We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect – Aldo Leopold

Stewardship of the Tongass National Forest means working with our local communities to connect citizens in a meaningful way to the natural environment while solving ecological or economic problems in a sustainable and healthy way. SCS works hard with land managers and the broader community to think creatively about habitat restoration, local economic development, timber sales, recreation opportunities, environmental education and monitoring, local contracting, and more. By doing so, we push land managers to ensure that our local needs and ecological values are consistently integrated into their decisions.

See the articles below for more information on our most recent work or take a look at our blog.

Tongass Transition

The Tongass Transition was announced in 2011 by leaders of the Department of Agriculture to shift industrial logging focus away from old-growth clear-cutting and toward development of  a viable second-growth industry. The Sitka Conservation Society has been pushing hard to keep this transition on track since we firmly believe that the Tongass should be managed in a more holistic manner. 

Threats to the Tongass

Most of the oldest and largest trees on the Tongass were cut in the decades following World War II. The patches of old growth that do remain may never be safe from danger.  The Sitka Conservation Society strives to protect the remaining old growth forest and to advocate for wise and sustainable development of alternative Tongass resources such as salmon, second-growth timber sales, and tourism. 

Ecosystem Restoration

The extensive clear-cut logging in the Sitka Ranger District created new forest of quickly-growing, uniformly-aged conifers. This dense "second growth" forest impairs forest habitats by creating such an efficient sunlight block that forageable understory is virtually non-existent. Alaska’s salmon streams were also negatively impacted by logging. Approximately 500 miles of streamside habitat in Southeast Alaska were logged.

Over a month ago, I met four vibrant teenagers, between the age 15 and 16, who were eager to learn about wilderness conservation and preservation by immersing themselves within the Tongass National Forest.  This Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) crew hailed from as far as Mobile, Alabama and as near as Tenakee Springs, Alaska. After a whirlwind of activities that had the crew building a community greenhouse in Angoon, working trail crew on the Cross Admiralty Island Canoe Route and removing an invasive plant in the Kootznoowoo Wilderness, I am confident that four new defenders of wilderness were born.

The Youth Conservation Corp crew walking in Angoon to go berry picking; (from left to right: Elizabeth Crawford, Breeze Anderson, Travis Maranto and Jaxon Collins)

Watching four teenagers develop into wilderness stewards was truly a delightful experience to witness. These four individuals have now returned to their respective homes, and I know that conversations with family and friends have been sparked about the need for conservation and preservation initiatives throughout the United States.

Let’s hear for ourselves what these new wilderness defenders have to say about their experience.

Breeze Anderson: Anchorage/False Pass, Alaska

What did you like most about the YCC experience? Do you have a best memory?

What I enjoyed most about the YCC experience was getting to meet new people and being able to help the environment out. My best memory was … I don’t know. There are a lot!

You’ve been in Southeast Alaska for a month now. What are your impressions of it now?

It is really pretty and really different from what I’m used too. There are so many trees! It is also really wild and has a lot to offer.

What is life in the field really like? What are the best and most challenging parts of living at a wilderness base camp?

Life in the field is pretty great. When you are in the field, you focus on one task without the distractions. There is solitude to think about what your task is without having the distraction of phones. Also, the dinners aren’t bad either!

What did you learn from your experience?

I learned that there is a lot going on that you can be blissfully ignorant towards. You could be walking down the trail not knowing the work that goes into it or walking down the beach without knowing that there is an invasive species taking over an area. This experience showed me that there is a lot more going on in an area than what I know.

Breeze and Dana Kimbell (U.S. Forest Service) boating across Lake Alexander

Travis Maranto: Sealy, Texas

What did you like most about the YCC experience? Do you have a best memory?

I liked getting to be in the Togass, because you can’t get this experience in Texas. There's practically no public lands or forest stewardship in Texas.  My best memory is catching my first pink salmon and cooking it in the field! I also enjoyed foraging for berries and tea and hiking.

You’ve been in Southeast Alaska for a month now. What are your impressions of it now?

Beautiful, breathtakingly beautiful. The wilderness is always harsh, but loving at the same time.

What is life in the field really like? What are the best and most challenging parts of living at a wilderness base camp?

It is challenge to hike gear back and forth between the kitchen and camp. Overall, I loved soaking up the sun and enjoying life.

What did you learn from your experience?

I learned more about how to protect and conserve wilderness areas. Also that many Forest Service employees got their start in YCC programs, and that I have a career to look forward to and a goal to strive for.

Travis celebrating the finding of a bear bone

Jaxon Collins: Tenakee Springs, Alaska

What did you like most about the YCC experience? Do you have a best memory?

Working together with strangers as we developed a better sense of wilderness and the problems that are occurring to wilderness right now. The whole experience was great. I don’t think I have a best memory.

What is life in the field really like? What are the best and most challenging parts of living at a wilderness base camp?

Life in camp is like a puzzle. Some things are really easy to find and put together, but sometimes the piece just doesn’t fit. Arguing happens, but it usually comes together to make one great picture.

What ended up being the biggest challenge during this time?

To me, the biggest challenge was picking up beach trash. It seemed like a never-ending task and that people will continue to destroy marine habitat.

What did you learn from your experience?

I learned that even if you have complete different opinions, you can be working to fight for the same thing. For example, [John] Muir and [Gifford] Pinchot.

Jaxon working on a trail structure in the Kootznoowoo Wilderness

Elizabeth Crawford: Mobile, Alabama

What did you like most about the YCC experience? Do you have a best memory?

I like being in Alaska. I love how beautiful it is here. I don’t want to go home. Meeting everyone was a highlight of the experience.

You’ve been in Southeast Alaska for a month now. What are your impressions of it now?

It is beautiful. From what everyone keeps saying, I imagine the weather has been remarkably nice. We were told it was going to be really rainy, but it really hasn’t been too rainy. 

What is life in the field really like? What are the best and most challenging parts of living at a wilderness base camp?

Life in the field requires a lot of hiking, and hiking is really hard. But it is also really rewarding.

What did you learn from your experience?

I learned how to hike. I also learned that boats and planes are fun.

Elizabeth and myself on the second flight of her life, which happened to be in a float plane

Although federally designated Wilderness Areas may have the highest protection of any public resource, Wilderness Areas are by no means void of threats that degrade their wilderness resource. The YCC crew worked to mitigate some of these threats, as we collected an abundance of beach trash and pulled thousands of invasive weeds. We also spent time reflecting on the best strategies and techniques to preserve wild places. As a group, the YCC decided that the best way to protect these places is to bring people to these areas, because spending time in the grandeur of wilderness allows the land to most eloquently speak for itself and inspire its preservation. Since the founding of the Sitka Conservation Society (SCS), SCS has also believed in this technique and remains committed to connecting people to Wilderness Areas throughout the Tongass. Working with the Youth Conservation Corps and the U.S. Forest Service during this time has been a pleasure, and we are thrilled to have four lively youth added to the network of millions of people working to protect our Wilderness Areas. 

Practiced wilderness steward Dana (left) shares the view of Mole Harbor with emerging wilderness stewards Breeze (middle) and Jaxon (right)

For more information about my time with the Youth Conservation Corps or about wilderness stewardship in the Tongass, please contact me at mike@sitkawild.org.

When visiting a wild landscape, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the expansive beauty of the place, overlooking what troubles may exist in the area. However, this does not mean these places are free of ecological or anthropological issues. On July 3, the four members of the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC), Chrissie Post (U.S. Forest Service Wilderness Ranger), Irene Owsley (volunteer and renowned photographer) and myself spent 6 days in Whitewater Bay focusing our energy on managing these wilderness issues that are easy to neglect.

The View of Table Mountain from our camp in Whitewater Bay

The biggest project of this trip was hand pulling an invasive plant: black bindweed (Fallopia convolvulus). Black bindweed is listed as a restricted noxious weed in Alaska and management of black bindweed in Whitewater Bay began in 2009. Despite these efforts, there was still an abundance of black bindweed found in the area, meaning there was no shortage of work to keep us busy. However monotonous pulling an invasive plant may be, it does offer excellent time for reflection, allowing the group to engage in meaningful discussions about conserving wilderness areas. During one of these discussions about how to protect these wild areas, YCC crewmember, Jaxon Collins, offered the insight that the goal of conservation and preservation organizations may be shortsighted. Jaxon said, “We shouldn’t be working to answer why we need to protect these areas, but instead, we should be working to stop these questions from being asked.” This was just one of the countless times, that the learning was being done by myself as well as the YCC crew. 

Breeze searching for black bindweed to pull

Besides picking a gargantuan amount of bindweed, we also spent time picking up beach trash. We found fishing nets, tsunami debris and a lot of plastic. One day we walked to Woody Point, the point where Chatham Strait gives way to Whitewater Bay and were besieged by the amount beach trash. Although we were in a Wilderness Area over 15 miles away from the closest inhabited community of Angoon, we were reminded once again that we were not removed from human disturbance.

Jaxon removing beach trash found near Woody Point

The elegance and wildness of wilderness areas can make it is easy to overlook the human influences that are present in these areas. The YCC group gained experience in noticing these intricacies first hand, as they dove into projects that included removing invasive plants, bagging up beach trash and inventorying illusive campsites. The goal of the this trip was not only to manage an invasive species and clean up a wilderness area, but it was also to show the challenges that are facing wilderness managers throughout the United States. By showing these challenges, combined with the stunning scenery of wilderness areas, we hope to educate more people about the issues facing wilderness and develop more defenders of wild areas. As Edward Abbey famously said, “the idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders.” I know that the opportunities provided to these teenagers have created four new defenders of wilderness and hopefully a group of citizens who will decipher how to “stop these questions from being asked.”

Jaxon, Elizabeth and Travis working to remove bindweed from the Kootznoowoo Wilderness

The Youth Conservation Corps finished their month residence in the Tongass and returned to their respective homes last week. It has been an amazing experience for all people and parties involved. Stay tuned for a final blog about the YCC!

On June 23, the four members of the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) and myself teamed up with the Angoon Community Association (ACA) Watershed crew and took a floatplane from Angoon to Lake Alexander in the Kootznoowoo wilderness area. Lake Alexander is a beautiful Lake across Admiralty Island on the Cross Island Canoe route. Lake Alexander has a U.S. Forest Service cabin on one side of the lake and a Forest Service shelter on the other side. Our group stayed at the cabin and met with three Forest Service Cabins and Trails employees as well as the ACA Watershed Crew staying across Lake Alexander in the mornings for our workdays.

Elizabeth stepping off the floatplane in Lake Alexander. Amazing to think that three weeks ago, she had never been on a plane.

When we arrived at the Lake Alexander cabin, Forest Service employee, Dana Kimbell, was waiting at the cabin to help us settle into our home for the next eight days. After setting up our tents and putting our food in the bear box, Dana instructed us how to clean the inside and outside of the cabin up to standard. Dana also guided the crew as we painted two sides of the cabin and stained the window frames and door to the cabin.

Jaxon painting a side of the Lake Alexander Cabin

When Dana left that evening to return to her camp on the other side of the lake, Zach Holder, a fellow Admiralty Island National Monument Cabins and Trails employee who was picking up Dana on the skiff, forewarned me, “Eat a big meal tonight and an even bigger meal tomorrow for breakfast. Trail work is a lot different than cabin work.” His hint was well received by the crew and myself, but that did not mean we were completely ready for the grueling work that lay ahead.

The view from our camp across Lake Alexander at Mount Distik

The following morning, we started our trail work activities. The section of trail we were working on was on the back half of the Lake Alexander shelter to Mole harbor 2-mile portage trail. To assist with the project, we hiked 1.3 miles to our work site with pack boards strapped down with puncheon boards and four-foot 4x6s, peeled trees for trail structures, assisted in building and digging these structures and collected moss to re-vegetate the area around the structures.

Breeze and Jaxon enjoying a lunch break away from the mud

This work had no shortage of carrying heavy packs or getting muddy. In fact, at one time, YCC crewmember Travis said, “Eight year-old Travis would love this job, getting paid to play in mud. Oh, who am I kidding, I love this job!” Although the rain, muck and tedious work made for long days, the crew enjoyed their time spent working on these projects.

Travis hammering in the puncheon boards for the boardwalk 

Upon completing our puncheon walkway across the wet muskeg trail and our staircase, we took our services to a different section along the Cross Island Canoe route. The next section of trail we focused on was the 1/3-mile portage between Beaver Lake and Lake Hasselborg. On our first day working on that trail, we also met with a group of Forest Service VIPs that included Leslie Weldon, the National Forest System's Deputy Chief. It was a great experience for the crew to be recognized for their hard work and to be encouraged to work to protect natural resources in their career and life paths.

Jaxon investigating a rough-skinned newt he found near the Beaver Lake Trailhead

The Admiralty Island Canoe Route has attracted adventurous canoeists since the mid 1930s when the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed portages to connect the lakes and bays and also built shelters. On the second to last day, we took our stab at a short 1/3-mile portage, although we were not participating in the traditional canoe portage. Instead, a team of 10 that included ACA watershed members, YCC members, and Forest Service employees grabbed onto a long rope harness and dragged a large skiff across the Beaver Lake to Lake Hasselborg trail. After successfully completing this portage, we took a slightly smaller skiff uphill from Lake Hasselborg to Beaver Lake. This trip inspired me to complete the Cross Admiralty Canoe Route, but any intention on bringing a 5-person skiff with me was quickly terminated. A pack raft seems like a better means to cross the island.

Breeze and Travis exploring the fashion opportunities granted by bear bones found on a side trip to Mole Harbor

On our final day, we broke down camp and cleaned up the cabin. As we sat together waiting for the floatplane pick-up, we discussed the highs and lows of the trip. Laughs were shared and hardships remembered. When taking off from Lake Alexander, we took one final look at our beautiful base camp for the past week and smiled a tired, triumphant smile.

The crew in front of the lake Alexander Cabin. (Front row from left to right: Dana Kimbell (U.S. Forest Service) and Breeze Anderson; Back row from left to right: Elizabeth Crawford, Mike Belitz (SCS), Travis Maranto and Jaxon Collins)

The Youth Conservation Corps has one final trip before leaving the Tongass and heading back to their respective homes. This final trip begins on Friday, June 3, when the crew boats to Whitewater Bay in the Kootznoowoo Wilderness. On this trip, the crew will inventory and pull invasive plants, clean up the shoreline of debris and assist U.S. Forest Service archeologists in searching for possible petroglyphs. I have no doubt that another extraordinary experience will come of this trip and a greater land ethic will be instilled in these future wilderness champions. 

For more information about the YCC, please feel free to e-mail Mike at mike@sitkawild.org

The island of Admiralty remains to this day a place preserved almost entirely as Wilderness. Home to the highest density of brown bears in North America, a population of a few hundred residents, and prolific stands of old-growth that never saw the saw, this country, by anyone’s definition, the federal government’s included, is Wild. But the briefest of glances at Admiralty’s history makes immediately evident that this future was never assured; the preserved state of this landscape never necessarily its inevitable fate. To quite the contrary, nature on Admiralty has known many threats, its trees for decades the particular envy of loggers throughout Southeast. But despite the long history of people seeking to degrade Admiralty, there exists an equally long history and tradition of people working to defend it. This past week, I had the privilege of meeting the four individuals adding yet another chapter to this story of wilderness stewardship on Admiralty Island.

The Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) project taking place on Admiralty is engaging four youth from around the country in community and conservation work. Sponsored by the Forest Service and supported by the Sitka Conservation Society, this corps has been tasked with initiatives that address the health of Admiralty’s Kootznoowoo wilderness, its community of Angoon, and, hopefully, each YCC’s commitment to conservation, by bringing them into contact and communion with the land. Such connection, SCS has always believed, lies at the essence of environmental ethic and action. Or in other words, the land itself is oftentimes its own most effective advocate, the best thing we can do being simply to bring people out to it. By employing youth to work with our public lands, the YCC program is thus very much aligned with the model of conservation advocacy that SCS has always practiced. And by helping the Forest Service host this corps branch, we have been able to foster these person-place connections with an incredibly important segment of society: the rising generation of potential environmental stewards. 

When I arrived in Angoon, the YCCs had just completed construction of a community greenhouse, and were soon to set off for three weeks in the Kootznoowoo Wilderness. There they would be participating in shelter and trail maintenance, non-native plant control, and general restoration and monitoring – projects to which the Forest Service had put the Civilian Conservation Corps over eighty years ago, as part of the New Deal.

Sitting at the doorstep of Kootznoowoo – having just witnessed a whale pass by, listening to the roaring of a sea lion, and sated by the salmonberries we had picked on our hike – I had the chance to talk to the YCCs about their thoughts on the Wilderness, this tradition of stewardship, and the Southeast Alaskan environment in which they were immersed.

Below is some of what each of them had to say:

How much did you know about Wilderness before this program?

Jaxon Collins: Not a lot.
Breeze Anderson: I didn’t know anything.
Elizabeth Crawford: Not really anything.
Travis Maranto: Not very much.

And what do you know and think now?

Jaxon: I know that there are people who have been trying hard their whole lives to keep wilderness intact, and I think other people should try and respect that.
Breeze: I think that to work with nature, in particular these Wilderness areas, is a necessity, and that it needs to be done before we ruin it.
Elizabeth: This landscape already feels as if its home to me.
Travis: I’ve always had a love and respect for nature, but I never truly understood Wilderness as being so free and untrammeled. Just being in this space you immediately sense something special about it.

Why are you excited about the wilderness stewardship work ahead?

Jaxon: It’s just amazing to be one of the first youth groups out here in a while doing this. Maybe it can inspire others who have an interest to take action too.
Breeze: This work gives me hope. Hope that these efforts to conserve can keep going, since they’ve already been going on for so long.
Elizabeth: I just feel very fortunate to have been picked to come here. You need trees to breathe and well, to really do everything. And now here I am standing in their beauty and I get to help protect them. That makes me excited.
Travis: I have such a deep respect and love for wild places, and I don’t think there’s enough of them. In the modern age, humans have been destroying them rapidly. When you think about the millions of years Earth has been here, we’ve only been here a very short period of time, and we’ve already done a great deal to screw it up. I’m here because I want to do a something to fix that, and convince others to do so too.

If there’s one thing you would say to people to convince people that these places are worthy of protection, what would it be?

Jaxon: When you’re out here, you get to forget about all of the worries of life and just be yourself. It’s incredibly freeing.
Breeze: There’s a saying I like which goes: “we think we own the land, when really the land has no owner.” Being out here, in this stunning landscape, I get reminded of that fact. I mean, this place has been here for ages, and to help it stay the way it is rather than destroying it, that’s a powerful thing to be a part of.
Elizabeth: We always say in my family that we only have one Earth. In society we’re always searching for the newer, cooler thing. But why ruin what we already have, what we’ve relied on for all our lives? We need to appreciate and protect our Earth, because it gives us so much we don’t even realize.
Travis: Nature gives so much to us – wood, salmon, sustenance, fresh air – and we’ve been taking these things from nature for thousands of years in a manner that didn’t also destroy it. But now in modern times we’ve just been trashing the ecosystem. And I can participate in that destruction, or I can jump in and help.

Hailing from as nearby as Tenakee Springs, Alaska or as faraway as Mobile, Alabama, these four YCC members represent a diversity of background and experience. But it was clear from our conversations that a commonality of spirit exists amongst them when it comes to caring for and conserving the land. Which comes as good news, because as Matthew Fred Sr., the Tlingit elder of Angoon, bluntly put it, when it comes to conservation, “there are no guarantees. You have to fight for what you want.” Just as we owe Kootznoowoo’s current state to our predecessors who fought to preserve it, generations to come will inherit the landscape that our actions in the present have left to them.

And although wilderness exists in the minds of many an inviolable place, the truth is that these landscapes are not immune to assault. Just this year, an airport has been proposed within the boundaries of Kootznoowoo, and as of a few days ago, Admiralty’s Green's Creek Mine expansion project broke ground, threatening to leach more contaminants into the nearby Wilderness environment as waste product. All of which just serves as a reminder that wilderness work is the responsibility of each successive generation, or at least each generation that continues to find some value, apart from the economic, in these areas. It is unfortunate, but a reality, that lands with many threats require many defenders. Whether you’re examining the specific story of Admiralty, the history of Alaska, or America’s past more broadly, one fact will remain true throughout: the tree one person alone could fell it has taken many people to defend.

On the surface, I admit, this seems a depressing reality. But I wonder if, in some ways, this is actually the condition from which conservation also derives its strength, as it makes conservation, in my mind at least, inherently an act of community – something that requires conversation with the past, cooperative action in the present, and a commitment to fostering stewardship in the caretakers of the future. What I saw during my visit to Angoon was the YCC program doing just that: educating youth about the history of our public lands; engaging them in present preservation efforts; and empowering them to be future conservationists. And thus, while the future of public lands should not be taken for granted, never assumed as assured, of one thing it seems we can be certain: if the YCC is any indication, there remain those out there willing and eager to take on the cause of continued stewardship and service. 

The YCC crew, from left to right: Travis, Jaxon, Breeze, and Elizabeth

Be sure to stay updated on the YCC throughout the remainder of the month by way of the SCS Facebook page. Have specific questions about the YCC? Feel free to email to their crew leader, SCS’s own Mike Belitz (mike@sitkawild.org). And for more on wilderness stewardship at SCS, keep checking our website, or call (907-747-7509) or email (edie@sitkawild.org) to get involved. We’d love to hear from you! 

On the morning of June 17^th at 5:30 AM I hopped into Scott’s truck. It was early but I wasn’t tired; neither were Luke A’Bear or Alana Chronister. We were all too excited anticipating our adventure into the Alaskan Wilderness. The journey began on Scott’s boat, traveling about three hours to get to our first site, Waterfall Cove. On the way I was already surprised by all the animals we had seen: bald eagles, sea otters, cormorants, and seagulls to name a few.

Once we got to Waterfall Cove we had only walked just past the shoreline when Luke spotted two distant brown dots and with the binoculars we confirmed it was indeed two grizzly bears. West Chichagof felt like a wildlife mecca and embodied everything people talk about when they talk about Alaska. We continued on to the creek where we located two stream temperature loggers and two air temperature loggers. The stream loggers are anchored to fallen logs and the air temperature loggers are nailed to trees by the bank. When Scott reviewed the data on the tablet, the graph formed a U shape representing higher temperatures during summer and lower temperatures during the winter.

After the data has been collected, the loggers are returned to their spots to collect data for another year.  Alana and I then took mixing transects of the stream meaning we took the temperature of the water in ten spots across the stream. This gives the team an idea of the variability of the stream temperature. All of this data is important because a baseline needs to be established for the temperature of rivers and creeks that support salmon life. As climate change warms the planet, and thus the temperatures of creeks where salmon runs are present, salmon populations will suffer if the creeks become too warm. Because of this data, scientists in ten, twenty, or fifty years in the future will be able to study salmon populations in correlation with climate change and stream temperature changes. For example, if in the future salmon populations are dwindling and stream temperatures are much higher than in the past, scientists will have a variable to study further.

Alana Chronister and I taking stream temperature transects.

The next site was Ford Arm, another beautiful stream and forest in this wilderness wonderland. At this site the temperature loggers had to be moved upstream to avoid tidal influences. Last year the loggers could not be moved farther upstream because it was late in the season and the bears were gorging on the plentiful salmon swimming through the creek.

The next day’s site was Black Bay, a site that must be kayaked to due to the steep bank. Scott and I paddled to the site to gather data while Luke and Alana explored the estuary and its resident bears. On Friday we visited a site called Goulding River and hiked to a close by waterfall afterward. Saturday was our last day and was spent first watching a pregnant doe swim across the channel then hobble to shore and visiting a place called the Potato Patch before going to the site. Despite its unglamorous name, the Potato Patch is one of the most stunning places I have been to.

Waterproofing air temperature loggers.

The bright sun warmed us all up as we eagerly shed warm layers and put on our sunglasses. We climbed off the boat onto a white sand beach surrounded by the nearby mountains. The beach led to a driftwood logjam and behind that a bluff covered in grasses and wildflowers. Is was so tempting to just forget about everything else and stay there forever. However, we had to go to visit one more site called Leo’s before heading back to Sitka. At this site, the stream ran just a short distance before ending in a large lake. We gathered data as usual but having just been to the beautiful Potato Patch and this being our last site, I was thinking about the importance of the work SCS is doing. Salmon is vital not only for many plants and animals living in Alaska but also for the people. Just in the town of Sitka alone, the salmon industry employs a significant amount of people. This means salmon population and health must be preserved to keep not only nature in balance, but in order to create a sustainable and lasting fishing industry that will allow the people of Sitka and Alaska to continue benefitting from the land for many years to come.

Special thanks to Knox College and Sitka Conservation Society for giving the amazing opportunity to be the Wild Salmon Conservation and Restoration Intern, I can’t wait to see what the rest of the summer holds!

The Potato Patch

The Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) arrived in Juneau on Friday, June 12! The corps will be working on Admiralty Island for four weeks this summer, helping with various community and conservation projects. The crew consists of four 15-16 year olds from across the United States. The Corps met up in Juneau where they were greeted by Kevin Hood, the Wilderness Program Manager for Admiralty Island National Monument, and myself. After a few safety sessions, shopping for food and getting the crew outfitted for work in the rainy (albeit, it has been unbelievably sunny since the crew arrived) Tongass National Forest, we said our good-byes to Kevin and loaded the ferry to Angoon, where the corps will be based out of for four weeks. 

The crew on the MV Leconte, riding from Juneau to Angoon 

The Sitka Conservation Society (SCS) was born when a group of citizens worked to designate a Wilderness Area north of Sitka to protect the area from logging. To excite people about Wilderness, the SCS founders understood that people needed to experience the landscape to form a connection to it and ultimately to be motivated to protect wild places. The Youth Conservation Corps works to continue connecting people to wild places by bringing youth to Wilderness Areas, exciting them about Wilderness and ultimately encouraging them to become advocates of conservation. We live in an age of environmental crisis, and in order to live more responsibly with the land, there must be a shift in the way we view natural areas. By bringing youth to an amazing Wilderness Area in Southeast Alaska, we are working not only to create stewards of the environment, but we are also working to form stewards of their communities and themselves.

Now, let’s meet the crew!

Name: Breeze Anderson   Hometown: Anchorage, Alaska

Why did you choose to work with the Youth Conservation Corps?

I thought it would be a good opportunity to see a different part of Alaska that I have never been to, and I thought it would be great to help with conservation projects.

 What are your first impressions of Southeast Alaska?

It is so different from what I was used too! It is so green and so pretty!

What are you looking forward to most during this time? 

Helping out with community and conservation projects. I am also excited about meeting all these new people and hearing their stories.

 Give three words to describe how you are feeling right now.

Amazed, Happy and Yarrow

Name: Jaxon Collins     Hometown: Tenakee Springs, Alaska

Why did you choose to work with the Youth Conservation Corps?

I like nature, and this gave me an opportunity to spend time in a really nice place in Southeast Alaska. I also really wanted to help preserve nature, especially in this area.

What are your first impressions of the Youth Conservation Corps?

It is extremely rewarding and doing a lot of good work to help out communities and natural areas. 

What are you looking forward to most during this time?

Getting to know my crew as we help to preserve nature and work with the native community of Angoon.

Give three words to describe how you are feeling right now.

Calm, Surprised and Awestruck

Name: Elizabeth Crawford    Hometown: Mobile, Alabama

Number of times on a plane before YCC: 0

Number of times on a boat before YCC: 0

Why did you choose to work with the Youth Conservation Corps?

 I’m really big on conservation work in general, and I have wanted to work on a conservation project for a while. My mom saw an email, and we thought this would be an awesome opportunity to help on some conservation projects.

What are your first impressions of Southeast Alaska?

It’s beautiful here, and this may seem weird but this place kind of seems like home to me, even though I arrived less than a week ago.

What are you looking forward to most during this time?

Working to help the community of Angoon out as much as possible while I am here. 

Give three words to describe how you are feeling right now.

Zen, Happy and Tired

Name: Travis Maranto   Hometown: Sealy, Texas

Why did you choose to work with the Youth Conservation Corps?

I chose to work with the YCC because I wanted to make a difference, help the community and help the untamed wilderness because it does so much for us, but we need to do our part to help it in return.

What are your first impressions of Southeast Alaska?

The overwhelming untamed beauty that is Admiralty Island amazes me. This will be one of the most amazing summers that I will ever have.

 What are you looking forward to most during this time?

Helping out the community and exploring Admiralty Island as a group.

Give three words to describe how you are feeling right now.

Content, Relaxed and Untrammeled

Currently, the group is working in Angoon helping the community with a few projects. The main project is constructing a community greenhouse. The group will also help work to protect the beautiful Kootznoowoo Wilderness on Admiralty Island, by helping with cabins and trail work around Lake Alexander and also by surveying and treating invasive plants in Whitewater Bay.

Jaxon and Breeze working on setting the greenhouse foundation

This will no doubt be an amazing summer for the YCC and myself, and stay tuned for more pictures and posts on the YCC group!

 Milt along the Sitka coastline.

The State Board of Fisheries (BoF) met this week to discuss fishery policies and regulations for Southeast and Yakutat finfish. Sound boring? It wasn’t! Herring policy debates were especially animated. This year, the conservation-minded proposals of the Sitka Tribe of Alaska butted up directly against commercial proposals submitted by the wryly named Southeast Herring Conservation Alliance. Every proposal had a counterproposal and every proposal had its champions. Faced with an array of options and with very little hard science to base decisions on, the Board of Fisheries opted to leave the sac-roe status quo intact, voting down every change put before them.

Was this a success story for industry? A success story for conservationists? A bitter pill to swallow for both sides? The continued decline of herring populations or their future recovery will answer that question. The clear success here is the Board of Fisheries process, which heavily emphasizes public participation and comment. Should we be genuinely excited about so much democracy in resource management? Absolutely!  

How does the BoF Process Work?

The Board of Fisheries consists of seven members appointed by the governor and approved by the legislature. The governor’s appointees are chosen for their knowledge of fisheries and interest in public affairs, but with eye toward representing all interest groups (broadly broken into commercial, sport, and traditional). The BoF is advised by ADF&G scientists, but is not typically made of up scientists itself.

The strength of the BoF is the degree to which the Board’s meetings draw on public opinion. Comments and testimony were heavily solicited before and during the meeting. The real public process, though, is the “Committee of the Whole”. This was an opportunity for everyone present at the BoF meeting to reach a spontaneous agreement. No time limits, no set order, just discussion between proponents and opponents of each proposal. Unfortunately, unlike a round-table discussion where participants are speaking directly to each other, the open-room format with the Board as an audience seemed to inspire participants to perform for the Board. As salmon troller Eric Jordan pointed out, this part of the BoF is an opportunity for groups to avoid an arbitrary and often unwanted decision by the Board, but if participants don’t have the “fear of the seven dark angels...they have no incentive to come to an agreement.” With herring, this was especially apparent. Traditional and industry supporters upped their rhetoric and moved further apart on every proposal, each fearing compromise far more than the unknown of the Board’s decisions. Does this reflect a broken Board process? I think not. The need for real public input far outweighs the disappointment of watching increasing polarization between groups and with less emotionally-charged fisheries, the Committee of the Whole was productive.

After public orations and discussions, the Board deliberates and decides. Now, the public is the passive audience, and the Board restricts their questions to ADF&G staff members. Happily, Board members frequently cited written and oral public comment as well as the open discussions.

Why do we want this to be democratic?

It’s a reasonable question. Why would we want the ultimate decisions about herring fisheries to be made not by scientists, but by, in a worst case scenario, people who are blatantly biased non-experts, thinly disguised industry reps, random members of the public, and arbitrarily chosen government appointees?

First, in many ways natural resources like herring are public goods. Proper management of herring doesn't just benefit sac-roe seiners or roe-on kelp fishermen, it benefits the entire community. Properly managed, herring provide direct economic benefits to the fishermen who harvest them, indirect economic benefits to salmon fishermen, food for the marine ecosystem, a reason for whales to return to Sitka Sound and bring their entourage of tourists, cultural benefits for traditional users… the list is endless. Given this diversity of user groups, would anything other than the messy, publically accessible process of the BoF give adequate representation to all parties?

More importantly, there is no such thing as pure “science-based” resource management. Bias is endemic to the process. Even by calling herring a “resource”, we have introduced a bias toward harvesting and economic exploitation. By contrast, nobody talks about krill as a resource even though they occupy a similar trophic level to herring. After we decide to prosecute a herring fishery, we look to science to tell us how many herring are returning, what levels of harvest are sustainable, and why the population is fluctuating. Science cannot tell us whether seiners or gill-netters should have more of an opportunity to fish. Science does not inform the discussion about whether the cultural benefits of traditional roe on branch harvesting can be replaced by increased access to roe on kelp. Science has no opinion on the number of herring whales should be allocated given concerns of fishermen, nor can science quantify the full inspiration and ecological benefits of having a healthy whale population in Sitka Sound. Science, in short, tells us how much pie we have to manage and how many groups want a piece of said pie, but it says nothing about who “deserves” the largest slice. Resource management lies at the intersection of scientific knowledge and the needs and wants of interested user groups. Who has the right to judge between two groups, each of whom are asking for a larger allocation of herring? Only a collective, democratic body. In Alaska, only the Board of Fisheries.

 Do you care about the future of the Tongass National Forest? Do you want to learn more about tiny houses? Or ocean acidification?

Join the staff and board of the Sitka Conservation Society for an evening filled with great food, conversation, and idea sharing. The We Love the Tongass Gathering will take place on Sunday, February 15 from 4-6 pm at Swan Lake Senior Center (402 Lake Street). Staff and board of the Sitka Conservation Society will discuss tiny homes, local wood, climate change, 4-H programming, and Tongass timber sales. Bring your ideas about how to promote sustainable communities in Southeast Alaska. Let your voice be heard!

This annual meeting is free and open to the public.  For more information call SCS at 747-7509 or sophie@sitkawild.org

Starrigavan Restoration Project- Restoring wildlife habitat on 5.2 acres of young-growth forests in the Starrigavan Watershed and implementing a long-term citizen-based monitoring project.

Sitkoh River Restoration- A multi-year salmon habitat restoration program on the Sitkoh River.