This is one of my favorite places in the world:

Pho­to by Joel Brady-Power

This pho­to was tak­en in Sit­ka, but could be almost any­where in South­east Alas­ka. The Ton­gass Nation­al For­est blan­kets most of our region, a crazy quilt of west­ern red cedar, Sit­ka spruce, and west­ern hem­lock that cov­ers almost 17 mil­lion acres. Not only is the Ton­gass the largest nation­al for­est in the US, it’s also the largest tem­per­ate rain­for­est remain­ing in the world. About 70,000 peo­ple call the Ton­gass home — as do 30,000 bears. This rare ecosys­tem also sup­ports deer, wolves, over 300 species of birds, and all 5 species of salmon: chi­nook, coho, sock­eye, chum, and pink.

When we talk about pro­tect­ing wild salmon, our nation­al dia­logue is heavy on fish­eries man­age­ment and healthy oceans.  Essen­tial ele­ments, but incom­plete. These ocean swim­mers begin and end their lives in fresh­wa­ter, includ­ing  17,690 miles of streams, lakes and ponds in the Ton­gass. If we pro­mote sus­tain­able fish­eries with­out plac­ing equal val­ue on salmon habi­tat, both are at risk.

One of my fel­low fish­er­men, Karl Jor­dan, pub­lished an edi­to­r­i­al in the Juneau Empire yes­ter­day: “For­est Ser­vice Bud­get Just Does­n’t Add Up.” (Avail­able here.) Karl exam­ined the annu­al fund­ing for habi­tat conservation/restoration ($1.5 mil­lion) and logging/road devel­op­ment ($25 mil­lion). Quite a dis­crep­an­cy — espe­cial­ly when you note that tim­ber-relat­ed jobs num­ber less than 200, com­pared to over 7000 fish­eries-relat­ed jobs.

A fourth-gen­er­a­tion fish­er­man, Kar­l’s pro­filed here in Amy Gulick­’s trib­ute to the Ton­gass,  Salmon in the Trees. He’s a pow­er­ful advo­cate for salmon, speak­ing from a place of deep love for South­east Alas­ka, the Ton­gass, and com­mer­cial fishing.

We heart salmon. (Pho­to by Jon Corbett)

That’s the place that I speak from, too. Life as a har­vester is, for me, inher­ent­ly bound to life as a con­ser­va­tion­ist. I believe it’s my respon­si­bil­i­ty to pro­tect what I love. And between the pho­to at the top of this post, the many joys of our life at sea, and the hon­or of hand-deliv­er­ing these gor­geous fish to our cus­tomers, I can’t even begin to count all of the ways I love salmon and trees.

If you speak from this place, too, please join me in quick, easy activism for salmon. If you sup­port increased fund­ing for salmon pro­grams and habi­tat restora­tion in the Ton­gass, please email For­est Ser­vice Chief Tom Tid­well (ttidwell@fs.fed.us) with your mes­sage. It does­n’t have to be long, but it does have to be received by Decem­ber 16^th to weigh in on 2012’s bud­get planning.

Not sure what to say? Kar­l’s edi­to­r­i­al, here, is a great resource. Tomor­row, I’ll share a copy of my let­ter to Under­sec­re­tary Har­ris Sher­man, which you’re also wel­come to use as a resource. Whether your liveli­hood depends on the well-being of the Ton­gass, or your life is rich­er know­ing that wild places like this still exist in our world, thank you for join­ing me in this effort.

Pho­to by Joel Brady-Power