Congratulations to Tony Christianson, the mayor of Hydaburg, for winning a national award from the U.S. Forest Service for his leadership in fisheries stewardship. The Forest Service issued a statement recently that said Christianson of the Hydaburg Cooperative Association, the federally recognized tribe in the Prince of Wales community, is being honored for bridging Traditional Ecological Knowledge with Western management for fisheries and subsistence management benefits on the Tongass National Forest. He has done so in cooperation with the Forest Service’s Alaska Region, the Federal Subsistence Board, and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. As the Natural Resources Director for Hydaburg Tribes, Tony, whose traditional Haida name is “Saanhl_K_ingwaas,” is a leading fisheries scientist in the Pacific Northwest. He is respected for his leadership and wisdom on recreation, forest, watershed, heritage, and subsistence resource management of the national forest lands of Alaska. He has dedicated himself over the past 10 years to engaging local tribal members in fisheries resource management and is responsible for the creation of many fisheries and natural management jobs for his Tribe and the surrounding community that also provide invaluable data to the Forest Service Subsistence Fisheries Resource Monitoring Program (FRMP). Among his many accomplishments is his critical role in the resurrection of an important sockeye salmon run to Hetta Lake. Tony told Trout Unlimited that since sockeye is a critical subsistence fish for the tribe, it was important to make sure that the population was healthy. After the tribe gathered data that showed escapement was low, they encouraged members not to fish the early June run. This self-imposed closure has worked to boost the number of spawning salmon returning to Hetta Lake by several hundred, restored the run and underscored the success of the tribal sockeye monitoring project. “There’s a lot more trust when it’s the tribe that’s collecting the data,” Tony said. The Hetta Lake sockeye project is part of the Forest Service’s Subsistence Fisheries and Wildlife Monitoring Program in Alaska. The program gathers information on the number one subsistence fish in Southeast – sockeye salmon. The goal is to understand how many sockeye return to freshwater to spawn so regulators can optimize the harvest or make in-season adjustments. Tony’s award will be presented at a ceremony on the evening of May 14, 2013, at the Hyatt Hotel in Arlington, Virginia. A group of Alaska and Pacific Northwest residents – mostly commercial and sport fishermen, along with charter operators and guides, — are speaking out in Washington, D.C., this week on behalf of wild Alaska salmon from the Tongass National Forest. They’re there as part of the Tongass 77 campaign. The trip, sponsored by Trout Unlimited, aims to educate key Congress and Administration officials about the need to strengthen habitat protections for the best salmon watersheds of the Tongass, a lush, 17-million-acre temperate rainforest teeming with five species of Pacific Salmon, steelhead, rainbow and cutthroat trout, Dolly Varden, and other fish. A world-class destination for anglers, the Tongass boasts more than 17,000 miles of clean, cold salmon-filled waters. Sport fishermen catch close to one million salmon here every year, nearly 60 percent of them Coho. Less than five-percent of Alaska’s land base, the Tongass is a biological powerhouse: nearly 30-percent of the state’s entire salmon harvest every year originates from freshwater streams, lakes and rivers in this unique forest. Last year, that meant big money. Commercial salmon fishermen – who work in a highly regulated and sustainable industry in Southeast Alaska – landed nearly 37 million fish with a dockside value of $153.2 million.For the second year in a row, Southeast Alaska took the top spot as most lucrative region in Alaska for commercial salmon fishing. So what does this have to do with the trip to DC this week? Everything. Even though salmon populations are healthy in the Tongass, these fish face threats on a variety of fronts including logging, mining, hydropower proposals and land privatization. And although the Tongass is the nation’s number one salmon-producing forest, 65-percent of salmon habitat there is not protected on the watershed scale and is open to development. That’s why folks like Juneau fly fishing guide, Matt Boline, are back in D.C. asking Congress to support the Tongass 77 proposal. If enacted into law, the Tongass 77 would permanently conserve at the watershed scale some 1.9 million acres of high-value salmon and trout habitat on the Tongass and make fish and wildlife the highest management priority in these 77 key watersheds. As Boline told The Drake magazine, “these are mostly intact systems and there are only a handful of streams in the proposal that have been logged at all.” “Ultimately we don’t want them to end up like the Columbia. We don’t want to see the same mistakes we’ve made in the Pacific Northwest in terms of having to retroact protections to fix what we’ve broke,” Boline said. “The goal is to fix it before we break it.” Trout Unlimited, the nation’s oldest and largest coldwater fisheries conservation organization, announced that contrary to a misleading media release issued by Sealaska Corporation, it does not support newly introduced legislation that would carve some 70,000 acres from the Tongass National Forest and transfer it to the Juneau-based corporation. Trout Unlimited also never requested inclusion of 94,000 acres of conservation lands in the bill, as stated by Sealaska.The legislation, known as the Sealaska bill, is sponsored by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and aims to settle land claims by Sealaska , a regional Native corporation representing shareholders with ties to Southeast Alaska. Trout Unlimited does not dispute that Sealaska is owed land under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) of 1971. “But the inference by Sealaska that they have bought our support of this legislation with a tiny amount of conservation lands is false,” said Tim Bristol, Manager of Trout Unlimited’s Alaska Program. “It appears as though their executives are trying to pull the wool over the public’s eyes by implying they have buy-in from Trout Unlimited” said Bristol. In contrast, Trout Unlimited is working to build support for its “Tongass 77” proposal which seeks permanent legislative protection for 77 high-value salmon and trout watersheds from across the Tongass. The 77 watersheds included in the proposal span 1.9 million acres of the Tongass. They represent a subset of the most biologically productive places for salmon and trout that currently lack watershed-scale protection. If enacted, the Tongass 77 legislation would help lock in a self-sustaining fisheries resource that employs about one in 10 people in Southeast Alaska. “We have conducted a long and careful process, utilizing both peer-reviewed science and input from fishing stakeholders and government agencies to identify the Tongass watersheds that form the backbone of the more than $1 billion a year commercial and sport salmon industry here,” said Mark Kaelke, Southeast Alaska Project Director for Trout Unlimited. “What we are seeking is strong and meaningful conservation leadership, said Bristol. “The Sealaska bill, as it exists today, certainly does not meet this standard.” Trout Unlimited, Alaska Program, today welcomed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s announcement that it is extending for 60 days the comment period for people to weigh in on the FDA’s controversial move to open the door for Frankenfish to enter the nation’s food supply. The comment period, originally slated to end on Feb. 25 now runs until April 26. TU encourages anyone who cares about wild salmon and the integrity of food to contact the FDA and tell the agency not to move forward with approving Frankenfish. Frankenfish are genetically engineered Atlantic salmon. In a draft environmental assessment in December, the FDA concluded that Frankenfish are safe for human consumption, opening the door to final approval. Many of Alaskans, including the state’s congressional delegation, oppose the FDA’s stance on Frankenfish because of the numerous threats they pose to wild salmon. One of the major concerns is that genetically engineered salmon could interbreed with wild salmon and wreak havoc on wild stocks. Alaska is one of the largest salmon-producing regions in the world. In Southeast Alaska alone, more than 7,300 jobs are directly tied to salmon fishing and processing, a $1 billion a year industry for the region. Last week, Alaska’s senators co-sponsored two bills against Frankenfish. One would make it illegal to sell, possess, transport or purchase genetically engineered salmon in the United States unless and until the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration determines there is no harmful impact on the environment. The other bill challenges the FDA’s position against labeling Frankenfish. If enacted, the legislation would require that Frankenfish be clearly labeled and identified so that consumers can know what they’re eating. “Alaska has been supplying the world with nutritious salmon for decades,” said Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK.) “We cannot afford to experiment with the world’s largest wild salmon stocks without the certainty that these fake fish won’t pose a serious environmental risk, especially to wild salmon and their habitat.” The bills aim to prevent against “science experiments ending up on the plates of Alaska families,” according to Begich. “The Friday before Christmas, the Food and Drug Administration announced they were moving forward with the approval process on Frankenfish by opening the comment period – this at a time when everyone understandably has their mind on the holidays and the Congress is in a transition period,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK.) “Despite those hurdles, I am proud that my Coastal Coalition in the Senate and those fighting along with us – like the Alaskans in Sitka last weekend – have raised our voices and outrage to a level where the FDA relented and is giving us more time to further lay out the case against GE salmon.” Some one hundred people gathered in Sitka last weekend to protest the FDA’s move toward approving Frankenfish, according to public radio station KCAW. (Listen to a news story about it.) The rally was organized by Sitka Conservation Society. To submit public comment, go to http://www.regulations.gov. Or write to Division of Dockets Management (HFA–305), Food and Drug Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, rm.1061, Rockville, MD 20852. Thanks to Senators Begich and Murkowski for standing up for wild salmon. If you’re from Southeast Alaska or have come here on a work or pleasure trip, you know that the Tongass National Forest is a special place. Maybe it’s the jagged fjords and glaciers that speak to you, or the mossy, ancient forest that blankets the thousands of misty islands within the Tongass. Or perhaps it’s the Tongass’ teeming populations of bears, eagles, humpback whales or the copious runs of wild salmon, the species that Alaska writer and cultural anthropologist Richard Nelson calls “the miracle animal.”Salmon are what biologists call a “keystone species.” They’re critically important to the health of rivers, forests, the ocean, marine and terrestrial animals and, of course, the economies and health of human communities who live nearby. They also provide nutritious food to millions of people worldwide. Salmon literally feed Southeast Alaska. After salmon finish their ocean journeys and they return to their natal streams to spawn and die, their bodies fertilize the water and soil. Salmon carcasses, transported by bears, eagles and other animals, bring nutrients to the forest, which in turn, provides cover and safety to young salmon. “So here’s this fish that teaches us how ecology works, that teaches us how life works, that shows us how one living thing is never separate from all other living things,” Nelson says. Forest Service fisheries biologist Ron Medel says that the health of salmon runs are a measure of how well or poorly people have treated the land. We’re lucky in Southeast Alaska to have tens of millions of healthy, wild salmon return to our region every year. We’re one of the few places left in North America where wild salmon remain abundant. But nearly two million acres of prime salmon habitat in the Tongass, spanning 77 watersheds, face a host of threats. And that’s why Trout Unlimited is seeking permanent protection for these places through Congressional action. It’s a campaign called the Tongass 77, which we hope you will support. The Tongass 77 is about protecting fish and wildlife for our children and grandchildren. As Nelson says in this video, Shades of Green, produced by the U.S. Forest Service, the Tongass is an extraordinary place where fish and wildlife are still intact. Wild salmon, bears, mountain goats, eagles, and on and on – they are still plentiful on the Tongass, as long as we do things right. “We’re able here on the Tongass National Forest to touch the American Earth as it has always been. There are very few places, anyplace, in America or elsewhere in the world where we can do that,” Nelson says. More of Nelson’s thoughts and reflections about Tongass salmon — the miracle animal, as he calls them — are available on the web site for his radio program, Encounters North. |
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