With Trees Gone, Alaska Villagers Hang Hopes On Summer Tourism

[hatrack]

HOONAH, Alaska -- "Used to witnessing tidewater glaciers, and watching humpback whales cavort in Icy Strait, cruise ship passengers get a different Alaska vista when docking outside this Tlingit village of 800 people west of Juneau. A vast clearcut, rising almost from the shoreline, covers the mountainside across the bay. Miles of cutover lands can be seen looking up neighboring valleys of Chichagof Island.

"We had a petition with 188 signatures against logging over there," said Floyd Peterson, a fishing guide and Tlingit who has lived in Hoonah for 61 years, gazing out his living room window at the clearcut. "They just ignored the petition," he added. "They never acknowledged it. The next year they wiped out the forest. ... They're through now. They're outta here. There's nothing left."

The old-growth forests were cut down by native-owned corporations of which Hoonah residents are shareholders. One is Huna Totem, the local village corporation, the other the Sealaska Corp., the regional corporation for southeast Alaska. Over the past two decades, the corporations -- created under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act -- have razed an estimated 248,000 acres of old growth, most of it in southeast Alaska. "They cut the most beautiful lumber you ever saw. They could have had a local industry forever," said John Erickson of Tok River Outfitters, a renowned bear hunting guide. With the village's forests stripped, Huna Totem has turned to one Alaskan industry that is fueled by the state's natural beauty -- and which doesn't strip away a resource and then leave. The native corporation is playing host to Celebrity and Royal Caribbean cruise ships making port calls at a converted cannery north of town. Passengers get an option of 10 shore excursions.

EDIT

It's perhaps best for visitors' enjoyment that Peterson stays on the water. When he drives inland, the waste and long-term consequences of Hoonah's years of clearcutting make even the casual visitor very sad and very mad. Huge piles of wood have been left on the ground to rot. Only the tiniest strips of forest have been left along salmon streams. Erosion from logging roads leaves cat-scratch scars down mountainsides. "All this timber was exported in the round for Asia. It didn't sustain jobs here," said Peterson."

EDIT

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/179454_joel25.html

[jay-3d]

1. we need to realize

This hurts the economy's it this area more than it helps.

[sdfernando]

2. Truly sad

I lived in Alaska from 1970 to 1973. My Dad was stationed at Fort Richardson, just outside of Anchorage. It was the most beautiful country you could ever want to look at. Me and my friends used to go to into the woods, just past the last row of houses and play. There was a stream there that was all mountain runoff. It was always ice cold, even during the summer. We would drink out of the stream when we got thirsty, man, that water was so sweet and refeshing. Every once in a while you could catch some fish there or see a moose or caribou hanging around.

I get angry when I hear of things like this. Alaska truly has our last great wilderness areas. I say, take those tourist to these areas that were stripped. They need to see what this does to the environment.

I feel bad for those villagers and so very sad. They will never see their land restored to the way it was, not in their lifetime, maybe not ever.

[cprise]

3. Almost anything that is corporate-ized turns to shit

Doesn't matter who runs it, the corporate imperatives kick in sooner or later to shortchange our future in the name of short-term profit.