Trout Unlimited’s Alaska Team welcomed Kayla Roys to work on our Tongass National Forest and transboundary campaigns. Since you may be hearing from her, we asked Kayla to introduce herself. Join us in welcoming Kayla! Hey all! My name is Kayla Roys, and I joined the Trout Unlimited team in March of this year. I grew up in a rather fishy family and was lucky enough to spend most of my childhood outdoors experiencing all that the Tongass National Forest has to offer. From flying out to remote lakes, to summiting mountains in my backyard, I am a southeast girl through and through. Southeast Alaska is made up of beautiful landscapes that draw in new comers. From mountain streams to saltwater flats, the fishing that Southeast provides is dynamic, within 15 minutes from our front doors, and always better than a day spent at home. We will deal with the heavy rain of fall and the abuse of winter for the long days of summer spent enjoying the outdoors. Growing up in the Tongass, I found that people connect with one another in a different way than that of a big city; we connect outdoors. In the spring, we emerge from our winter hibernation, and flock together, connections forged by going on hiking, biking, camping and fishing trips. The shared passion of what we do for ourselves and connects us to one another and our environment more than our day jobs ever will. That being said, I learned at a young age how important the lush forests, wild salmon runs, and clean water are to the Southeast Alaska region and its communities. For me, the importance of a healthy forest is through recreation. I spend my summers connecting with my friends and family on the water. From chasing the illusive southeast Alaska unicorn steelhead in small creeks, to bombing casts in the estuaries to king and silver salmon with my dad. The best memories I have are of dodging between log jams, tromping through muskegs, listening to fly line peel off my reel, and the smell of a campfire on my clothing. For others, the importance of a healthy forest is for harvesting seafood for their families, commercial fishing, guiding tourists, or the many other jobs that depend on the Tongass remaining healthy and wild.
This love for salmon and the outdoors is what drives my work for America’s Salmon Forest. Some of the oldest trees and the largest salmon runs in North America come from the Tongass. It is unthinkable to me that massive open-pit mines are under development in the headwaters of Southeast Alaska’s most important salmon rivers. Or that the Tongass could be open to commercial logging, which could impact recreation, hunting, and fishing, and our entire economy. Now is the time to do everything we can to defend our salmon rivers and forests for sustainable jobs for our region, and future generations to enjoy, just the way I have. I am looking forward to working with you on behalf of the place we all love and many of us call home. Give me a call or send me an email any time with ideas for this work - or just to say hi. Sincerely, Kayla 907.957.6841 Kayla.Roys@TU.org Spring is coming early in Alaska this year. The sun is out (most days), the snow is quickly melting, and our nearby streams are starting to gain flow. Before long, the first salmon will arrive and the annual summer frenzy will be at full steam. For those hearty enough that know where to go, some streams already hold early season steelhead. It’s easy to become complacent and take for granted these seasonal and annual cycles, but doing so is a trap that we must always guard against. As declining salmon populations across too much of their historic range demonstrate, nothing is guaranteed. One of the more rewarding aspects of working for TU is getting to know and work with our dedicated network of members and business supporters. There is no more passionate or selfless group out there, which is one of the keys to our many successes over the years. Sure, at some basic level we all just love fishing. But, what sets TU members apart is that we also understand that our relationship with the land, waters and fish we hold so dear imparts an obligation that we give back and take care of the resource. In recognition of this obligation to give back, one of our long-time partners in Southeast Alaska, Custom Alaska Cruises, is donating 10 percent of its booking through May 1, 2019, to TU in support of our work in Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. If you’ve ever dreamed of plying the inside passage and its many fjords, glaciers, forests and streams, this is a unique opportunity to do so aboard one of Custom Alaska Cruises’ luxury vessels while ensuring a portion of the costs directly support some of the best remaining salmon and steelhead runs in the world.
The Tongass National Forest holds more than 5,000 individual salmon streams, hundreds of healthy wild steelhead runs, and abundant Dolly Varden and coastal cutthroat trout populations. Black and brown bear, Sitka black-tailed deer and bald eagles are among the more common species that call the vast tracts of wild lands within the Tongass home. For more information and to book your trip to the Tongass with Custom Alaska Cruises, you can contact Chelsea McCarthy by email at AlaskaCruises@gmail.com or by phone at (970)217-6359. For more information on our work in the Tongass check out http://www.americansalmonforest.org. Essay by Mark Kaelke This essay is part of an ongoing blog series on the Tongass National Forest, featuring the healthy & productive waters of the "Tongass 77." The Situk River just outside Yakutat will never suffer from a lack of notoriety. Being home to what is easily the largest steelhead run in Alaska at roughly 7,500 fish annually, is not an attribute that has been kept among friends, but the Situk is really just one of several amazingly productive rivers that are part of the Yakutat Forelands.
The Forelands, part of the Tongass National Forest, stretch about 50 miles from Yakutat Bay in the north to Dry Bay to the south. The streams of the Forelands originate as cascades flowing out of the mighty Fairweather Mountains, a coastal range home to southeast Alaska’s tallest peak, 15,300 foot Mount Fairweather, and moderate in flow downstream from lakes along the muskeg forests of the flatlands below. As the rivers make their way 10 to 15 miles to their saltwater terminus, the flatlands have the effect of making them one long “tailout” – a continuous band of almost perfect spawning gravel. Add to that a multitude of slow tributaries that make for ideal rearing habitat, and you have a recipe for massive productivity and incredible species diversity. One simply could not improve on the natural design of the fish factory that is the Yakutat forelands. An old friend from Rhode Island joins me to fish the Situk most springs. We float the river, camp, drink and fish. We do the trip earlier than most people and our off-peak timing sets up an annual flirtation with low flows and deep snow but there’s always at least a few steelhead around and the wildness of the place is omnipresent. With five species of salmon, rainbows, cutthroat and Dolly Varden all calling the Situk home, there’s a target species and time of year for a wide variety of users. The US Congress recognized some of the value of the area, designating a portion of the west slope of the Fairweather Range as Wilderness in 1980. However, the good folks back in Washington DC passed on adding the Forelands portion and thus the fish factory to the Wilderness mix. In 1990, the Tongass Timber Reform Act designated the southern Forelands as LUD II (a protective land designation) but the Situk and Ahrnklin watersheds were left out. Whether this was a good thing or not depends on who you ask and when you ask it. Many sport, commercial and subsistence fishermen who depend on the two areas for fish would say the omission of the Situk and Ahrnklin from Wilderness and LUD II designation leaves their livelihoods hanging but ask some of those same people that question after they just pulled their moose out of the field with the assistance of a four wheeler in one of those watersheds and they’ll likely sing a different tune. Roughly 60,000 acres of the Forelands were staked for potential mining operations as recently as 5 years ago. Although those claims have since been shown to be highly speculative and hugely expensive to investigate further, they were a wake-up call for locals and outside users alike on the impacts that could be thrust upon the Forelands. Trout Unlimited’s Tongass 77 proposal, which includes the Situk and Ahrnklin watersheds, seeks to answer that call with action to protect fisheries, conserve fish habitat and ensure customary and traditional uses and access. Having partaken of the bountiful steelheading on the Situk often over the last 25 years and seen firsthand how fish drive the economy of Yakutat and the region, I think this is a necessary and worthwhile objective. Increasing fish conservation measures and focusing management on fish production for all Tongass 77 watersheds can be done in ways that preserve fisheries while respectingand enabling local uses, but it will it take the support of many to achieve those goals. Given its popularity and productivity, the Situk has more stakeholders than any other stream in the Tongass National Forest. Banded together, this group can be a powerful force in doing right by the Situk. Essay by Jed McBeen Photos by Jed and Joanie McBeen This essay is part of an ongoing blog series on the Tongass National Forest, featuring the healthy & productive waters of the "Tongass 77." Nearly all of the streams in the upper portion of Tenakee Inlet from are in essentially pristine condition. There has been some relatively minor (by modern standards) logging in a couple of the drainage's but not enough to significantly degrade the pristine character of these riparian ecosystems. In contrast to systems that have been extensively logged, virtually all of these streams are remarkable in their ability to produce large numbers of pink, chum and coho Salmon, even in hot dry summers. Most of them also provide habitat for small numbers of wild steelhead and large numbers of Dolly Varden.
These areas also support health populations of brown bears, Sitka black-tailed deer and numerous species of smaller mammals as well as countless numbers of birds that are all dependent on a healthy intact ecosystem. These intact watersheds maintain higher flows and cooler temperatures than similar systems that have been heavily logged, especially in a warmer-than-normal summer. It is these two characteristics that allow these streams to produce large numbers of fish even when heavily logged systems are experiencing severe die-offs. This is why it is imperative to protect these pristine watersheds so that they may continue to be as productive as they now are. A few years ago while I was guiding some clients for salmon on one of our local steams, we encountered 3 or 4 year-old brown bear fishing for salmon. Ordinarily, when we encountered a bear like this, we would simply wait for a bit while the bear caught a fish and then wandered off a ways to eat it so we could continue up the stream. However this bear would pounce on a fish, hold it for a few seconds and then let it go. He did this over and over for several minutes and I finally exclaimed, “Well I’ll be dammed, he is doing catch and release, just like us.” I finally shooed him away and we continued fishing up the stream. I think it goes without saying that fishing in an unspoiled area such as this is truly something special. I know that when I am fishing in many places in the “lower 48” I can’t help but wonder how fantastic it must have been before the dams and the roads and the logging. I consider myself lucky to live in this relatively unspoiled place and that is why I am so passionate about protecting what little is left. For more than three decades, local conservation organizations and several individuals in Tenakee have waged many legal and administrative battles with the Forest Service in an effort to keep these areas from being degraded by large-scale logging operations. Trout Unlimited has entered the arena with the Tongass 77 proposal which includes much of Tenakee Inlet. We hope this effort will result in the conservation of these areas for their outstanding fish and wildlife values as well as for the benefit and enjoyment of generations to come. Essay by Mark Hieronymus This essay is part of an ongoing blog series on the Tongass National Forest, featuring the healthy & productive waters of the "Tongass 77." The Sitka area is home to fourteen T77 watersheds: Nakwasina River, Redoubt Lake, Rodman Bay, Salmon Lake, Saook Bay, Sea Lion Cove, Ushk Bay, Mount Edgecumbe, Lake Eva, Krestof Sound, South Arm Kelp Bay, Fish Bay, Appleton Cove, and Deep Bay.
From the volcanic formations that abound in the watersheds of Kruzof Island to the small lake and creek systems of the north Baranof foothills, the T77 streams of the Sitka area are as diverse a group as one can possibly imagine. I lived in Sitka for 4 years in the late 90’s while attending college and frittered away many a classroom hour daydreaming about the fish in these watersheds. When the weekends rolled around, my friends and I would be on our way to make more daydream fodder in these watersheds armed with fishing rods, cameras, and occasionally deer rifles. The Sitka area T77 watersheds are all gems, but even among the gems there are some that stand out for their incredible fish value. The sockeye returns to the Sitka area T77 streams include one of the largest naturally occurring island system runs on islands not named Kodiak, and more than a few of the coho runs are significant contributors to both sport and commercial fishing tallies. Add to that nearly a million pink salmon coming back to the Sitka area T77 streams and you have a veritable salmon cornucopia. Steelhead, char, and cutthroat trout are also found in many of the Sitka area T77 watersheds, and in some cases they are the stars of the show. One of the Sitka area T77 streams has one of the largest overwintering char populations in Southeast Alaska, and another was the location of the old Alaska state record Dolly Varden catch. Finals week is pretty difficult for most every college student but for a fella like me with steelhead on the brain, the late April arrival of these fish was a true test of my academic resolve. I managed to graduate on time and carry a respectable GPA, but I spent most of my waking, non-scholastic hours going to, coming from, or angling and hunting in the area T77 watersheds. I haven’t had the opportunity to recreate in the Sitka area T77 watersheds since I moved to Juneau in 2001, but I still have the memories from moments stolen between labs and classes. Every year, a few friends from Sitka send me pictures of big fish from these watersheds, or big deer harvested from the surrounding uplands. I admit that sometimes I get a little jealous, but instead of feeling like they are rubbing it in, I am happy that they get to enjoy these areas in the same fashion as I did years ago. The conservation measures of the T77 would ensure that these watersheds will go on making fish, wildlife, and memories for generations to come. |
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