Even AK—contemporary bastion of wild salmon in big numbers—is not immune to the ills of habitual habitat degradation. The Tongass National Forest, for instance, is a prime example of salmon bearing waters in need of a little extra lovin’. They’re now set to get just that thanks to a $1 million partnership between The USDA Forest Service Alaska Region, The Nature Conservancy, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation aimed to spiff up wild salmon habitat by restoring four Tongass National Forest watersheds in 2013.
“This partnership will accelerate restoration of priority salmon-bearing streams in Southeast Alaska including: Twelvemile Creek, Staney Creek, Luck Lake/Eagle Creek on Prince of Wales Island; and Saginaw Creek on Kuiu Island. It will also provide cooperative opportunities for a wide variety of partners and will provide jobs to support rural community economies.”
The Tongass is America’s largest national forest and produces more wild salmon than all other NFs combined. It houses more than 17,000 miles of salmon streams, producing enough salmon to fuel the economic engines of Southeast Alaska.
Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.