Major changes are afoot in the country’s largest national forest, the Tongass in Southeast Alaska. And many of them bode well for fish and wildlife. The most important one is arguably the U.S. Forest Service’s move from old-growth logging in roadless areas of the Tongass and shift toward restoring watersheds that were previously harvested, an effort that Trout Unlimited is actively supporting. Along with habitat restoration, the federal agency is also concentrating on established and emerging industries such as commercial and sport fishing, tourism, alternative energy, and small-scale timber operations. As the Tongass shifts gears from industrial logging to smaller, more targeted timber sales, several niche lumber mills throughout Southeast Alaska are benefitting. One of them is located in Hoonah, a mostly Tlingit village on Chichagof Island about a half-hour plane ride from Juneau. Icy Straits Lumber and Milling is a family-owned business that makes specialty lumber products from sustainably harvested Tongass old-growth spruce, hemlock and cedar. It’s owned by a third-generation logger, Wes Tyler, and his wife, Susan, who are originally from Oregon. The Tylers have lived in Alaska for more than three decades with much of that time spent in remote logging camps where Wes worked as a timber harvester and later a general manager for Whitestone Logging. For the past several years, the Tylers have operated Icy Straits Lumber and have built a reputation for providing high-quality wood products – everything from log cabin and timber frame packages to decking, paneling, flooring and siding. The Tylers are conservation-minded business owners who support responsible use of the Tongass’ rare and highly prized old growth timber. Jim Leslie’s life used to revolve around cutting old-growth timber. These days the Vietnam vet and longtime resident of Wrangell, Alaska, makes his living behind the wheel of jet boats, ferrying visitors to picturesque areas to view wildlife, glaciers and salmon.“My bread and butter is the independent traveler,” he says. Leslie’s career transition is not uncommon these days in towns scattered across the 17-million-acre Tongass National Forest, a lush and remote place known more for its heated environmental battles than for its tidewater glaciers, humpback whales and zip-line adventures. But change is afoot in this far-flung corner of the United States. Increasingly, the rain-drenched Tongass of Southeast Alaska is becoming known as a salmon forest and a tourist destination. As the economy of Tongass dramatically shifts, the area’s main landlord — the U.S. Forest Service — is counting on people like Leslie to chart a new course for America’s largest and most rugged national forest. In the words of Regional Forester Beth Pendleton, top Forest Service official in Tongass, “This time is ripe for an infusion of new opportunities and energy.” Read more in the summer issue of American Forests magazine. Work got under way in the Tongass National Forest this summer to repair a key salmon-producing river as part of a collaborative project by the Forest Service, Trout Unlimited, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and the Sitka Conservation Society.The Sitkoh River, on Chichagof Island, used to produce prolific volumes of pink, chum and Coho salmon, along with steelhead, Dolly Varden and cutthroat trout. Although still productive, Sitkoh’s fish habitat suffered heavy impacts from logging that took place mostly in the 1970s. The timber harvesting removed old growth trees along the river which had held the banks in place and provided wood debris for pool habitat. The partners raised $318,000 to fix the problems, including re-routing a 1,800-section of river that currently runs down an old logging road due to erosion. In the first video below, Forest Service hydrologist Marty Becker explains some of what’s happening on the river this summer. Over the course of the next month, Aqua Terra Restoration – which contracted with the Forest Service to do the restoration project – will return the river to its original channel, stabilize old logging roads nearby, remove artificial barriers to fish passage, and thin hundreds of acres of thick young-growth trees to improve watershed health and wildlife habitat. But before any of the major river re-routing work began, a group of conservation interns and local high school students studying ecology spent time in mid-June trapping juvenile salmon. They caught nearly 700 fish in metal traps and relocated them to another stretch of the river so that they wouldn’t be harmed by the heavy equipment or the temporary water diversion process. Ray Friedlander, a recent University of California, Berkeley, graduate and summer intern for Sitka Conservation Society, was among the fish trapping crew. Watch a story about the Sitkoh project produced by KATH-TV, the NBC affiliate station in Juneau, or read about it in the Juneau Empire and Capital City Weekly. The Sitkoh River project is one of several large-scale restoration efforts the Forest Service is conducting in the Tongass National Forest this summer. Others are taking place or are in the works at12 Mile Creek on Prince of Wales Island (POW) near the town of Hollis, at Staney Creek and Luck Lake on POW, and at Saginaw River and Kennel Creek near the predominantly Alaska Native villages of Kake and Hoonah. “Restoring salmon habitat is a key component of the economic transition on the Tongass that the Forest Service supports,” said Beth Pendelton, Alaska Regional Forester. The agency announced in May 2010 that would move away from old-growth logging and into young-growth timber management, restoration of degraded salmon habitat, and job creation in emerging and established industries such as ocean products, visitor services, and renewable energy. Trout Unlimited is actively partnering with the Forest Service to accelerate the pace of the transition and to ensure that critical salmon habitat restoration and conservation are priorities. Trout Unlimited is working to gain permanent, watershed-level conservation measures for some of the best salmon and trout habitat in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest that remains open to development. The Tongass 77 campaign is about making salmon and trout a priority in some of America’s most pristine but threatened watersheds. TU interviewed some Alaska commercial and sport fishermen about why they support the Tongass 77 and will be publishing their responses in a series of blog posts over the summer. Here’s the first installment in the series. NAME: Brad Elfers LOCATION: Juneau, Alaska OCCUPATION: Owner, Alaska Fly Fishing Goods Q: What’s your connection to fishing and the Tongass? A: I have been sport fishing, guiding and spending time in the Tongass for almost twenty years. I started out as a fly fishing guide and was lucky enough to get to fly all over northern Southeast Alaska and see this amazing forest from the air and then land and explore it on foot. Every day was a new exploration. There is truly nowhere else like it left in the world. As soon as you step foot in the forest, you know you are no longer the top creature in the food chain. It is a humbling and awe-inspiring experience. For the last fourteen years, I have owned and operated a fly fishing shop in Juneau. Helping people get out and explore the Tongass and experience for themselves how special this place is. Q: Why do you support the Tongass 77 proposal? A: I grew up in the Puget Sound region. As a kid I used to listen to the old timers talk about days gone by and how great the salmon and trout fishing in the area used to be. By that time, the fishing was a shadow of what it had been. There was a real profound sense of loss in their voices and I always wished — even as a young kid — that I could have seen the area the way it had been – in its full glory; streams full of salmon and trout, bears, deer and wildlife all tuned into these runs. It must have been amazing. Nobody wanted to lose all those things. But without watershed-scale protection, little by little, resource development, housing sprawl, over fishing, and a host of other urban issues, chipped away at wild salmon and trout. If we are serious about keeping wild salmon and trout in Southeast Alaska, we have to plan for it. Q: Why is now the right time to introduce and work towards passage of Tongass 77 legislation? A: Now is the time because we can’t afford to wait. These watersheds are still in pristine condition. It is way easier to preserve an intact watershed than to try to fix a broken one. Q: Why do you think people in the Lower 48 should care about this? A: I think people know deep down in their hearts, that this is our last chance. If we don’t protect the Tongass, there are no more temperate coastal rainforests in North America. You look at Northern California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and we have always looked north for areas that are still functioning and pristine. Plus, in an era when sustainable industries are the goal, there is no more sustainable resource than wild salmon and trout that return every year. Q: What do you plan to do to see that the Tongass 77 legislation is passed? A: I think awareness is huge. Making sure that a broad range of people from all over the U.S. know about the Tongass 77 and why we need it. Most of us don’t have a grasp on all the land-use designations and what is and isn’t allowed on these lands. But if you care about this area and seeing it continue to be productive in perpetuity, then supporting the Tongass 77 is the best first step. The 2012 commercial salmon harvesting season is under way in Alaska.On the famed Copper River in Southcentral Alaska this week, hundreds of boats took part in harvesting wild king and sockeye salmon, some of the first salmon of the season. In what has become a yearly tradition and to much fanfare, Alaska Airlines delivered Copper River salmon to anxiously waiting chefs and restaurant owners in Seattle on Thursday. In Southeast Alaska, the spring commercial salmon season got under way earlier this month with troll openings in various parts of the region and some limited king salmon fishing on the Taku and Stikine Rivers, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Salmon fishing for all five species of Pacific salmon present in Alaska gets going in earnest in June and lasts until early fall. Last summer was a record for Southeast Alaska salmon fishing with gross earnings topping $200 million, the highest since statehood. The forecast for this summer anticipates a somewhat less robust season. Still, Fish and Game officials are projecting that 132 million salmon will be caught statewide this summer. A huge portion of those will be harvested from waters surrounding the Tongass National Forest, the 17-million-acre rain forest blanketing Southeast Alaska that is also called “America’s salmon forest.” Trout Unlimited, Alaska Program, is organizing fisherman and others to support the Tongass 77 proposal, an effort to conserve some 1.8 million acres of high-value salmon and trout habitat in the Tongass. |
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