interested in something online, given the circumstances. They received overwhelming support for the idea. Many girls were hungry for any kind of inspiring experience, even if it looked really different than what they originally thought.

So Expeditions@Home was launched with two different levels of commitment -'Observe & Discover' was a 4-week seminar series with guest lecturers open to as many top applicants as interested (Approximately 40 were in attendance). A class called 'Explore & Connect' was also conducted, which was a deeper dive, and teams of 9 with 2 instructors (similar to our in-person ratios) met weekly for several hours for 6 weeks, and moved through an entire curriculum of content focused on 'exploring nature in their own home landscape' - whether that was a backyard, a park, a tree lining their street, or whatever was safely accessible to the participating girls.. This entailed doing semi-guided science and art activities together and then girls did more on their own time during the week. At the end of the 6 weeks, they even presented to a virtual public audience the findings of science experiments they did together (virtually) in small groups.

Surveys at the end of the program indicated that overall participants were very happy with the program and gained a lot from the experience. These participants have all since been invited to an online alumni network (on Mighty Networks) and those that are still within the age limits can re-apply in 2021, if they choose.

As part of delivering this content online, activity boxes were mailed out to each 'Explore & Connect' participant with some basic science and art supplies, and a field book that our long-time, local Fairbanks artist instructor put together at record speed. It captures a lot of our curriculum and educational philosophy.

Below are some photos of some of the students work from this past COVID summer.

"Artwork (or field guide activities) prepared by participants in Inspiring Girls Expeditions "Expeditions @ Home" summer 2021 online/remote programming"

Socially distanced classes. A student showing her field guide work with others via the internet.

Journal showing a participants field journal and her rendition of her online teammates.

Fund Supports The Conservation Fund's Acquisition of Snow River Lands on the Kenai Peninsula!

Monies from the Erin K Johnson Fund were able to support The Conservation Fund’s efforts to acquire 156 acres along the Snow River, which lies in the heart of the Kenai Mountains. It comprises the headwaters of Kenai Lake and the world-famous Kenai River. Nearly the entire watershed is undeveloped backcountry with habitats and water quality largely unaffected by man. The property to be acquired contains 1/3 mile of the Snow River and more than 100 acres of pristine wetlands, providing spawning and rearing habitat for salmon and dolly varden. Uplands contain old growth trees and provide nesting habitat for migratory waterfowl, grouse, and raptors. It is the site of one of the earliest homesteads in the region, now reclaimed by the forest, and is crossed by the historic route of the Iditarod Trail. The property will become public land, incorporated into the Chugach National Forest and managed by the U.S. Forest Service for wildlife habitat. 

We know these beautiful and productive Snow River lands are just the kind that Erin would be happy to see being protected as public lands!

Below is a map showing the lands that were acquired.

Lands purchased by The Conservation Fund (https://www.conservationfund.org/where-we-work/alaska). They are now working with the USFS to se it become part of the Chugach National Forest.

Close up map of the156 acres purchased.