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DiscoverySoutheast.org
JuneauNature
Richard Carstensen's natural and cultural history site at Discovery Southeast
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- NATURE
- CrittersSoutheast fish & wildlife Southeast Alaskans are blessed with 2 websites hosted by dedicated naturalists Bob Armstrong (Juneau) and Matt Goff (Sitka) that are structured mostly taxonomically. Collectively this pair of sites–in rather different ways–covers such an extraordinary sweep of kingdoms, phyla, orders, families and species that it would be silly forjuneaunature to emulate these masters. You may notice that I [Richard Carstensen] don’t even have a page in this Nature section for Plants. Bob and Matt have done that already. Bob’s site naturebob presents his greatest hits, all free, collected over more than a half-century of still photography and (recently) videography. But it’s not just an image&movie repository. The Videos section of naturebob is annotated with observations on behavior that would escape those of us less attuned to trophics, life-cycles, display, or anatomy, and it links to a wealth of other sources. Matt’s site sitkanature is modestly subtitled ‘An aspiring naturalist learns his place.’ But don’t let that ‘aspiring’ fool you. This guy long ago earned his naturalist’s merit badge, as our mutual friend Scott Harris puts it. Matt’s also host of the Sitka Nature Show–radio interviews with interesting Alaskans, archived on his website, 90 of em, as of…
- MammalsBob Armstrong’s nursing-fawn photo on right sums up the defining talent of mammals: warm-blooded, hairy milk-producers. (Well, I guess we guys can only lay claim to the first 2 attributes.) Mammals is divided into Carnivores, Hooved and Rodents. Explore those sub-categories or find general information below. You can also view the entire JuneauNature hierarchy at this site map: SITEMAP HERE. Not counting marine mammals, we have 57 known species in Southeast Alaska. No attempt is made in Juneaunature to describe or even list them all. A comprehensive introduction is in the Mammals section of The Nature of Southeast Alaska (Carstensen, Armstrong & O’Clair), and a more exhaustive treatment with range maps is in MacDonald & Cook’s Mammals and Amphibians of Southeast Alaska.
- BirdsBirds is divided into Songbirds, Other landbirds, and Water birds. Explore those sub-categories or find general information below. You can also view the entire JuneauNature hierarchy at this site map: SITEMAP HERE. Here, we’re treating basically the species who are so important to Southeast ecology, trophics, and culture that we’d feel negligent not bestowing a page or two. There’s little I could contribute in the world of Southeast avifauna that my buddy Bob Armstrong hasn’t done better. For birds, and for that matter almost all things taxonomic (amphibians, birds, fish, plants, fungi, insects, other inverts, lichens, fungi, mammals), go to Bob’s fantastic website. An older take on relationships among the class Aves, based upon Welty & Babtista’s Life of Birds (1988). Every year, genetic findings force revisions to this tree. Those interested in finer details of avian taxonomy should consult more recent charts. For example, loons and grebes are no longer so closely branched. And waterfowl aren’t considered so close to herons.
- AmphibiansThe pond breeders Six species of amphibian are considered native to Southeast Alaska. Three anurans (the order of frogs and toads) are western toad, wood frog, and Columbia spotted frog. Three known caudates (the order of newts and salamanders) include rough-skinned newt, long-toed salamander, and northwestern salamander. In addition to these native species, two frogs from the Pacific Northwest have been introduced: Pacific chorus frog and red-legged frog. Reproductive stages of Southeast amphibians. Shown to scale; note shrinkage with metamorphosis. Dates are from Juneau observations: a) toad eggs in strings of jelly; b) wood frog eggs in softball-sized mass; c) newt egg deposited singly–coiled embryo soon to hatch; d) toad larva is dark charcoal–dorsal fin starts farther back than on larval frogs; e) frog larva more olive brown–dorsal fin attaches well forward of tail; f) newt larva has antler-like gills; g) toadlet has fat, warty body, and small hind legs; h) froglet has smoother skin and legs are more muscular than on toadlets; i) unlike anurans, newt metamorphs are proportioned like adults.
- FishFish is divided here into marine and anadromous sub-categories. (Purely freshwater fish—who never visit saltwater—are limited to a few sculpins and sticklebacks.) Explore those sub-categories or find general information below. You can also view the entire JuneauNature hierarchy at this site map: SITEMAP HERE. Biologists have only begun to map the distributions of freshwater mussels in Alaskan lakes. These mollusks have a bizarre life history. Their tiny, toothed larvae attach to gills of sticklebacks, sculpins or salmonids and are sometimes carried to new lakes before the spat release and drop to the bottom. Formerly abundant on loose flocculent covering the shallow margins of Auke Lake, mussels are now hard to find. Mussels are sensitive indicators of water quality.[/caption]
- InvertebratesPacific blue mussels (Mytilus trossulus) seal shut when exposed to air, but open to filter-feed when the tide comes back in.
- Ecology 101
- Landscape ecologyThinking like a mountain; biogeography Cartographers are generally big-picture thinkers. Especially since the advent of GIS (Geographic Information Systems), which interfaces between maps and databases, we can ask increasingly sophisticated questions of our maps. In 2001, I created the following cartoon of a bear’s landscape movements in collaboration with Kim Titus of the Department of Fish & Game, based upon his studies of telemetered bears. Since that time, wildlife studies have become ever more sophisticated, following, for example, the hourly movements of collared deer through intimately mapped terrain. The brown bear’s year 1) Emergence Late-March through May. Most dens are in the high country. 2) Spring Bears descend in search of sedges, skunk cabbage, and deer carcasses. Key habitats include south-facing avalanche slopes, fens, and especially tidal marshes. 3) Early summer Breeding season. Until midsummer, bears are dispersed from sea level to alpine ridges. Tidal sedge flats, subalpine meadows, upland forests, and avalanche slopes are the principal foraging habitats. 4) Salmon By mid-July, most bears move into riparian forests and tidal estuaries for pink and chum salmon. Small, shallow reaches areeasiest to fish, claimed by dominant individuals. Some sows with cubs never use the streams. 5) Berries Beginning in mid-September,…
- ProductivityIn terms of annual tonnage, timber and salmon far outweigh all other Southeast commodities. We define productive watersheds, as those thatǃÏrelative to their biogeographic provinceǃÏrapidly grow very large trees and associated fauna, and/or host exceptional runs of salmon. This kind of productivity often appears to spring from the nature of underlying bedrock, with carbonate rocks at the rich end, and granitics toward the lean end of the spectrum. But, as ecologist Mary Willson points out, it’s important to be clear that timber or fish productivity ‘doesn’t translate directly into productivity of anything else, because habitat structure and exposure and plant defensive compounds and a zillion other things may regulate other community components.’ For example, shrub production is often inversely proportional to forest canopy production. So it could be there’s higher production of some shrub-nesting birds and blueberry parasites in the types of scrubby-forest watersheds we’ve defined [in the 2005 summary report] as ‘less productive.’ Diversity within many taxa (e.g. bryophytes) is also probably higher in our ‘less productive’ watersheds. Even more relevant (and confounding) for this essay; some conditions that are productive of certain fish species need not be productive of forests. Anan Creek watershed has extraordinary pink salmon productivity…
- Resilience & fragilityDevotion to the future ‘ ‘Sustainable growth’ is a self-contradictory terms—an oxymoron. Continued, indefinite growth on this planet or any subset of the planet is a physical impossibility. Eventually, limits of some type (space, food, waste disposal, energy) must be reached; the point at which that will happen is the only aspect open to debate. . . . [Humans must] live on the income from nature’s capital rather than on the capital itself.’ G. Meffe and R. Carroll, Principles of Conservation Biology. Young, post disturbance forests (checked here) are more suitable for human use than the ancient cedar types, lower right, that dominate today’s timber program. In 2005, Bob Christensen, Kenyon Fields and I started the Ground-truthing Project—what we called the ‘eyes and ears in the woods for the Southeast conservation community.’ Central to that project was learning what parts of our environment are most and least susceptible to human use. My engagement in the Ground-truthing Project lasted through 2009. For Bob, however, that was just the beginning. For a taste of what he’s been up to lately, visit his website for the Sustainable Southeast Partnership, promoting resource stewardship, energy independence, food sustainability, economic self-reliance, and storytelling in Hoonah, Hydaburg,…
- Life spanOverlooked elders. Compared to many large, hollow-centered yellow cedars farther south on the Tongass, Juneau’s cedars are relative youngsters. The extracted increment core suggested this 16-incher on south Douglas Island probably didn’t colonize until the late 1600s. Just a teenager in yellow-cedar years! The older I get, the more I think about the importance of species age in ecology. In the 3rd edition of The Nature of Southeast Alaska, I added a sidebar called Harvesting longevity, about often-overlooked antiquities. Here’s the first and last paragraph from that cross-taxon tour through mollusks, groundfish, trees, and deer: ‘Whether studying clams, fish, deer or trees, northern researchers and naturalists frequently learn that life-span data from southern climes are inapplicable here. Underestimating longevity has serious consequences, especially for wild flora and fauna treated as commercial, sport, or subsistence species. . . . . . ‘Harvest’–a term borrowed from agriculture–is of dubious merit when applied to seas or forests where cycles of birth-to-death are less visible, less understood, and less amenable to control. The consequence of overharvest is quickly obvious to a farmer, who sinks or swims financially on personally owned land. But when ‘harvesting’ wild ‘resources’ from public lands and waters, it’s harder to…
- SuccessionSuccession describes a habitat’s growth from emergence to great age. Primary succession happens after catastrophic disturbance—glaciation, volcanic-island-creation, etc.—essentially removes all living material. Here’s a series for post-glacial succession in Áak’w Táak, inland from little lake, (Mendenhall Valley), inferred from a chronosequence on mesic surfaces. Succession on poorly- or excessively-drained surfaces is quitedifferent: A Postglacial barrens with lichens, moss & dwarf fireweed. ● B Alder/willow thicket with small spruce saplings. ● C1 Thickets still productive but overtopped by cottonwood & spruce. ● C2 Cottonwood & spruce close canopy over senescing thickets. ● D Spruces overtop senescing cottonwoods. Small shade-tolerant hemlocks in subcanopy. Depauperate, mossy understory. Only after ~200 years does blueberry fill in. ● E After many centuries without stand-replacing disturbance, hemlock-dominated old growth develops, distinguished from D by gappy canopy, rich, patchwork of shrub & subcanopy layers, plentiful deer forbs & abundant standing & down dead wood. Check out the Succession illustration below for comparison of secondary succession after logging and streamside flooding.
- TrophicsWho eats who? Southeast food pyramids When you catch a fish, do you open its stomach to learn about its last few meals? If you hunt grouse or mallards, do you examine crops? Before enjoying the first tenderloin from guwakaan, the peace keeper (Sitka black-tailed deer), do you search for plant fragments on the back of its tongue, or open the rumen–that magic sack that converts the mostly-humanly-inedible flora of our bioregion into the tastiest meat on the planet? One of the oldest books in my natural history library is American wildlife & plants: A guide to wildlife food habits. Martin, Zim & Nelson, 1951. The reason it remains relevant 65 years later, while other ecological works of the period have been supplanted, is that nowadays people look askance at shooting a couple hundred herons just to see what’s in their stomachs. (43% non-game fish, 25% ‘useful species,’ 8% each of insects & crayfish, 5% mice & shrews, 4% herps) The trophic diagram below shows why salt marshes–constituting less than 1% of our land mass–are so essential to resident and migratory species from land and sea. Dashed arrow lines lead from eaten to eater:
- Habitats
- TerrestrialTerrestrial habitats has 3 subcategories: Forests, Wetlands, and High country. Explore those sub-categories or find general information on Terrestrial Habitats below. You can also view the entire JuneauNature hierarchy at this site map. Here’s how we introduced the Habitats section of Nature of SE AK, 3rd edition. “Amount and distribution of water is the logical way to differentiate Southeast’s many [terrestrial] habitats. These range from ocean, lakes, ponds, and rivers, to frequently submerged salt marshes and stream flood zones, to perennially saturated bogs and other freshwater wetlands, to the usually drenched rain forest and alpine tundra. After a rare two-week drought, it’s sometimes possible to sit in the forest understory without soaking our pants. Then rain resumes. Terrestrial landscape. A cartoon I first created for Friends of Admiralty to show habitats used by a brown bear over the course of a year. Some habitats are defined by solidified water—glaciers and high-country snowfields. The term “terrestrial” as applied to certain Southeast Alaskan habitats is somewhat generous; it actually means “occasionally free of water.” Carstensen, Armstrong & O’Clair (2014) The primary control on terrestrial habitat is drainage or substrate permeability. In rainy Southeast, where waterlogged soils prevail, soil drainage is a key…
- AquaticStreams, rivers, ponds, lakes This section is divided into Stillwater and Moving water subsections. The latter have been much better studied in our region, due largely to their importance to salmon. Explore those sub-categories or find general information below. You can also view the entire JuneauNature hierarchy at this site map: SITEMAP HERE. Freshwater aquatic diversity in Antler River basin, north of Juneau.
- CoastalThe land-sea interface Coastal habitats is divided into Estuaries and Intertidal. Explore those sub-categories or find general information below. You can also view the entire JuneauNature hierarchy at this site map.. Alaska Shorezone Project aerial oblique. Dick’s Arm, outer coast of Glacier Bay National Park, 20050721. The coastline of Southeast Alaska is not only among the world’s most spectacular and intact; it’s now among the most thoroughly documented. As of 2010, almost every linear foot of shoreline in Southeast has been captured in lovely oblique still imagery, like the shot above, and in video. The Alaska Shorezone Project flew the entire mainland and archipelago at low elevation, always during low tides. A flight index map on their website guides you to your desired imagery.
- Geology
- Bedrock geologyBedrock geology is a vast subject. Of greatest interest to naturalists are ways in which underlying rock types, alignments, fracture patterns, and variable resistance to erosion explain the shape of the land and the distribution of natural communities. Here are some of the common bedrock types of Southeast Alaska.
- Surficial geology‘Flesh’ atop of the ‘bones’ of bedrock geology The Surficial geology section is divided into Alluvial landforms & processes, Glacial history & landforms, Glacial rebound & coastal landforms, and Mass wasting. Explore those sub-categories or find general information below. You can also view the entire JuneauNature hierarchy at this site map. Surficial geology is the study of loose, unconsolidated material overlying the bedrock foundation. These layers were deposited, rearranged and eroded by glaciers, fluctuating sea level, streams, landslides, and bulldozers. While bedrock geologists tend to think in time-frames of millions of years, the surficial story is usually faster paced, taking place over millennia and mere centuries. Surficial versus bedrock geology While bedrock geologists tend to think in time-frames of millions of years, the surficial story is usually faster paced, taking place over millennia and mere centuries. On the surficial geology map, [LINK] I’ve divided landforms into 5 age groups (geol_age field): triassic: applied only to a couple bare-bedrock roches moutonees near Mendenhall Glacier early holocene: marine, glacial and alluvial formations dating back to shortly after the great ice age, ~10,000 years ago neoglacial: dating to just the last few millennia little ice age: mostly formed since peak of the last…
- CrittersSoutheast fish & wildlife Southeast Alaskans are blessed with 2 websites hosted by dedicated naturalists Bob Armstrong (Juneau) and Matt Goff (Sitka) that are structured mostly taxonomically. Collectively this pair of sites–in rather different ways–covers such an extraordinary sweep of kingdoms, phyla, orders, families and species that it would be silly forjuneaunature to emulate these masters. You may notice that I [Richard Carstensen] don’t even have a page in this Nature section for Plants. Bob and Matt have done that already. Bob’s site naturebob presents his greatest hits, all free, collected over more than a half-century of still photography and (recently) videography. But it’s not just an image&movie repository. The Videos section of naturebob is annotated with observations on behavior that would escape those of us less attuned to trophics, life-cycles, display, or anatomy, and it links to a wealth of other sources. Matt’s site sitkanature is modestly subtitled ‘An aspiring naturalist learns his place.’ But don’t let that ‘aspiring’ fool you. This guy long ago earned his naturalist’s merit badge, as our mutual friend Scott Harris puts it. Matt’s also host of the Sitka Nature Show–radio interviews with interesting Alaskans, archived on his website, 90 of em, as of…
- CULTURE
- Enter the Europeans
- Tlingit geography and historyFrom Richard Carstensen: Culture embedded in nature For the past 30 years, I’ve grown steadily more fascinated by Tlingit and Haida geography; the history and migrations of kw_∞ans, clans, and houses, and the ways in which natural and cultural history intersect. From February to May, 2013, I participated in a course for high school students by Goldbelt Heritage Foundation, entitled Why do we live here? Our essential question; What factors went into the selection of village sites for _≈ak’w and T’aak__ ancestors? One of the most powerful educational experiences of my career, it deepened my interest in the locations of ancient settlements. I now feel that these are the most important places in Southeast Alaska for all of us to know and understand. In coming years I hope to substantially expand this section of juneaunature on Tlingit geography and history. Even from my limited perspective as a Southeast naturalist, the subject has so many fruitful avenues of investigation.
- Naming places
- Why do we live here?
- Restoration
- PLACES
- Áak’w-T’aakú watersheds (Juneau area)
- 1 Daxanáak (Berners)Daxanáak, between, between 2 points (Berners Bay) When I came to Juneau in the late 1970s, Berners Bay became, as for other outdoorsy-but-low-budget 20-somethings, my “affordable wilderness.” I’d launch my decked canoe at Echo Cove and spend up to a month at a time exploring the forests and tidelands of Daxanáak,. I didn’t yet know its real name, so called it by the maiden name of George Vancouver’s mother–not knowing or caring how that label came to lie upon a feature George himself never saw (Bridget Berners scored bigtime in Berners Bay). For the same reasons this bay ‘worked’ logistically for a wanna-be naturalist of limited means, it continues to offer realistic options for teachers wanting students to know the thrill of expeditionary adventure in a time of budgetary cutbacks. No helicopter? No problem! ESE up Gilkey River, September, 2012 Bare earth hillshade from the new IfSAR DEM (delivered fall, 2015). My surficial geologic units are an extension from RD Miller’s 1972 classification for the area from Juneau to Mendenhall Valley.
- 2 Ch’eet’ Taayí (Cowee)Ch’eet’ Taayí, murrelet fat, on Wooshkeetaan land, is the real name of “Cowee Creek,” named by Euros for a Leeneidí shaman. A description of Cowee-Davies, relative to the other 9 watersheds studied during our CBJ Natural History Project, is basically all superlatives: wildest, biggest, fishiest, beariest, most forested-glaciated-uplifted and most ecologically indispensable to our borough. Its most popular attractions today are trails threading the lovely lower meadows. But the upper watershed is equally rich and spectacular. Ch’eet’ Taayi, murrelet fat (Cowee Creek): CBJ’s largest, wildest, most productive watershed. Home of Héen Latinee Experimental Forest
- 3 Asx‘ée-L’ux (Eagle-Herbert)Nexus! Asx’ée-L’ux, twisted-tree/milky water (Eagle & Herbert Rivers) meet below Glacier Highway, 28 miles north of Juneau (thumbnail, right). It’s an astoundingly productive and beautiful confluence. LiDAR topography at mouth of Asx‘ee, twisted tree (Eagle River). Colored for elevation. Upper edge of bright green is limit of high tide at peak of Little Ice Age. On a rare clear day in late October, 2015, with my 3DR Solo quadcopter, I ‘flew’ the flats just west of their confluence. Toward the end of this 1-minute video, you’ll see an anomalous-looking mowed-grass mound that also clearly shows on the preceding bare-earth map—remnant from the days when it was okay to mine gravel from the banks of our finest salmon streams. Bob Armstrong says at salmon time many bears fish here, apparently mostly at night. They also dig for roots—of which species we haven’t determined. EagleRiver-bear-flats
- 4 Eeyák’w (Amalga-Peterson)Lovely risen valley, uplift features, pocket beaches Hydrologically speaking, the tiny, 0.6-square-mile Amalga Meadows watershed is an appendage of Peterson Creek watershed; its meandering, unnamed stream drains south into the Salt Chuck. Historically, however, Amalga Meadows were more strongly associated with the greater Herbert-Eagle watershed, because of the horse-tram connection at Eagle River Landing. SSE toward Eagle Valley Center from Amalga Meadows Luknax daayi, no translation (Petersen Creek 25-mile) No Lingít name is given in published atlases for this important stream flowing into Eeyák’w, small rapid (Salt Chuck) at 25-mile Glacier Highway. Waters have been further muddied by the naming of 2 different Peterson Creeks—one here and one at Outer Point. In my interpretive work for CBJ I distinguish them as Peterson-OP and Peterson-25mi. The name Luknax daayi comes from a list given to me by Marie Olson, Wooshkeetaan, who learned it from Cecilia Kunz. Cecilia’s husband Edward Kunz Sr. had deep roots in this watershed, and at Asx’ee, twisted tree, (Eagle River), to the north. Northwest down Luknax daayi to the bridge before the Salt Chuck. Bedrock geology of Luknax daayi watershed, heavily worked by miners in the early 1900s.
- 5 Áak’w (bay & lake)Juneau’s pre-gold cultural hub The hill to the east of Auke Lake—named “Hill 560” by my mentor Dan Bishop—is underlain by limey slate and phyllite, Juneau’s most productive parent material for large-tree forest. The steep northwest-facing slopes of this hill are also protected from gales that in most other locations knock down conifers presumptive enough to stick their crowns too high in the air. One of them—the unfortunate spruce in thumbnail on right—leaned over the expensive new Auke Lake Trail, and was topped as a precautionary measure, the year after I took this photo. In the LiDAR point cloud it measured over 200 feet tall. 1991 Hydrologist Dan Bishop at portal to the Dan Bishop Bay Creek Trail. Dan was a mentor to early Discovery naturalists. View over Auke Lake to Mendenhall Glacier, September 2012.
- 6 Kaxdigoowu Héen (Montana)Kaxdigoowu Héen, going back clearwater (Montana Creek) Healthiest habitat of greater Áak’w Táak, (Mendenhall watershed). I first began using this valley for education in the early 1990s, when my ears could still detect the high notes of songbirds. During wetland assessment transects in the mid 1980s, I’d noticed that the logged-over swamp behind Community Gardens was full of beaver-drowned snags. Sapsuckers had drilled them, and once abandoned, these became home to chickadees, pewees and small owls. Kaxdigoowu Héen is where I first noticed that logging isn’t always “bad” for wildlife. It’s also where I first realized environmentalists don’t usually like it when I say that. (Sorry!) Northwest over Community Gardens. Today, the snags have rotted and toppled, but wildlife habitat is if anything even richer.
- 7 Áak’w Táak (Mendenhall)Áakw Táak, inland from little lake (greater Mendenhall Valley) 20180523: On Friday, Discovery Naturalists Steve Merli, John Hudson and I will accompany 50 teachers and staff from Dzantik’i Héeni Middle School across tidal flats at the bottom of T’áa Shuyee, board squared at end (Mendenhall Valley). We’ll start at the end of the Peninsula Road and get picked up at Industrial Boulevard. The walk traverses lovely salt marsh and uplift meadows at peak of spring migration. SW over lower the flats to Áak’w Tá, little lake bay (Auke Bay). On the right, willow-alder wetlands advance onto raised tideland. In left mid-distance, Widgeon Ponds sit on compacted silt. For navigation, I prepared a geopdf that you can load to the app Avenza, described in Tools>Field navigation Its basemap is a high-res bare earth from the 2013 CBJ LiDAR, called refugehillshade.pdf. East over mouth of Steep Creek to the Visitor Center, April, 2002. Not surprising we have no Lingít place names for these features that were ice covered until the mid-1900s.
- 8 Shaanáx Tlein (Lemon)Eix’gul’héen, warm springs creek Charley Switzer, a big-hearted philanthropist that historians remember as a “one-man Glory Hole,” was probably one Important White Guy who deserved to have something named after him. Preferably, though, a street or building, and not this little trout stream precious to the Leeneidí. Jake Cropley told Goldschmidt & Haas (1998): “Just north of Lemon Creek there is a small creek called Eix’gulhéen. This was a very good stream, especially for a late run of dog salmon, but also for cohos. There were 3 or 4 smokehouses there belonging to the Auk people, but they were crowded out by the road. The fox ranchers have gone up there and fished out this creek. . . The Native people used to go up Lemon Creek to get goat and bear, and to trap mink, marten, wolverine and lynx.” Trails and stream channels near Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School, on 2006 air photos, CBJ.
- 9 Dzantik’i Héeni (Gold)Our (formerly) unnoticed front yard In 2015, Cathy Pohl did a little bird study of the Gold Creek delta, with an eye (and ear) to what changes we might expect with construction of the proposed Sea Walk outside Egan Expressway. All kinds of cool stuff going on out there. But because we’re so cut off from our waterfront by traffic, few of us downtown residents recreated on little flounder creek. That changed suddenly in 2018 when the Sea Walk opened. Now, our marine ‘front yard’ beckons as invitingly as our goaty ‘back yard.’ What a cool place to live! Here’s a clip Cathy shot of a heron stalking gunnels in the Fucus beds:
- 10 Chaas’héeni (Sheep)After Dzanti’ki Héeni (Gold) watershed, Chaas’héeni, humpy creek (Sheep) watershed was the most heavily mined basin in Áak’w & T’aakú Aaní. Thane Mine and lower Chaas’héeni, then and now. Dotted lines mark off forest types interpreted on page 11 of our report on the Repeat Photography project.
- 11 X’áat’ T’áak (Douglas-Treadwell)Mature deciduous forest colonizing abandoned mining town Of my own initiative I would never have expended much interpretive energy on Treadwell. Nothing about it feels “natural.” Whatever beach it once had is buried under sand, that makes it Juneau’s favorite place to let dogs off leash. They also rampage through the understory of the unAlaskan-feeling deciduous forest, colonized after a series of forest fires (what?!, in Southeast?!) seared the whole place to mineral soil. Because of dogs, and cats cruising at night, what might be a unique community of elsewhere-rare breeding songbirds is what ecologists call a “sink,” where more birds die or waste their reproductive energies than are born. But as with every place I’ve ever studied, for either love or money, Treadwell captured my imagination. Trees grow out of the tops of crumbling concrete buildings—a place of hope and inspiration. (Maybe mining folks don’t see it that way?) It reminds me of the jungle at Palenque, where bat falcons perch atop Mayan ruins, and the piss and bellow of howler monkeys makes it inadvisable to linger too long under the drip line of verdant, victorious strangler figs. Historic structures routes compared to today’s trail complex. Here’s Treadwell as…
- 12 Aangooxa Yé (Fish)Island’s dominant watershed; only road-accessed high country Discovery Southeast naturalists have used Fish Creek estuary for teaching animal tracking and sign interpretation to thousands of elementary school students since 1989. The diverse habitat mosaic and good connectivity concentrates wildlife. Dredge Pond breached in the Thanksgiving Day storm of 1984—now a major king salmon fishery. Deer cabbage turning along Heavenly Overlook Trail, Eaglecrest. Bedrock and surficial geology of Fish Creek watershed. Fish Creek fault runs through Auke Lake on the mainland, and continues SE through Seymour Canal on Admiralty Island.
- 13 Kaalahéenak’u (Peterson-Outer)Kaalahéenak’u, inside a person’s mouth (Peterson Creek) In August, 1794, rowing through Áak’w, Aaní, Joseph Whidbey must have noted a L’eeneidí village or at least summer fish camp near what we today call “Outer Point.” I say ‘must have,’ because his original journals disappeared after confiscation by his commander George Vancouver. In his second-hand account of the Áak’w encounters, Vancouver (who was sick on the outer coast and never saw Áak’w country) casually mentioned “the point on which the northern village is situated,” as if it had before been mapped or described. From my league-by-league cross-referencing of Vancouver and Menzies journals, this “point” was clearly the northern tip of Sayeik, spirit helper: “which after the Bishop of Salisbury, I named Douglas’s Island.” GV Hmmmph! Only one of dozens of IWGNs (important white guy names) honoring distant dead dignitaries, by another white dude who never laid eyes on our home. And where, exactly, was that “village?” Surficial geology of the Outer Point area, based upon USGS map by R.D. Miller, 1975. Even the surviving place names— Kaalahéenak’u, inside a person’s mouth, and Deishú Áak’w, little lake at end of trail-–are shrouded in mystery, their stories lost to time. What is the…
- Southeast Alaska biogeographic provinces
- 3 Glacier Bay ProvinceSít’ Eeti Geeyí, bay in place of the glacier (Glacier Bay) experienced the most dramatic Little Ice Age (~1550–1850AD) in the world. The province was covered by mile-deep ice in the upper reaches, sloping smoothly down to a berg-spewing glacial terminus in Icy Strait (a name no longer descriptive). During the past 2 centuries many tidewater glaciers have receded onto land. Recolonizing plants and animals followed, and after them, indigenous sealhunters, scientists and tourists. Today, ice covers 700 square miles of a land surface of 2,619 square miles or 27% of the province. Surficial geology of lower Glacier Bay, based on IfSAR bare earth
- 4 Greater Chilkat Watershed AtlasThe Chilkat has more great glacial rivers than any other biogeographic province. “Chilkat” is a close-enough approximation of the Lingít name Jilkáat, cache, to retain as our title for this unique, transitional province. If Xutsnoowú provice is the geometric ‘heart’ of Lingít Aaní, Chilkat province is about as ‘edgey’ as they get. Thanks to the rainshadow effect of Sít’ Eetí Geeyí, bay taking the place of the glacier (Glacier Bay), Chilkat province hosts more elements of the boreal interior bioregion than any other in Southeast. Northeast along BC-AK border (swath in right foreground) near Pleasant Camp. Using the IfSAR-generated bare-earth layer delivered in October, 2015, I extended Juneau’s surficial geology mapping northward up Lynn Canal My retake of this classic early Haines scene is just slightly south of the original. The most dynamic area is Sawmill Wetland, site of today’s airport, visible way upriver. In 1929 there was apparently little vegetation anywhere on the flats, which were all swept by Jilkáat, cache (Chilkat River) during high flows. What was then an overflow channel became Sawmill Creek, heading near the Lukaax.ádi village of Yandeist’akyé.
- 5 Áak’w ProvinceFormerly named Lynn Canal Province, I ‘prenamed’ it after the inhabiting Kwáan, to dispense with IWGNs. It’s enormous and unwalkable by mere human beings, extending from the granitic highlands across from Deishú, end of trail (Haines) south to Tleixsatanjín, hand at rest (Heintzleman Ridge) Lingít names on IfSAR terrain model We have no known Lingít name for this magnificent river flowing into Daxanáak, between 2 points (Berners Bay). Maps call it (for undocument reason) Antler River. Repeat photo pair below: Wulix’áasi Héen, cascading river (Katzehin), is fed by Meade Glacier[1]. The Lukaax.adi must have been intimately familiar with this northernmost ice-river draining the Juneau Icefield, because it advanced about to the corner visible in the distance on the 1929 oblique. Hiking up valley for trapping and goat-hunting would have been easy on the barren river bars, at least during low flow. Whatever name they called it by has apparently been lost to history. My retake lines up the opposing points fairly well, but was at lower elevation. Although considerable recession has occurred, this is still an active glacial river, with a mostly-barren flood plain. Only in a few protected side pockets and on some point bars has substantial reforestation occurred.…
- 6 T’aakú ProvinceOur backyard transboundary corridor The largest Southeast province spans 2,678 square miles, of which glaciers cover 422, 16% of total land area. T’aakú has several translations. Commonest is flood of geese. Along with Aalséix, resting (Alsek River) and Shtax’héen, water biting itself, (Stikine), Taku River is one of just 3 primary lowland corridors from BC into Southeast. Taku watershed drains about 5,000 square miles of British Columbia, equal in size to the combined Alsek/Tatshenshini, and exceeded only by the Stikine’s (~19,000 sq mi). Receding Norris Glacier in center (no recorded Lingít name). Lobe of advancing T’aakú Kwáan Sít’i, Taku peoples’ glacier (Taku) on right. Grizzly Bar in foreground. This outwash flat supports sparse woodland on excessively drained coarse sediment. Subalpine fir—an interior conifer —extends downriver to Grizzly Bar, one of its few lowland occurrences in Southeast. Receipt of the new IfSAR-generated bare-earth layer in October, 2015, inspired me to extend Juneau’s surficial geology mapping toward the Canadian border. T’aakú Kwáan place names are from Thornton & Martin, 2012. The province’s standout feature is the river itself. Lowland connectivity gives T’aakú Province 36 mammal species, second only to Chilkat Province in diversity. (Áak’w Province is third). It’s also probable that the…
- 11 East Xunaa ProvinceHome of Xunaa Káawu East Xunaa is our northernmost island province, including most of Chichagof as well as Táas’ Daa, double-headed tide around it (Lemesurier) and Wunachích, back of porpoise (Pleasant Island). Geologically, almost all of the province lies within the Alexander Terrane, which, farther to the southeast, contains the famous caves and (vanished) giant trees of northern Tàan, sea lion (Prince of Wales). As on Tàan, carbonate rocks are common in East Xunaa Province, with high-quality karst scattered primarily throughout the eastern portion. The western province is predominantly granitic with thinner soils and less productive forest, so logging has concentrated around Hoonah. Bedrock and surficial geology of the Hoonah area, on IfSAR-generated bare earth. Tree size and logging in East Xunaa Province. Logging (pink) has concentrated on the eastern portion where limey parent material supported more large-tree forest (dark green).
- 14 Xutsnoowú ProvinceHome of Xóots Although this hundred-mile long island is not named for an individual, I’ve long thought of it as the ultimate IWGN (important white guy name), honoring a whole roomful of IWGs. At least its tallest summit—Eagle Peak, 4650 feet, thumbnail, right) escaped being named for another bureaucrat who never saw it. East across Eey Tlein, big tidal currents (Kootznahoo Inlet), behind Aangóon, isthmus town (Angoon).[/caption] Tree size and logging in Xutsnoowú Province. Relatively small fraction of the original large-tree forest (dark green) has been cut. By the way, in the interests of equal-opportunity place-name debunking, consider this quote from Harold Jacobs, in a chapter called Xoodzidaa Kwáan; inhabitants of the burning wood fort. (Will the time ever come? Hope & Thornton, eds, 2000). Note that x and x-underlined are pronounced differently: “The name Xootsnoowú (“Brown Bear Fort”) is sometimes wrongly interpreted as the name for Angoon Kwáan, this having been done by people who, my informants have told me, ‘Do not have a great command of the language or the history of the area.’ Actually, the name comes from xoodzi, (which is burning wood or charred remains) not xoots (brown bear). This confusion with xoots has led to…
- Áak’w-T’aakú watersheds (Juneau area)
- TOOLS
- Field sketchingArt as a portal into nature.
- Photography
- Drone PhotographyUAVs (unpersoned aerial vehicles) RC: In November, 2014, I bought my first quadcopter, something I’d been dreaming about for several years. Viewing hundreds of youtubes and vimeos of low-elevation flights over forests and beaches and mountains all over the world, I was impressed but also felt a little competitive. Those were awesome terrain perspectives, I thought, but almost all pretty tame. None would compare, I figured, to flying, say, up a wild Alaskan salmon stream, or circling a snow-clad 200-foot spruce. Bob Armstrong shot of my (late-lamented) 3DR Solo, heading northeast up L’óox, silty water (Herbert River), Oct 2015. This is an expensive hobby![/caption] It turns out there’s a kinda steep learning curve to this drone photography. For one thing, I was a complete newbie to film, period. For another, drones, um, crash. But all that trial and error is forgotten when you get back from a successful flight, download the gopro, and watch the Southeast landscape glide below through Raven’s eyes. Here’s a stitched-together sequence taken on the divide between Bear Creek and Lawson Creek watersheds, behind Crow Hill, above Douglas: bear-lawsonflight from Discovery Southeast JuneauNature on Vimeo. Especially with “first-person view” (when you can see what the camera…
- Motion-camWhen we’re not there I got into motion cameras in 2015 while staying with my father in Rochester New York. It was displacement-activity, actually, out of frustration on learning that my childhood wilderness was actually just inside the 5-mile no-fly radius of Rochester Airport. So much for crow’s-eye perspectives! Instead, I adopted owl’s-eye perspectives, perched low on treetrunks in the land of coons and white-tails. What a relevation! Within a week, I had face-to-face video of a turkey tom who fell in love with the shiny lens cover of my Bushnell Aggressor. (couldn’t find any models with more peace-nik branding). I learned more about deer than a decade of direct observation could have taught me. One stormy night, I even filmed a coyote, confirming that some of those hairy turds had indeed been too large for fox. Back in Alaska, I refocused on Sitka black-tailed deer. Steve Merli and I are using motion cams to study elevational movements up and down the mountainside, as seasons pass and hormones fluctuate. In February, 2018, I put together a talk with my friends Bob Armstrong and Hank Lentfer, summarizing what we’d learned from our very different experiences with these new tools. Link is…
- Repeat PhotographyRepeat photography Sometimes abbreviated RP, repeat photography is the art and science of precisely retaking historical photographs in order to document, analyze and understand change. We prioritize well-captured and reliably relocated scenes, offering opportunities to examine successional change in vegetational communities, and in some cases landform evolution. Abandoned gold-rush town of Dyea, near Skagway. 2005 retake of 1899 photo, by Kathy Hocker and Karl Gurcke. The map below shows locations of historic photos—both ground-based (red triangles) and aerial obliques (black arrows)—mostly by the US Navy in 1926 & 1929. Symbols point in the direction the photo was taken. Clicking on an arrow opens a pop-up with information about the photo and a thumbnail. Clicking on that thumbnail opens a medium-resolution view. Thanks to support from Kim Homan, formerly with the Southeast Alaska GIS Library, for posting this collection. The host is ESRI’s ArcGISonline. By clicking ‘view larger map’ you move to their site. View Larger Map
- Stereo PhotographyIf you properly size stereo-pairs such as the examples below on your computer monitor (about 70 mm across one of the paired images), you can hold a pocket stereoscope to the screen and the landscape will ‘pop up.’ But those lenses typically magnify by 2x, and at that power, you’ll see the pixel-grid, giving a disappointingly grainy view. Tablets, however, have smaller pixels that don’t show under 2-power magnification. Here’s a procedure that takes advantage of high resolution and rich color on Android and Apple tablets: Paired images of Juneau’s Community Gardens area. Old-fashioned pocket stereoscope over Samsung 10-inch tablet. For stereo-viewing, no printed color photos can match the resonance of a backlit aerial on a good tablet. In future posts, I’ll share some of the ABCs of creating and using stereograms. For now, I’ll only note that stereo-interpretation has been a key tool in my recent consulting work, thanks largely to tablets. Returning from the field, I drop the day’s GPS track, waypoints, and autolinked photopoints onto one of the 2 paired images. Then, habitat-mapping is enhanced by an order of magnitude more spatial information than when tracing polygons over a flat, 2D image. Bog and scrub forest on…
- Tracking
- GIS (Geographic Information Systems)The 21st-century cartographer New tools for old naturalists In March, 2015, I (Richard Carstensen) gave a fireside presentation at the Mendenhall Visitor Center on game changing technologies for field and office. In the field, what most excites me recently is UAV photography. In the office, advances revolve around GIS, and the cartographic program ArcMap. As of spring, 2014, I was part of a team that got to use the first widespread LiDAR coverage in the Alexander Archipelago. Toward the end of this 31-minute talk, I also give examples of IfSAR technology, which has subsequently become available for nearly all of Southeast. New tools for old naturalists from Richard Carstensen on Vimeo. If I could give one piece of advice to a high school student contemplating a career in forestry, fisheries, wildlife biology, geology, or any social science with a geographic component, it would be to take a course in GIS (geographic information systems).
- Field NavigationBushwacking, map and compass, GPS First a caveat about technology, adapted from a sidebar in our course manual What would Raven see: The downside of gadgets Sitka anthropologist Richard Nelson remembers that when younger Inuit first began to use compasses, the elders worried. The compass, they claimed, was weakening peoples’ intimacy with their treeless northern landscape. No longer could hunters orient themselves by the concordance of subtle natural signs, such as the way snow deposits in prevailing winds. The compass was, in a sense, weakening peoples’ relationship with their environment. Today the compass–once ‘cutting edge’–is now increasingly left behind by outdoorspeople armed with more advanced navigational tools. As of 2015, even dedicated GPS units are being displaced, because our phones and watches ‘can do all that.’ But does ever-advancing technology place even more buffers between the navigator and the terrain? We might bear this cautionary note in mind as we explore the use of technology in this course. Few would suggest we abandon useful tools such as compasses or GPS units. But we should remember Raven’s perspective. Do our tools sharpen or dull our perceptions? Trails are cool. I’ve written a 72-page guidebook about them. But on page 65, I…
- Journaling & Blogging
- Ground-truthingDocumenting habitat Beginning in 2005, Bob Christensen and I [Richard Carstensen] developed a protocol for rapid field assessment–new-age ground-truthing–that builds on timeless naturalists’ skills and adds cutting edge technologies as these emerge. [caption id="attachment_1727" align="alignnone" width="600"] Office tent at Emerald Bay, June, 2005. Distant generator on long extension cord is powering 2 laptops and recharging batteries from cameras, GPS units and radios. Kenyon Fields photo.
- Landmark TreesThe Landmark Trees Project is an effort to find, describe and understand the most magnificent remaining forests of Southeast Alaska. Founded by Sam Skaggs and led by Richard Carstensen, the project documented 76 one-acre sites across the Tongass between 1996 and 2005. [caption id="attachment_2394" align="alignnone" width="371"] Largest known tree on Mitkof Island. Landmark Tree sites are scored according to dimensions of the largest tree and wood volume of the surrounding acre. They’re also assessed for ecological values such as winter deer and summer bear habitat. The project has involved Alaskans from Ketchikan to Hoonah. We found trees up to 11 feet in diameter, and 250 feet tall. Our highest scoring stand is on limestone bedrock (karst), but most of our sites grow on stream and river deposits (alluvium). Most of those streams have salmon, and therefore, of course, bears. Our search takes us far from beaches and roads, into the most remote and sensitive bear concentrations of the Tongass. Most of our highest-scoring stands are feeding places for brown and black bears that rarely encounter people in those areas, and we don’t want that to change. Locations of many LT sites should not be made public. So how can Landmark…
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- NATURE
- CrittersSoutheast fish & wildlife Southeast Alaskans are blessed with 2 websites hosted by dedicated naturalists Bob Armstrong (Juneau) and Matt Goff (Sitka) that are structured mostly taxonomically. Collectively this pair of sites–in rather different ways–covers such an extraordinary sweep of kingdoms, phyla, orders, families and species that it would be silly forjuneaunature to emulate these masters. You may notice that I [Richard Carstensen] don’t even have a page in this Nature section for Plants. Bob and Matt have done that already. Bob’s site naturebob presents his greatest hits, all free, collected over more than a half-century of still photography and (recently) videography. But it’s not just an image&movie repository. The Videos section of naturebob is annotated with observations on behavior that would escape those of us less attuned to trophics, life-cycles, display, or anatomy, and it links to a wealth of other sources. Matt’s site sitkanature is modestly subtitled ‘An aspiring naturalist learns his place.’ But don’t let that ‘aspiring’ fool you. This guy long ago earned his naturalist’s merit badge, as our mutual friend Scott Harris puts it. Matt’s also host of the Sitka Nature Show–radio interviews with interesting Alaskans, archived on his website, 90 of em, as of…
- MammalsBob Armstrong’s nursing-fawn photo on right sums up the defining talent of mammals: warm-blooded, hairy milk-producers. (Well, I guess we guys can only lay claim to the first 2 attributes.) Mammals is divided into Carnivores, Hooved and Rodents. Explore those sub-categories or find general information below. You can also view the entire JuneauNature hierarchy at this site map: SITEMAP HERE. Not counting marine mammals, we have 57 known species in Southeast Alaska. No attempt is made in Juneaunature to describe or even list them all. A comprehensive introduction is in the Mammals section of The Nature of Southeast Alaska (Carstensen, Armstrong & O’Clair), and a more exhaustive treatment with range maps is in MacDonald & Cook’s Mammals and Amphibians of Southeast Alaska.
- BirdsBirds is divided into Songbirds, Other landbirds, and Water birds. Explore those sub-categories or find general information below. You can also view the entire JuneauNature hierarchy at this site map: SITEMAP HERE. Here, we’re treating basically the species who are so important to Southeast ecology, trophics, and culture that we’d feel negligent not bestowing a page or two. There’s little I could contribute in the world of Southeast avifauna that my buddy Bob Armstrong hasn’t done better. For birds, and for that matter almost all things taxonomic (amphibians, birds, fish, plants, fungi, insects, other inverts, lichens, fungi, mammals), go to Bob’s fantastic website. An older take on relationships among the class Aves, based upon Welty & Babtista’s Life of Birds (1988). Every year, genetic findings force revisions to this tree. Those interested in finer details of avian taxonomy should consult more recent charts. For example, loons and grebes are no longer so closely branched. And waterfowl aren’t considered so close to herons.
- AmphibiansThe pond breeders Six species of amphibian are considered native to Southeast Alaska. Three anurans (the order of frogs and toads) are western toad, wood frog, and Columbia spotted frog. Three known caudates (the order of newts and salamanders) include rough-skinned newt, long-toed salamander, and northwestern salamander. In addition to these native species, two frogs from the Pacific Northwest have been introduced: Pacific chorus frog and red-legged frog. Reproductive stages of Southeast amphibians. Shown to scale; note shrinkage with metamorphosis. Dates are from Juneau observations: a) toad eggs in strings of jelly; b) wood frog eggs in softball-sized mass; c) newt egg deposited singly–coiled embryo soon to hatch; d) toad larva is dark charcoal–dorsal fin starts farther back than on larval frogs; e) frog larva more olive brown–dorsal fin attaches well forward of tail; f) newt larva has antler-like gills; g) toadlet has fat, warty body, and small hind legs; h) froglet has smoother skin and legs are more muscular than on toadlets; i) unlike anurans, newt metamorphs are proportioned like adults.
- FishFish is divided here into marine and anadromous sub-categories. (Purely freshwater fish—who never visit saltwater—are limited to a few sculpins and sticklebacks.) Explore those sub-categories or find general information below. You can also view the entire JuneauNature hierarchy at this site map: SITEMAP HERE. Biologists have only begun to map the distributions of freshwater mussels in Alaskan lakes. These mollusks have a bizarre life history. Their tiny, toothed larvae attach to gills of sticklebacks, sculpins or salmonids and are sometimes carried to new lakes before the spat release and drop to the bottom. Formerly abundant on loose flocculent covering the shallow margins of Auke Lake, mussels are now hard to find. Mussels are sensitive indicators of water quality.[/caption]
- InvertebratesPacific blue mussels (Mytilus trossulus) seal shut when exposed to air, but open to filter-feed when the tide comes back in.
- Ecology 101
- Landscape ecologyThinking like a mountain; biogeography Cartographers are generally big-picture thinkers. Especially since the advent of GIS (Geographic Information Systems), which interfaces between maps and databases, we can ask increasingly sophisticated questions of our maps. In 2001, I created the following cartoon of a bear’s landscape movements in collaboration with Kim Titus of the Department of Fish & Game, based upon his studies of telemetered bears. Since that time, wildlife studies have become ever more sophisticated, following, for example, the hourly movements of collared deer through intimately mapped terrain. The brown bear’s year 1) Emergence Late-March through May. Most dens are in the high country. 2) Spring Bears descend in search of sedges, skunk cabbage, and deer carcasses. Key habitats include south-facing avalanche slopes, fens, and especially tidal marshes. 3) Early summer Breeding season. Until midsummer, bears are dispersed from sea level to alpine ridges. Tidal sedge flats, subalpine meadows, upland forests, and avalanche slopes are the principal foraging habitats. 4) Salmon By mid-July, most bears move into riparian forests and tidal estuaries for pink and chum salmon. Small, shallow reaches areeasiest to fish, claimed by dominant individuals. Some sows with cubs never use the streams. 5) Berries Beginning in mid-September,…
- ProductivityIn terms of annual tonnage, timber and salmon far outweigh all other Southeast commodities. We define productive watersheds, as those thatǃÏrelative to their biogeographic provinceǃÏrapidly grow very large trees and associated fauna, and/or host exceptional runs of salmon. This kind of productivity often appears to spring from the nature of underlying bedrock, with carbonate rocks at the rich end, and granitics toward the lean end of the spectrum. But, as ecologist Mary Willson points out, it’s important to be clear that timber or fish productivity ‘doesn’t translate directly into productivity of anything else, because habitat structure and exposure and plant defensive compounds and a zillion other things may regulate other community components.’ For example, shrub production is often inversely proportional to forest canopy production. So it could be there’s higher production of some shrub-nesting birds and blueberry parasites in the types of scrubby-forest watersheds we’ve defined [in the 2005 summary report] as ‘less productive.’ Diversity within many taxa (e.g. bryophytes) is also probably higher in our ‘less productive’ watersheds. Even more relevant (and confounding) for this essay; some conditions that are productive of certain fish species need not be productive of forests. Anan Creek watershed has extraordinary pink salmon productivity…
- Resilience & fragilityDevotion to the future ‘ ‘Sustainable growth’ is a self-contradictory terms—an oxymoron. Continued, indefinite growth on this planet or any subset of the planet is a physical impossibility. Eventually, limits of some type (space, food, waste disposal, energy) must be reached; the point at which that will happen is the only aspect open to debate. . . . [Humans must] live on the income from nature’s capital rather than on the capital itself.’ G. Meffe and R. Carroll, Principles of Conservation Biology. Young, post disturbance forests (checked here) are more suitable for human use than the ancient cedar types, lower right, that dominate today’s timber program. In 2005, Bob Christensen, Kenyon Fields and I started the Ground-truthing Project—what we called the ‘eyes and ears in the woods for the Southeast conservation community.’ Central to that project was learning what parts of our environment are most and least susceptible to human use. My engagement in the Ground-truthing Project lasted through 2009. For Bob, however, that was just the beginning. For a taste of what he’s been up to lately, visit his website for the Sustainable Southeast Partnership, promoting resource stewardship, energy independence, food sustainability, economic self-reliance, and storytelling in Hoonah, Hydaburg,…
- Life spanOverlooked elders. Compared to many large, hollow-centered yellow cedars farther south on the Tongass, Juneau’s cedars are relative youngsters. The extracted increment core suggested this 16-incher on south Douglas Island probably didn’t colonize until the late 1600s. Just a teenager in yellow-cedar years! The older I get, the more I think about the importance of species age in ecology. In the 3rd edition of The Nature of Southeast Alaska, I added a sidebar called Harvesting longevity, about often-overlooked antiquities. Here’s the first and last paragraph from that cross-taxon tour through mollusks, groundfish, trees, and deer: ‘Whether studying clams, fish, deer or trees, northern researchers and naturalists frequently learn that life-span data from southern climes are inapplicable here. Underestimating longevity has serious consequences, especially for wild flora and fauna treated as commercial, sport, or subsistence species. . . . . . ‘Harvest’–a term borrowed from agriculture–is of dubious merit when applied to seas or forests where cycles of birth-to-death are less visible, less understood, and less amenable to control. The consequence of overharvest is quickly obvious to a farmer, who sinks or swims financially on personally owned land. But when ‘harvesting’ wild ‘resources’ from public lands and waters, it’s harder to…
- SuccessionSuccession describes a habitat’s growth from emergence to great age. Primary succession happens after catastrophic disturbance—glaciation, volcanic-island-creation, etc.—essentially removes all living material. Here’s a series for post-glacial succession in Áak’w Táak, inland from little lake, (Mendenhall Valley), inferred from a chronosequence on mesic surfaces. Succession on poorly- or excessively-drained surfaces is quitedifferent: A Postglacial barrens with lichens, moss & dwarf fireweed. ● B Alder/willow thicket with small spruce saplings. ● C1 Thickets still productive but overtopped by cottonwood & spruce. ● C2 Cottonwood & spruce close canopy over senescing thickets. ● D Spruces overtop senescing cottonwoods. Small shade-tolerant hemlocks in subcanopy. Depauperate, mossy understory. Only after ~200 years does blueberry fill in. ● E After many centuries without stand-replacing disturbance, hemlock-dominated old growth develops, distinguished from D by gappy canopy, rich, patchwork of shrub & subcanopy layers, plentiful deer forbs & abundant standing & down dead wood. Check out the Succession illustration below for comparison of secondary succession after logging and streamside flooding.
- TrophicsWho eats who? Southeast food pyramids When you catch a fish, do you open its stomach to learn about its last few meals? If you hunt grouse or mallards, do you examine crops? Before enjoying the first tenderloin from guwakaan, the peace keeper (Sitka black-tailed deer), do you search for plant fragments on the back of its tongue, or open the rumen–that magic sack that converts the mostly-humanly-inedible flora of our bioregion into the tastiest meat on the planet? One of the oldest books in my natural history library is American wildlife & plants: A guide to wildlife food habits. Martin, Zim & Nelson, 1951. The reason it remains relevant 65 years later, while other ecological works of the period have been supplanted, is that nowadays people look askance at shooting a couple hundred herons just to see what’s in their stomachs. (43% non-game fish, 25% ‘useful species,’ 8% each of insects & crayfish, 5% mice & shrews, 4% herps) The trophic diagram below shows why salt marshes–constituting less than 1% of our land mass–are so essential to resident and migratory species from land and sea. Dashed arrow lines lead from eaten to eater:
- Habitats
- TerrestrialTerrestrial habitats has 3 subcategories: Forests, Wetlands, and High country. Explore those sub-categories or find general information on Terrestrial Habitats below. You can also view the entire JuneauNature hierarchy at this site map. Here’s how we introduced the Habitats section of Nature of SE AK, 3rd edition. “Amount and distribution of water is the logical way to differentiate Southeast’s many [terrestrial] habitats. These range from ocean, lakes, ponds, and rivers, to frequently submerged salt marshes and stream flood zones, to perennially saturated bogs and other freshwater wetlands, to the usually drenched rain forest and alpine tundra. After a rare two-week drought, it’s sometimes possible to sit in the forest understory without soaking our pants. Then rain resumes. Terrestrial landscape. A cartoon I first created for Friends of Admiralty to show habitats used by a brown bear over the course of a year. Some habitats are defined by solidified water—glaciers and high-country snowfields. The term “terrestrial” as applied to certain Southeast Alaskan habitats is somewhat generous; it actually means “occasionally free of water.” Carstensen, Armstrong & O’Clair (2014) The primary control on terrestrial habitat is drainage or substrate permeability. In rainy Southeast, where waterlogged soils prevail, soil drainage is a key…
- AquaticStreams, rivers, ponds, lakes This section is divided into Stillwater and Moving water subsections. The latter have been much better studied in our region, due largely to their importance to salmon. Explore those sub-categories or find general information below. You can also view the entire JuneauNature hierarchy at this site map: SITEMAP HERE. Freshwater aquatic diversity in Antler River basin, north of Juneau.
- CoastalThe land-sea interface Coastal habitats is divided into Estuaries and Intertidal. Explore those sub-categories or find general information below. You can also view the entire JuneauNature hierarchy at this site map.. Alaska Shorezone Project aerial oblique. Dick’s Arm, outer coast of Glacier Bay National Park, 20050721. The coastline of Southeast Alaska is not only among the world’s most spectacular and intact; it’s now among the most thoroughly documented. As of 2010, almost every linear foot of shoreline in Southeast has been captured in lovely oblique still imagery, like the shot above, and in video. The Alaska Shorezone Project flew the entire mainland and archipelago at low elevation, always during low tides. A flight index map on their website guides you to your desired imagery.
- Geology
- Bedrock geologyBedrock geology is a vast subject. Of greatest interest to naturalists are ways in which underlying rock types, alignments, fracture patterns, and variable resistance to erosion explain the shape of the land and the distribution of natural communities. Here are some of the common bedrock types of Southeast Alaska.
- Surficial geology‘Flesh’ atop of the ‘bones’ of bedrock geology The Surficial geology section is divided into Alluvial landforms & processes, Glacial history & landforms, Glacial rebound & coastal landforms, and Mass wasting. Explore those sub-categories or find general information below. You can also view the entire JuneauNature hierarchy at this site map. Surficial geology is the study of loose, unconsolidated material overlying the bedrock foundation. These layers were deposited, rearranged and eroded by glaciers, fluctuating sea level, streams, landslides, and bulldozers. While bedrock geologists tend to think in time-frames of millions of years, the surficial story is usually faster paced, taking place over millennia and mere centuries. Surficial versus bedrock geology While bedrock geologists tend to think in time-frames of millions of years, the surficial story is usually faster paced, taking place over millennia and mere centuries. On the surficial geology map, [LINK] I’ve divided landforms into 5 age groups (geol_age field): triassic: applied only to a couple bare-bedrock roches moutonees near Mendenhall Glacier early holocene: marine, glacial and alluvial formations dating back to shortly after the great ice age, ~10,000 years ago neoglacial: dating to just the last few millennia little ice age: mostly formed since peak of the last…
- CrittersSoutheast fish & wildlife Southeast Alaskans are blessed with 2 websites hosted by dedicated naturalists Bob Armstrong (Juneau) and Matt Goff (Sitka) that are structured mostly taxonomically. Collectively this pair of sites–in rather different ways–covers such an extraordinary sweep of kingdoms, phyla, orders, families and species that it would be silly forjuneaunature to emulate these masters. You may notice that I [Richard Carstensen] don’t even have a page in this Nature section for Plants. Bob and Matt have done that already. Bob’s site naturebob presents his greatest hits, all free, collected over more than a half-century of still photography and (recently) videography. But it’s not just an image&movie repository. The Videos section of naturebob is annotated with observations on behavior that would escape those of us less attuned to trophics, life-cycles, display, or anatomy, and it links to a wealth of other sources. Matt’s site sitkanature is modestly subtitled ‘An aspiring naturalist learns his place.’ But don’t let that ‘aspiring’ fool you. This guy long ago earned his naturalist’s merit badge, as our mutual friend Scott Harris puts it. Matt’s also host of the Sitka Nature Show–radio interviews with interesting Alaskans, archived on his website, 90 of em, as of…
- CULTURE
- Enter the Europeans
- Tlingit geography and historyFrom Richard Carstensen: Culture embedded in nature For the past 30 years, I’ve grown steadily more fascinated by Tlingit and Haida geography; the history and migrations of kw_∞ans, clans, and houses, and the ways in which natural and cultural history intersect. From February to May, 2013, I participated in a course for high school students by Goldbelt Heritage Foundation, entitled Why do we live here? Our essential question; What factors went into the selection of village sites for _≈ak’w and T’aak__ ancestors? One of the most powerful educational experiences of my career, it deepened my interest in the locations of ancient settlements. I now feel that these are the most important places in Southeast Alaska for all of us to know and understand. In coming years I hope to substantially expand this section of juneaunature on Tlingit geography and history. Even from my limited perspective as a Southeast naturalist, the subject has so many fruitful avenues of investigation.
- Naming places
- Why do we live here?
- Restoration
- PLACES
- Áak’w-T’aakú watersheds (Juneau area)
- 1 Daxanáak (Berners)Daxanáak, between, between 2 points (Berners Bay) When I came to Juneau in the late 1970s, Berners Bay became, as for other outdoorsy-but-low-budget 20-somethings, my “affordable wilderness.” I’d launch my decked canoe at Echo Cove and spend up to a month at a time exploring the forests and tidelands of Daxanáak,. I didn’t yet know its real name, so called it by the maiden name of George Vancouver’s mother–not knowing or caring how that label came to lie upon a feature George himself never saw (Bridget Berners scored bigtime in Berners Bay). For the same reasons this bay ‘worked’ logistically for a wanna-be naturalist of limited means, it continues to offer realistic options for teachers wanting students to know the thrill of expeditionary adventure in a time of budgetary cutbacks. No helicopter? No problem! ESE up Gilkey River, September, 2012 Bare earth hillshade from the new IfSAR DEM (delivered fall, 2015). My surficial geologic units are an extension from RD Miller’s 1972 classification for the area from Juneau to Mendenhall Valley.
- 2 Ch’eet’ Taayí (Cowee)Ch’eet’ Taayí, murrelet fat, on Wooshkeetaan land, is the real name of “Cowee Creek,” named by Euros for a Leeneidí shaman. A description of Cowee-Davies, relative to the other 9 watersheds studied during our CBJ Natural History Project, is basically all superlatives: wildest, biggest, fishiest, beariest, most forested-glaciated-uplifted and most ecologically indispensable to our borough. Its most popular attractions today are trails threading the lovely lower meadows. But the upper watershed is equally rich and spectacular. Ch’eet’ Taayi, murrelet fat (Cowee Creek): CBJ’s largest, wildest, most productive watershed. Home of Héen Latinee Experimental Forest
- 3 Asx‘ée-L’ux (Eagle-Herbert)Nexus! Asx’ée-L’ux, twisted-tree/milky water (Eagle & Herbert Rivers) meet below Glacier Highway, 28 miles north of Juneau (thumbnail, right). It’s an astoundingly productive and beautiful confluence. LiDAR topography at mouth of Asx‘ee, twisted tree (Eagle River). Colored for elevation. Upper edge of bright green is limit of high tide at peak of Little Ice Age. On a rare clear day in late October, 2015, with my 3DR Solo quadcopter, I ‘flew’ the flats just west of their confluence. Toward the end of this 1-minute video, you’ll see an anomalous-looking mowed-grass mound that also clearly shows on the preceding bare-earth map—remnant from the days when it was okay to mine gravel from the banks of our finest salmon streams. Bob Armstrong says at salmon time many bears fish here, apparently mostly at night. They also dig for roots—of which species we haven’t determined. EagleRiver-bear-flats
- 4 Eeyák’w (Amalga-Peterson)Lovely risen valley, uplift features, pocket beaches Hydrologically speaking, the tiny, 0.6-square-mile Amalga Meadows watershed is an appendage of Peterson Creek watershed; its meandering, unnamed stream drains south into the Salt Chuck. Historically, however, Amalga Meadows were more strongly associated with the greater Herbert-Eagle watershed, because of the horse-tram connection at Eagle River Landing. SSE toward Eagle Valley Center from Amalga Meadows Luknax daayi, no translation (Petersen Creek 25-mile) No Lingít name is given in published atlases for this important stream flowing into Eeyák’w, small rapid (Salt Chuck) at 25-mile Glacier Highway. Waters have been further muddied by the naming of 2 different Peterson Creeks—one here and one at Outer Point. In my interpretive work for CBJ I distinguish them as Peterson-OP and Peterson-25mi. The name Luknax daayi comes from a list given to me by Marie Olson, Wooshkeetaan, who learned it from Cecilia Kunz. Cecilia’s husband Edward Kunz Sr. had deep roots in this watershed, and at Asx’ee, twisted tree, (Eagle River), to the north. Northwest down Luknax daayi to the bridge before the Salt Chuck. Bedrock geology of Luknax daayi watershed, heavily worked by miners in the early 1900s.
- 5 Áak’w (bay & lake)Juneau’s pre-gold cultural hub The hill to the east of Auke Lake—named “Hill 560” by my mentor Dan Bishop—is underlain by limey slate and phyllite, Juneau’s most productive parent material for large-tree forest. The steep northwest-facing slopes of this hill are also protected from gales that in most other locations knock down conifers presumptive enough to stick their crowns too high in the air. One of them—the unfortunate spruce in thumbnail on right—leaned over the expensive new Auke Lake Trail, and was topped as a precautionary measure, the year after I took this photo. In the LiDAR point cloud it measured over 200 feet tall. 1991 Hydrologist Dan Bishop at portal to the Dan Bishop Bay Creek Trail. Dan was a mentor to early Discovery naturalists. View over Auke Lake to Mendenhall Glacier, September 2012.
- 6 Kaxdigoowu Héen (Montana)Kaxdigoowu Héen, going back clearwater (Montana Creek) Healthiest habitat of greater Áak’w Táak, (Mendenhall watershed). I first began using this valley for education in the early 1990s, when my ears could still detect the high notes of songbirds. During wetland assessment transects in the mid 1980s, I’d noticed that the logged-over swamp behind Community Gardens was full of beaver-drowned snags. Sapsuckers had drilled them, and once abandoned, these became home to chickadees, pewees and small owls. Kaxdigoowu Héen is where I first noticed that logging isn’t always “bad” for wildlife. It’s also where I first realized environmentalists don’t usually like it when I say that. (Sorry!) Northwest over Community Gardens. Today, the snags have rotted and toppled, but wildlife habitat is if anything even richer.
- 7 Áak’w Táak (Mendenhall)Áakw Táak, inland from little lake (greater Mendenhall Valley) 20180523: On Friday, Discovery Naturalists Steve Merli, John Hudson and I will accompany 50 teachers and staff from Dzantik’i Héeni Middle School across tidal flats at the bottom of T’áa Shuyee, board squared at end (Mendenhall Valley). We’ll start at the end of the Peninsula Road and get picked up at Industrial Boulevard. The walk traverses lovely salt marsh and uplift meadows at peak of spring migration. SW over lower the flats to Áak’w Tá, little lake bay (Auke Bay). On the right, willow-alder wetlands advance onto raised tideland. In left mid-distance, Widgeon Ponds sit on compacted silt. For navigation, I prepared a geopdf that you can load to the app Avenza, described in Tools>Field navigation Its basemap is a high-res bare earth from the 2013 CBJ LiDAR, called refugehillshade.pdf. East over mouth of Steep Creek to the Visitor Center, April, 2002. Not surprising we have no Lingít place names for these features that were ice covered until the mid-1900s.
- 8 Shaanáx Tlein (Lemon)Eix’gul’héen, warm springs creek Charley Switzer, a big-hearted philanthropist that historians remember as a “one-man Glory Hole,” was probably one Important White Guy who deserved to have something named after him. Preferably, though, a street or building, and not this little trout stream precious to the Leeneidí. Jake Cropley told Goldschmidt & Haas (1998): “Just north of Lemon Creek there is a small creek called Eix’gulhéen. This was a very good stream, especially for a late run of dog salmon, but also for cohos. There were 3 or 4 smokehouses there belonging to the Auk people, but they were crowded out by the road. The fox ranchers have gone up there and fished out this creek. . . The Native people used to go up Lemon Creek to get goat and bear, and to trap mink, marten, wolverine and lynx.” Trails and stream channels near Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School, on 2006 air photos, CBJ.
- 9 Dzantik’i Héeni (Gold)Our (formerly) unnoticed front yard In 2015, Cathy Pohl did a little bird study of the Gold Creek delta, with an eye (and ear) to what changes we might expect with construction of the proposed Sea Walk outside Egan Expressway. All kinds of cool stuff going on out there. But because we’re so cut off from our waterfront by traffic, few of us downtown residents recreated on little flounder creek. That changed suddenly in 2018 when the Sea Walk opened. Now, our marine ‘front yard’ beckons as invitingly as our goaty ‘back yard.’ What a cool place to live! Here’s a clip Cathy shot of a heron stalking gunnels in the Fucus beds:
- 10 Chaas’héeni (Sheep)After Dzanti’ki Héeni (Gold) watershed, Chaas’héeni, humpy creek (Sheep) watershed was the most heavily mined basin in Áak’w & T’aakú Aaní. Thane Mine and lower Chaas’héeni, then and now. Dotted lines mark off forest types interpreted on page 11 of our report on the Repeat Photography project.
- 11 X’áat’ T’áak (Douglas-Treadwell)Mature deciduous forest colonizing abandoned mining town Of my own initiative I would never have expended much interpretive energy on Treadwell. Nothing about it feels “natural.” Whatever beach it once had is buried under sand, that makes it Juneau’s favorite place to let dogs off leash. They also rampage through the understory of the unAlaskan-feeling deciduous forest, colonized after a series of forest fires (what?!, in Southeast?!) seared the whole place to mineral soil. Because of dogs, and cats cruising at night, what might be a unique community of elsewhere-rare breeding songbirds is what ecologists call a “sink,” where more birds die or waste their reproductive energies than are born. But as with every place I’ve ever studied, for either love or money, Treadwell captured my imagination. Trees grow out of the tops of crumbling concrete buildings—a place of hope and inspiration. (Maybe mining folks don’t see it that way?) It reminds me of the jungle at Palenque, where bat falcons perch atop Mayan ruins, and the piss and bellow of howler monkeys makes it inadvisable to linger too long under the drip line of verdant, victorious strangler figs. Historic structures routes compared to today’s trail complex. Here’s Treadwell as…
- 12 Aangooxa Yé (Fish)Island’s dominant watershed; only road-accessed high country Discovery Southeast naturalists have used Fish Creek estuary for teaching animal tracking and sign interpretation to thousands of elementary school students since 1989. The diverse habitat mosaic and good connectivity concentrates wildlife. Dredge Pond breached in the Thanksgiving Day storm of 1984—now a major king salmon fishery. Deer cabbage turning along Heavenly Overlook Trail, Eaglecrest. Bedrock and surficial geology of Fish Creek watershed. Fish Creek fault runs through Auke Lake on the mainland, and continues SE through Seymour Canal on Admiralty Island.
- 13 Kaalahéenak’u (Peterson-Outer)Kaalahéenak’u, inside a person’s mouth (Peterson Creek) In August, 1794, rowing through Áak’w, Aaní, Joseph Whidbey must have noted a L’eeneidí village or at least summer fish camp near what we today call “Outer Point.” I say ‘must have,’ because his original journals disappeared after confiscation by his commander George Vancouver. In his second-hand account of the Áak’w encounters, Vancouver (who was sick on the outer coast and never saw Áak’w country) casually mentioned “the point on which the northern village is situated,” as if it had before been mapped or described. From my league-by-league cross-referencing of Vancouver and Menzies journals, this “point” was clearly the northern tip of Sayeik, spirit helper: “which after the Bishop of Salisbury, I named Douglas’s Island.” GV Hmmmph! Only one of dozens of IWGNs (important white guy names) honoring distant dead dignitaries, by another white dude who never laid eyes on our home. And where, exactly, was that “village?” Surficial geology of the Outer Point area, based upon USGS map by R.D. Miller, 1975. Even the surviving place names— Kaalahéenak’u, inside a person’s mouth, and Deishú Áak’w, little lake at end of trail-–are shrouded in mystery, their stories lost to time. What is the…
- Southeast Alaska biogeographic provinces
- 3 Glacier Bay ProvinceSít’ Eeti Geeyí, bay in place of the glacier (Glacier Bay) experienced the most dramatic Little Ice Age (~1550–1850AD) in the world. The province was covered by mile-deep ice in the upper reaches, sloping smoothly down to a berg-spewing glacial terminus in Icy Strait (a name no longer descriptive). During the past 2 centuries many tidewater glaciers have receded onto land. Recolonizing plants and animals followed, and after them, indigenous sealhunters, scientists and tourists. Today, ice covers 700 square miles of a land surface of 2,619 square miles or 27% of the province. Surficial geology of lower Glacier Bay, based on IfSAR bare earth
- 4 Greater Chilkat Watershed AtlasThe Chilkat has more great glacial rivers than any other biogeographic province. “Chilkat” is a close-enough approximation of the Lingít name Jilkáat, cache, to retain as our title for this unique, transitional province. If Xutsnoowú provice is the geometric ‘heart’ of Lingít Aaní, Chilkat province is about as ‘edgey’ as they get. Thanks to the rainshadow effect of Sít’ Eetí Geeyí, bay taking the place of the glacier (Glacier Bay), Chilkat province hosts more elements of the boreal interior bioregion than any other in Southeast. Northeast along BC-AK border (swath in right foreground) near Pleasant Camp. Using the IfSAR-generated bare-earth layer delivered in October, 2015, I extended Juneau’s surficial geology mapping northward up Lynn Canal My retake of this classic early Haines scene is just slightly south of the original. The most dynamic area is Sawmill Wetland, site of today’s airport, visible way upriver. In 1929 there was apparently little vegetation anywhere on the flats, which were all swept by Jilkáat, cache (Chilkat River) during high flows. What was then an overflow channel became Sawmill Creek, heading near the Lukaax.ádi village of Yandeist’akyé.
- 5 Áak’w ProvinceFormerly named Lynn Canal Province, I ‘prenamed’ it after the inhabiting Kwáan, to dispense with IWGNs. It’s enormous and unwalkable by mere human beings, extending from the granitic highlands across from Deishú, end of trail (Haines) south to Tleixsatanjín, hand at rest (Heintzleman Ridge) Lingít names on IfSAR terrain model We have no known Lingít name for this magnificent river flowing into Daxanáak, between 2 points (Berners Bay). Maps call it (for undocument reason) Antler River. Repeat photo pair below: Wulix’áasi Héen, cascading river (Katzehin), is fed by Meade Glacier[1]. The Lukaax.adi must have been intimately familiar with this northernmost ice-river draining the Juneau Icefield, because it advanced about to the corner visible in the distance on the 1929 oblique. Hiking up valley for trapping and goat-hunting would have been easy on the barren river bars, at least during low flow. Whatever name they called it by has apparently been lost to history. My retake lines up the opposing points fairly well, but was at lower elevation. Although considerable recession has occurred, this is still an active glacial river, with a mostly-barren flood plain. Only in a few protected side pockets and on some point bars has substantial reforestation occurred.…
- 6 T’aakú ProvinceOur backyard transboundary corridor The largest Southeast province spans 2,678 square miles, of which glaciers cover 422, 16% of total land area. T’aakú has several translations. Commonest is flood of geese. Along with Aalséix, resting (Alsek River) and Shtax’héen, water biting itself, (Stikine), Taku River is one of just 3 primary lowland corridors from BC into Southeast. Taku watershed drains about 5,000 square miles of British Columbia, equal in size to the combined Alsek/Tatshenshini, and exceeded only by the Stikine’s (~19,000 sq mi). Receding Norris Glacier in center (no recorded Lingít name). Lobe of advancing T’aakú Kwáan Sít’i, Taku peoples’ glacier (Taku) on right. Grizzly Bar in foreground. This outwash flat supports sparse woodland on excessively drained coarse sediment. Subalpine fir—an interior conifer —extends downriver to Grizzly Bar, one of its few lowland occurrences in Southeast. Receipt of the new IfSAR-generated bare-earth layer in October, 2015, inspired me to extend Juneau’s surficial geology mapping toward the Canadian border. T’aakú Kwáan place names are from Thornton & Martin, 2012. The province’s standout feature is the river itself. Lowland connectivity gives T’aakú Province 36 mammal species, second only to Chilkat Province in diversity. (Áak’w Province is third). It’s also probable that the…
- 11 East Xunaa ProvinceHome of Xunaa Káawu East Xunaa is our northernmost island province, including most of Chichagof as well as Táas’ Daa, double-headed tide around it (Lemesurier) and Wunachích, back of porpoise (Pleasant Island). Geologically, almost all of the province lies within the Alexander Terrane, which, farther to the southeast, contains the famous caves and (vanished) giant trees of northern Tàan, sea lion (Prince of Wales). As on Tàan, carbonate rocks are common in East Xunaa Province, with high-quality karst scattered primarily throughout the eastern portion. The western province is predominantly granitic with thinner soils and less productive forest, so logging has concentrated around Hoonah. Bedrock and surficial geology of the Hoonah area, on IfSAR-generated bare earth. Tree size and logging in East Xunaa Province. Logging (pink) has concentrated on the eastern portion where limey parent material supported more large-tree forest (dark green).
- 14 Xutsnoowú ProvinceHome of Xóots Although this hundred-mile long island is not named for an individual, I’ve long thought of it as the ultimate IWGN (important white guy name), honoring a whole roomful of IWGs. At least its tallest summit—Eagle Peak, 4650 feet, thumbnail, right) escaped being named for another bureaucrat who never saw it. East across Eey Tlein, big tidal currents (Kootznahoo Inlet), behind Aangóon, isthmus town (Angoon).[/caption] Tree size and logging in Xutsnoowú Province. Relatively small fraction of the original large-tree forest (dark green) has been cut. By the way, in the interests of equal-opportunity place-name debunking, consider this quote from Harold Jacobs, in a chapter called Xoodzidaa Kwáan; inhabitants of the burning wood fort. (Will the time ever come? Hope & Thornton, eds, 2000). Note that x and x-underlined are pronounced differently: “The name Xootsnoowú (“Brown Bear Fort”) is sometimes wrongly interpreted as the name for Angoon Kwáan, this having been done by people who, my informants have told me, ‘Do not have a great command of the language or the history of the area.’ Actually, the name comes from xoodzi, (which is burning wood or charred remains) not xoots (brown bear). This confusion with xoots has led to…
- Áak’w-T’aakú watersheds (Juneau area)
- TOOLS
- Field sketchingArt as a portal into nature.
- Photography
- Drone PhotographyUAVs (unpersoned aerial vehicles) RC: In November, 2014, I bought my first quadcopter, something I’d been dreaming about for several years. Viewing hundreds of youtubes and vimeos of low-elevation flights over forests and beaches and mountains all over the world, I was impressed but also felt a little competitive. Those were awesome terrain perspectives, I thought, but almost all pretty tame. None would compare, I figured, to flying, say, up a wild Alaskan salmon stream, or circling a snow-clad 200-foot spruce. Bob Armstrong shot of my (late-lamented) 3DR Solo, heading northeast up L’óox, silty water (Herbert River), Oct 2015. This is an expensive hobby![/caption] It turns out there’s a kinda steep learning curve to this drone photography. For one thing, I was a complete newbie to film, period. For another, drones, um, crash. But all that trial and error is forgotten when you get back from a successful flight, download the gopro, and watch the Southeast landscape glide below through Raven’s eyes. Here’s a stitched-together sequence taken on the divide between Bear Creek and Lawson Creek watersheds, behind Crow Hill, above Douglas: bear-lawsonflight from Discovery Southeast JuneauNature on Vimeo. Especially with “first-person view” (when you can see what the camera…
- Motion-camWhen we’re not there I got into motion cameras in 2015 while staying with my father in Rochester New York. It was displacement-activity, actually, out of frustration on learning that my childhood wilderness was actually just inside the 5-mile no-fly radius of Rochester Airport. So much for crow’s-eye perspectives! Instead, I adopted owl’s-eye perspectives, perched low on treetrunks in the land of coons and white-tails. What a relevation! Within a week, I had face-to-face video of a turkey tom who fell in love with the shiny lens cover of my Bushnell Aggressor. (couldn’t find any models with more peace-nik branding). I learned more about deer than a decade of direct observation could have taught me. One stormy night, I even filmed a coyote, confirming that some of those hairy turds had indeed been too large for fox. Back in Alaska, I refocused on Sitka black-tailed deer. Steve Merli and I are using motion cams to study elevational movements up and down the mountainside, as seasons pass and hormones fluctuate. In February, 2018, I put together a talk with my friends Bob Armstrong and Hank Lentfer, summarizing what we’d learned from our very different experiences with these new tools. Link is…
- Repeat PhotographyRepeat photography Sometimes abbreviated RP, repeat photography is the art and science of precisely retaking historical photographs in order to document, analyze and understand change. We prioritize well-captured and reliably relocated scenes, offering opportunities to examine successional change in vegetational communities, and in some cases landform evolution. Abandoned gold-rush town of Dyea, near Skagway. 2005 retake of 1899 photo, by Kathy Hocker and Karl Gurcke. The map below shows locations of historic photos—both ground-based (red triangles) and aerial obliques (black arrows)—mostly by the US Navy in 1926 & 1929. Symbols point in the direction the photo was taken. Clicking on an arrow opens a pop-up with information about the photo and a thumbnail. Clicking on that thumbnail opens a medium-resolution view. Thanks to support from Kim Homan, formerly with the Southeast Alaska GIS Library, for posting this collection. The host is ESRI’s ArcGISonline. By clicking ‘view larger map’ you move to their site. View Larger Map
- Stereo PhotographyIf you properly size stereo-pairs such as the examples below on your computer monitor (about 70 mm across one of the paired images), you can hold a pocket stereoscope to the screen and the landscape will ‘pop up.’ But those lenses typically magnify by 2x, and at that power, you’ll see the pixel-grid, giving a disappointingly grainy view. Tablets, however, have smaller pixels that don’t show under 2-power magnification. Here’s a procedure that takes advantage of high resolution and rich color on Android and Apple tablets: Paired images of Juneau’s Community Gardens area. Old-fashioned pocket stereoscope over Samsung 10-inch tablet. For stereo-viewing, no printed color photos can match the resonance of a backlit aerial on a good tablet. In future posts, I’ll share some of the ABCs of creating and using stereograms. For now, I’ll only note that stereo-interpretation has been a key tool in my recent consulting work, thanks largely to tablets. Returning from the field, I drop the day’s GPS track, waypoints, and autolinked photopoints onto one of the 2 paired images. Then, habitat-mapping is enhanced by an order of magnitude more spatial information than when tracing polygons over a flat, 2D image. Bog and scrub forest on…
- Tracking
- GIS (Geographic Information Systems)The 21st-century cartographer New tools for old naturalists In March, 2015, I (Richard Carstensen) gave a fireside presentation at the Mendenhall Visitor Center on game changing technologies for field and office. In the field, what most excites me recently is UAV photography. In the office, advances revolve around GIS, and the cartographic program ArcMap. As of spring, 2014, I was part of a team that got to use the first widespread LiDAR coverage in the Alexander Archipelago. Toward the end of this 31-minute talk, I also give examples of IfSAR technology, which has subsequently become available for nearly all of Southeast. New tools for old naturalists from Richard Carstensen on Vimeo. If I could give one piece of advice to a high school student contemplating a career in forestry, fisheries, wildlife biology, geology, or any social science with a geographic component, it would be to take a course in GIS (geographic information systems).
- Field NavigationBushwacking, map and compass, GPS First a caveat about technology, adapted from a sidebar in our course manual What would Raven see: The downside of gadgets Sitka anthropologist Richard Nelson remembers that when younger Inuit first began to use compasses, the elders worried. The compass, they claimed, was weakening peoples’ intimacy with their treeless northern landscape. No longer could hunters orient themselves by the concordance of subtle natural signs, such as the way snow deposits in prevailing winds. The compass was, in a sense, weakening peoples’ relationship with their environment. Today the compass–once ‘cutting edge’–is now increasingly left behind by outdoorspeople armed with more advanced navigational tools. As of 2015, even dedicated GPS units are being displaced, because our phones and watches ‘can do all that.’ But does ever-advancing technology place even more buffers between the navigator and the terrain? We might bear this cautionary note in mind as we explore the use of technology in this course. Few would suggest we abandon useful tools such as compasses or GPS units. But we should remember Raven’s perspective. Do our tools sharpen or dull our perceptions? Trails are cool. I’ve written a 72-page guidebook about them. But on page 65, I…
- Journaling & Blogging
- Ground-truthingDocumenting habitat Beginning in 2005, Bob Christensen and I [Richard Carstensen] developed a protocol for rapid field assessment–new-age ground-truthing–that builds on timeless naturalists’ skills and adds cutting edge technologies as these emerge. [caption id="attachment_1727" align="alignnone" width="600"] Office tent at Emerald Bay, June, 2005. Distant generator on long extension cord is powering 2 laptops and recharging batteries from cameras, GPS units and radios. Kenyon Fields photo.
- Landmark TreesThe Landmark Trees Project is an effort to find, describe and understand the most magnificent remaining forests of Southeast Alaska. Founded by Sam Skaggs and led by Richard Carstensen, the project documented 76 one-acre sites across the Tongass between 1996 and 2005. [caption id="attachment_2394" align="alignnone" width="371"] Largest known tree on Mitkof Island. Landmark Tree sites are scored according to dimensions of the largest tree and wood volume of the surrounding acre. They’re also assessed for ecological values such as winter deer and summer bear habitat. The project has involved Alaskans from Ketchikan to Hoonah. We found trees up to 11 feet in diameter, and 250 feet tall. Our highest scoring stand is on limestone bedrock (karst), but most of our sites grow on stream and river deposits (alluvium). Most of those streams have salmon, and therefore, of course, bears. Our search takes us far from beaches and roads, into the most remote and sensitive bear concentrations of the Tongass. Most of our highest-scoring stands are feeding places for brown and black bears that rarely encounter people in those areas, and we don’t want that to change. Locations of many LT sites should not be made public. So how can Landmark…
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