An Alaskan Journal
Observations on an Eco-Tour
John E. Moore, Jr.
"Nowhere else on earth is there such an abundance and magnificence of mountains, fjord and glacier scenery....the Alaska coast is to become a showplace of the earth, and pilgrims, not only from the United States, but far beyond the seas, will throng in endless procession to see it. Its grandeur is more valuable than the gold or fish or timber, for it will never be exhausted."
Henry Gannett, Chief Geographer
Alaska Harriman Expedition
1899
"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe."
John Muir
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The Upper White River Basin Foundation, which does business as Ozarks Water Watch, is an environmental organization focused on promoting healthy water resources in the heart of the Arkansas and Missouri Ozarks region. This focus extends from our rivers, lakes and streams to the land constituting the diverse watersheds which feed them.
This integral relationship of land and water encompasses and is largely affected by human development. We recognize the inevitable links between the land we plow, the cities we build and the waste we produce and the health of our waters. Promoting water quality thus demands attention to this larger ecology of which clean water is an essential part.
As we consider the ecological balance in the Ozarks, it's useful and interesting to observe this balance elsewhere. When I travel today, mostly for pleasure or personal business, I find myself increasingly attuned to these matters and often consciously cataloging benchmarks relevant to our Foundation's work.
I've recently returned from a trip that afforded an unusual opportunity to observe at close hand the ecology of a unique region. I've extended my column this week to include observations and a number of pictures from my recent eco-tour of Alaska's Tongass National Forest.
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I've been to Alaska on three or four previous occasions to visit Anchorage and to fish the Alaskan peninsula. Alaska, in one of the native languages, is the "great land" and its mountains, glaciers, rivers and sheer sizes give credence to that name. In my previous travels, however, I had never been to southeast Alaska, the slender arm extending down the Pacific coast, a relatively temperate area and the location of towns like Juneau, the capital, and Sitka, the capital when Russia owned Alaska.
This region is part of the Alexander Archipelago, a series of islands along the coast which creates an "inside passage" that's protected from the open ocean. During summer months this inside passage is a popular track for cruise lines and visitors to the region. I've long had an interest in seeing this part of Alaska, but a cruise ship---a floating hotel with 1500 passengers----was never my idea of how to do it. I also was interested in sampling the fishing and seeing more than the ubiquitous tourist shops in the cruise ships ports of call.
A better alternative consistent with my interest came last spring in the form of a brochure from The Boat Company, a non-profit project of the McIntosh Foundation. Its two boats---one a 58 year old made-over mine sweeper, the other a newer rendition of the older vessel---offer water-based tours of the Tongass National Forest that are at once more intimate and engaging than the commercial enterprises plying the southeaster Alaska waters. I signed up for what was a delightful week aboard the M/V Liseron, the older vessel, from July 10-17.
There were 13 guests on the trip, attended by a very capable crew of 11. We were a diverse group but remarkably compatible with many shared interests. We cruised the bays and byways of the inside passage about four to five hours a day with ample opportunity for excursions ashore from the larger boat.
I took some pictures until I managed to drown my camera one afternoon while fly fishing a stream nearly as deep as my chest waders. The camera was in the pocket of my jacket, unfortunately well below the waterline. I'm indebted, therefore, to my friends from the trip, Gail Burd, Tricia Bruer and Ranna Smith for many of the pictures included here. They did an outstanding job in their photo documentation of our eco-adventures and I acknowledge my debt to them for their help.
What follows are notes from my journal, largely descriptive and in no particular order, along with a gallery of supporting photographs which I hope you will find interesting. I conclude with some observation about ecological benchmarks from the Tongass National which are relevant to environmental issues elsewhere.
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· Our boat, the M/V Liseron, nearly 60 years old, was built as wooden minesweeper. When purchased by the Boat Company in 1989 and "refitted" (rebuilt and renovated) for its present role, its ambience as a "boaty" boat was amplified by varnished mahogany, polished brass hardware and the original diesel engines and electrical panels. At 145 feet in length, a beam of 28 feet and weighing in at 450 tons, it was just right for a week's tour of the inside passage from Juneau to Sitka.
· The weather through the week was cool and damp with rare sunshine but little rain. Warm layered clothes were in order every day, especially when riding in open skiffs off the Liseron. Most days were cloudy with light gray folds in scalloped patterns across lowering skies. The caps of mountains rising abruptly from the sea were often wreathed with fluffy bands of clouds encircling clear snowy peaks like a man's ring of white hair below a bald crown. Although we missed heavy rain, the Tongass can receive from 100 to as much as 200 inches of rainfall a year.
· Our tour route took us through the heart of the Tongass National Forest which, at 17 million acres, is by far our country's largest. One of the few remaining temperate rainforests in the world, its earlier counterparts down the Pacific coast to northern California have been decimated by clear cutting and development. The Tongass thus has the status of an increasingly rare and relatively pristine ecological treasure----and a fragile one as well.
· There were numerous mountainsides along the inside passage that had been clear cut, certainly done with permits issued by the U.S. Forest Service. Although much of the original old growth forest has apparently been cut, the still extensive stands of sitka spruce and cedar march up the mountain sides like soldiers in never ending parade. When entering the forest, the damp, spongy floor is replete with ferns, plants and filtered light creating a mystical green understory. The Tongass is a true rainforest, but a cool one, unlike the tropical version we more readily imagine.
· The waters of the fjords and bays of the inside passage are cold, fertile and startlingly clear. I suspect a secchi disk would be visible 20 feet down in the clear water. Our boat easily generated fresh water from sea water for our use aboard. The fresh water streams we fished were likewise deceptively clear with apparent knee deep water proving to be much deeper.
· An exception to the predominantly clear water, the bays and streams fed by coastal glaciers were a (cold) milky gray-green from sediment in glacial melt. We observed ancient glaciers hanging from mountain tops, filling valleys and carving steep fjords as they ran to the sea. We watched Dawes Glacier spall off huge chunks to ice to become icebergs often of a crystal blue color in a process known as "calving" (as in having a calf). Seals and their pups were incongruously sunning themselves as they lay on the resulting ice flows. Most of the Alaskan glaciers are reportedly receding with only a scant few increasing in size and depth. Scientists are studying the causal factors in these changes with attention to climate issues that may be at work.
· Wildlife in the Tongass is diverse and abundant. We observed seals, sea lions, bear both black and brown (the latter called grizzlies in the lower 48), eagles, waterfowl, fish (particularly salmon, halibut and trout), crabs, starfish, jelly fish and whales. Whale watching was a regular preoccupation with humpback whales, which spend their summer months in cold Alaskan waters, around our boat every day. Their blowing, rolling and sounding with flukes nearly vertical as they dive were a source of continuing fascination.
· I fished every day but one and caught several halibut and a number of trout, all of which were returned to swim again. Fishing is a major industry in Alaska, both commercial and sport fishing, and I'm impressed by the considerable regulatory framework the state has established to assure this resource continues to be sustainable.
· The summer salmon run into natal streams in the Tongass had barely begun while we were there. Silver and chum (or "dog") salmon were just becoming evident with bears, eagles and other wildlife expectantly watching for the coming of their major annual food source. Along with the forests and water, the salmon uniquely provide the ecological foundation of the region. Every living thing in the coastal ecology depends on the nutrition and nutrients from the annual cycle of salmon returning to spawn and die. (For a delightfully informative and beautifully illustrated publication about this relationship, see "Salmon in the Trees" by Amy Gulick and Ray Troll published by The Mountaineer Books.) Careful regulation of both commercial and sport fishing has helped make the salmon resource sustainable.
· We saw but gave wide berth to bears which were often prowling the beach and stream meadows, eager for salmon to arrive. Bald eagles, as numerous as robins in the Ozarks, flew over us daily, sat in trees watching us when ashore, and lined beaches at low tide prospecting for food. They too were awaiting the salmon.
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I might make a few concluding observations from this vacation eco-tour and my largely descriptive journal notes above.
· The fact that the Tongass National Forest is relatively remote works to its advantage as one of the last remaining temperate rain forests in the world. In more populous places, people and their (mostly) inadvertent messes frequently disrupt the ecological balances such as we saw.
· The great majority of land in southeast Alaska and the Tongass belongs to the United States---to you and me. The national forests are administered by the U.S. Forest Service which issues permits for logging and other resource use. The economic interests who seek these permits communicate their interest regularly and persistently to federal officials. It's relevant to note here the recent reports about the relationship between the Minerals Management Service and deep water drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico and more locally between the National Park Service and those promoting increased access and development along the Ozarks National Scenic Riverways. The tensions between federal agencies and those interested in the resources they manage are perhaps inevitable placing a premium on stout advocacy in the interest of responsible conservation.
· These interests and relationships prompt fundamental questions about public policy: Is clear cutting forests a good thing to do? Should mining be allowed and if so under what conditions? Should public access be expanded and encouraged? How can we best assure that our uniquely precious resources are sustained?
· Citizens have an important and potentially powerful role in addressing these policy issues. Staying aware and informed and communicating one's views to elected officials are important civic responsibilities.
· The inextricably linked connections among land, water and life in the relatively pristine setting of the Tongass perhaps make them more apparent than in other places. Attention to the annual salmon spawn, which we saw just beginning, magnifies these ecological relationships which were focused by the nature of the tour we took.
The State of Alaska, recognizing that its economic future depends on its natural resources, its fish, forests and minerals, and the visitors and business they attract, has established a regulatory framework designed to sustain them. The fact that Alaska allowed me to keep a single halibut each day was fine by me.
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quotation at the beginning of this article from Henry Gannett in 1899 was prescient in foretelling the throng of pilgrims coming to see the "grandeur of the Tongass more valuable than its gold or fish or timber."
Indeed they have come, a million or more strong each year on summer cruises, fishing trips and even modest eco-tours. The majesty of the mountains will remain, but the waters, fish and forests together create the ecological web that gives life and substance to this unique treasure and makes a visit worthwhile. We can hope it will always be so.
Quote of the Week
"Unless it hurts I don't think conservation is going to go mainstream. Some folks...are just environmentally conscious. Other folks, like me, need to be coerced into it. If water and fuel were priced as they should be, as the precious commodities they are, we would figure out how to squeeze the most out of every drop."
Ellen Rohr
As quoted in the Springfield Business Journal |
