As part of the work that the Sitka Conservation Society does in partnership with the USDA Forest Service with support from the National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance, I led a Wilderness packraft trip across Chichagof Island in July of 2024, beginning from Lisianski Inlet just south of SCS’s Sea Pony Farm property. Our all-women team did scientific and human use monitoring, surveyed recreation sites and historic mining trails, used crosscut saws to resupply firewood supplies, and checked conditions and maintained two remote Wilderness public use cabins.
This specific trip honored the life and legacy of Alice Johnstone, an incredible woman who passed away earlier last year. Alice was part of the original group of people that came together in 1967 over concerns about the unsustainable clearcut logging happening near their hometown of Sitka and across the Tongass National Forest. They had future generations in mind and wanted to ensure there would be places that could continue to exist as intact habitats with natural ecosystem functions. The group developed a Wilderness Proposal for the outer coastal areas of West Chichagof and Yakobi Islands north of Sitka, which successfully became the first citizen-led Wilderness designation in 1980. During the years advocating for the West Chichagof-Yakobi Wilderness Proposal, Alice and her husband Chuck brought people there in their boats to show them first hand how special it was and to encourage advocacy and support of the proposal.
I am fortunate to be helping continue the tradition at SCS of bringing people to and caring for the West Chichagof-Yakobi Wilderness Area. I also recognize and honor that the Lingít peoples were the original stewards of these lands and the complexities around designated “Wilderness.” At the time of the Wilderness Proposal for the West Chichagof-Yakobi area, designating it as Wilderness was one of the best tools at hand to protect lands from extensive logging. Thanks to specific Wilderness provisions in the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), these areas now conserve intact ecosystems, prioritize subsistence hunting and gathering, and conserve these areas for our Alaskan way-of-life.
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As we traveled through the stunning landscape by foot and packrafting a series of connected inland lakes and the river that connects them to the ocean, I could feel the spirit of Alice and her work advocating for this place guiding us on the journey. I could feel the significance of sharing this place that she and others deeply loved and worked so hard to protect, and saw how my team members were experiencing and forming their own unique connections to it. Our goals in leading these projects are to help our partners with managing vast and remote areas, sustain Wilderness character and qualities, and instill an understanding of the importance of large intact areas in the people we bring and through the stories we share.
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As Alice herself once put it:
"Our dream was to get West Chichagof designated a Wilderness area before the mill turned all our trees to pulp. We hoped that future generations could hunt, fish, and explore the island as we did, rather than see it devastated by logging. I could have never guessed what our small movement would become. Not only was the West Chichagof-Yakobi Wilderness area designated, but our actions resulted in the designation of South Baranof Island as a Wilderness area. We laid the foundation for what SCS is today: an organization dedicated to sustaining cultural, ecological, and economic prosperity in this region. I am humbled, grateful, and proud."
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