Barth Hamberg and Austin Thomas are both landscape architects, they share a strong attraction to the land and Southeast Alaska, they both work on projects for the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. Barth as an ACES enrollee, having retired from a 34 year career on the Tongass in 2019, and Austin as a recently-hired full time employee who began his Forest Service career two years ago. Fortunately for them and the National Forest, they’ve developed a strong mentoring relationship and Barth was able to pass the knowledge he’d gained over the years to Austin working together on ACES projects.
Pictured here, Barth and Austin are staking the final phase of the Sunnahae Trail Reconstruction project located on Prince of Wales Island. This 4-mile, million dollar project climbs from sea level to 2,500’ elevation through challenging terrain. The result of this year-long project will be a contract document with drawings, specifications, and a cost estimate – ready to go to bid and construction. They’ve also worked on projects in Sitka, El Capitan, and shared resources on other Tongass projects.