THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees
by Robert Glenn Ketchum
In 1985, I began a 2-year commission to explore the Tongass rainforest, the largest forest in the United States Forest Service (USFS) system AND the largest temperate rainforest in the world. It was a unique, old-growth environment under siege from industrial logging. The resulting investigative book I published helped to pass the Tongass Timber Reform Bill, protect 1,000,000 acres of old-growth, and create 11 new wilderness areas. This is the story of how that was achieved.
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #116:
THE TONGASS, #116:
Philip Slagter and I, regroup in
Ketchikan after our cabin camp at Walker Lake, and prepare for our first kayak camping trip. We plan to go into
Rudyerd Bay, one of the many fjords in
Misty Fjords National Monument. We have a boat operator that will drop us, and pick us up, and we have even found someone to loan us a rifle, so that we finally have some bear protection. It has been an unusually warm and sunny summer, as we experienced at Walker Lake, but today, as we head for Rudyerd Bay, Misty Fjords and the
Tongass RAINFOREST are doing what they do best,..raining. Really raining! Philip and I wish it were otherwise, but we do have to get used to it, so we are off for another adventure to add to our learning curve. It is not especially windy, but it is raining hard, and does so for most of our boat trip. It seems to abate as we motor into the Behm Canal, and when we turn into Rudyerd Bay, it stops for a brief while. We are hopeful, and about halfway into the fjord bay, we have our boat pilot drop us. This is a drill I will repeat many times over the ensuing years, but the thrill of it never seems to change - the loaded kayaks go over the side, you squeeze down into the them through all of the gear packed around you, everybody confirms time and place of pick up, the mothercraft departs,..and you and your crew are sitting in a deepwater fjord wilderness, encapsulated in a skinny, funny looking boat with one big, weird paddle, and looking for a place to call home. It has not yet occurred to us that a fjord might not offer a lot of campsites,..especially one that has an 18ft. tidal swing twice-a-day. Oh well, there certainly is no going back now!
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2018, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd
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