![]() Trout Unlimited today welcomed a decision by the U.S. Forest Service to protect sensitive fish habitat in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest while allowing for the expansion of a silver mine that is an important regional employer. Tongass National Forest Supervisor Forrest Cole issued a decision on Friday that allows Hecla Mining Co., operator of Greens Creek Mine, to expand its waste rock facility by about 18 acres to the south of the mine. The company can also develop another eight acres outside the monument’s boundaries. That land will be used for a rock quarry, a storage site for reclaimed materials and an expanded pond to manage waste water. The mine is located within Admiralty Island National Monument, one of Southeast Alaska’s wildest and most scenic areas with one of the world’s highest concentrations of brown bears. Hecla sought to expand the mine’s waste rock area by another 116 acres within the national monument. But that would have resulted in the permanent loss of 1,646 feet of salmon habitat, according to the Forest Service. Cole would not agree to that. In his decision, Cole specified that no mine waste can be discharged into Tributary or Fowler Creeks, which provide critical habitat for Dolly Varden char and coho salmon. Therefore, although Greens Creek will be allowed a limited expansion, no existing fish habitat will be lost, a move strongly supported by Trout Unlimited. “We recognize that balancing the need for employment and resource extraction with the protection of important fish habitat is often difficult and complex, as it was in this case. Trout Unlimited appreciates Supervisor Cole’s concern for Admiralty’s critical fish habitat as well as his thoughtful and measured approach to the mine’s expansion,” said Mark Kaelke, Trout Unlimited’s Southeast Alaska project director. The decision will allow Greens Creek to continue generating waste rock for another 10 years, according to the Forest Service. Had the Forest Service chosen not to allow for expansion, the mine was facing closure in 2019, the federal agency said. Greens Creek provides some 330 full-time jobs. Last year, it produced over six million ounces of silver. Miners discovered the ore deposit at Greens Creek prior to the creation of the Admiralty Island National Monument. The mine is allowed to operate in the national monument under the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, a federal law. ![]() We Alaskans occasionally need to be reminded of how fortunate we are to live where salmon still have a place to come home to. In Washington, where I was born and raised, salmon abundance has declined dramatically over the past several decades. When people finally realized what had happened, lots of them blamed “overfishing.” They were probably partly right, but they should’ve been looking in the mirror. In the name of “progress,” they had ruined much of the state’s salmon habitat. Read More ![]() by Chad Shmukler, Hatch Magazine We don’t often feature grip and grin shots here, mostly because they’re not all that interesting. The image seen below, in my opinion, bucks that trend. Taken earlier this summer on a glacier-fed creek just north of Juneau, Alaska in theTongass National Forest, it is a testament to the staggering biomass of the Tongass. Read More. ![]() by Heather Hardcastle 2013 is turning out to be a banner year for salmon in Southeast Alaska. This year’s staggering salmon returns are a reminder the Tongass is the country’s preeminent salmon forest. As Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell tours Southeast Alaska this week, I urge him to do all he can to ensure the nation’s largest national forest is managed with wild salmon as the highest priority. As of today, more than a whopping 92 million salmon weighing almost 283 million pounds have been landed in Southeast this year. The vast majority of this year’s enormous salmon haul is wild pinks — close to 99 percent of which were born and reared in Tongass watersheds. Southeast fishermen have already surpassed the record 77 million pinks that were caught in 1999. Returns of wild sockeye and coho have also been extremely strong. In almost 35 years of fishing, our family has never caught as many wild sockeye as we did this year. Prices for Alaska salmon remain quite good, as well. Although we won’t have the average 2013 ex-vessel value numbers for a while, it’s safe to say Southeast is on target to have its most lucrative commercial salmon season yet. In the last two years, Southeast was the most valuable commercial salmon fishing region in the state, with the total ex-vessel value exceeding $200 million in 2011. I point out these numbers because they underscore how Tongass salmon drive an enormous economic engine and underpin every community in this region. Salmon produced in Tongass streams and lakes sustain hundreds of commercial fishing families like mine. It’s estimated more than one in 10 regional jobs are tied to salmon. These fish are a cultural icon, a focus of recreational and subsistence fishing, a mainstay of our diet, and a keystone species. The Tongass produces almost one-third of Alaska’s overall salmon harvest from less than 5 percent of the land base. There’s a reason for this. By and large, this region still has healthy forest watersheds on which salmon rely to reproduce. Scientists, like former Forest Service fisheries biologist Mason Bryant, confirm what fishermen have long known: “The numerous intact watersheds throughout Southeast Alaska are a critical factor in maintaining sustainable salmon stocks in Southeast Alaska.” The Forest Service and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game deserve credit for the current state of Southeast salmon fisheries and health of the salmon forest. However, I — and at least several hundred local commercial fishermen like me — want the Forest Service to work to ensure the Tongass continues to produce diverse and abundant salmon runs far into the future. Many of us are frustrated because the Forest Service and some Alaska leaders are not looking to the future at all, but instead looking to turn back the clock and ramp up large-scale logging in this region. As has been reported, the Forest Service just approved the Big Thorne timber sale for central Prince of Wales, which is by far the largest-volume timber sale the Tongass has seen since the mid-90s. Meanwhile, Senator Murkowski and the Parnell administration are pushing a proposal to carve out a 2 million-acre timber trust from the Tongass. In all of this talk about the potential to resuscitate the timber industry on the Tongass, where is the discussion of how to maintain and build upon the incredible success of the forest’s salmon fishing industry? I call on Mr. Tidwell to direct the Forest Service to invest in the “blue-chip” growth industries of the Tongass that employ some 17,000 people and pump at least $2 billion into the regional economy every year: fishing and tourism. Conserving intact salmon watersheds and working to restore impacted watersheds is a great place to start. When we met Mr. Tidwell in Washington, D.C. four years ago, my dad explained, “If you look through the lens of wild salmon, and ensure their needs are met before proceeding with any action, you can’t go wrong.” I ask the Forest Service chief to remember these words as he leads the Forest Service and its management of the Tongass in the years ahead.’s • Heather Hardcastle, M.E.M., is a lifelong Juneau resident, a co-owner of Taku River Reds, and an outreach coordinator for Trout Unlimited. This column by Heather Hardcastle appeared August 27, 2013, in the Juneau Empire. http://juneauempire.com/opinion/2013-08-27/lets-prioritize-wild-alaska-salmon#.UhzyNz_9U70 ![]() Award-winning journalist, author and editor Hal Herring recently published a five-part series in Field & Stream about his journey to Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. Herring spent five days fishing in the Tongass, a 17-million-acre temperate rainforest that is having a record salmon season this summer. As of today, more than 252-million salmon have been landed in Alaska so far this season, with more than 92-million harvested in Southeast Alaska alone. No wonder Herring calls the Tongass a “salmon forest” and advocates for watershed-scale conservation of the forest’s most valuable salmon habitat. Herring joined several other writers, bloggers and photographers on a tour of the Tongass sponsored by Trout Unlimited, Fishpond, TenkaraUSA, and RIO Products Check out the links below to Herring’s series. Part One. Part Two. Part Three. Part Four. Part Five. |
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