Slideshows: Xunaa Káawu
Each summer, I try to get over to Hoonah to help my wife Cathy with her research on olive-sided flycatchers. Last year, 2020, was for me (but not Cathy!) a ‘gap year.’ But in late June, 2021, it finally felt safe for even a high-risk senior to fly and ferry. As always, our explorations of this vast road system were thrilling and enlightening.
Reflecting back over my time on Southeast logging roads, I want to make a statement, of sorts, about blind spots in what we call “conservation,” “restoration,” and “recreation.” Until more of us befriend our “working forest”—really try to understand her—we’re doomed to abusive relationships. Closest timberland to Discovery’s home in Áak’w & T’aakú Aaní is on Northeast Chichagof, East Xunaa Biogeographic Province. Check it out! Put your mountain bike or SUV on MV LeConte, and find out what Bob Christensen and I mean by hammered gems.
And here’s a shorter, 4-minute 2019 summary of the amazing wildlife viewing on somewhat less-than-pristine gravel road-prisms and weedy fringe-flora of the island interior: