Small Visitor to a Giant Land

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Letter PAMHO:12690199 (225 lines)

Internet: "NRDC BioGems" <biogemsdefenders (AT) savebiogems (DOT) org>

07-Dec-06 17:13

doj [5640]

notice-reply-wg33ke84a7m3wi7 (AT) nrdconline (DOT) org

Small Visitor to a Giant Land

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Dear Samuel,

 

NRDC has been fighting for 20 years to keep Alaska's Tongass

rainforest safe from intensive logging and destructive

roadbuilding.

 

I was fortunate to have the chance to travel to the Tongass this

past summer and was overwhelmed by its beauty. Witnessing the

natural wonders of the rainforest has renewed my commitment to

using every tool at our disposal -- court pressure, scientific

study and citizen action -- to ensure the future of the Tongass

rainforest and its abundant wildlife.

 

I wanted to share with you the following firsthand account of a

journey into America's rainforest, so that you can "virtually"

visit this awe-inspiring BioGem.

 

If you enjoy this account, please pass it on to a friend (or

better yet, ask them to read it online at

http://www.nrdconline.org/ct/K7L6Ofs1ecun/ since emails like

this one sometimes break up when forwarded) and encourage him or

her to become a BioGems Defender too.

 

And thank you, as always, for your ongoing partnership in our

work.

 

Sincerely,

 

Frances Beinecke

President

Natural Resources Defense Council

 

.. . .

 

TONGASS, FIRSTHAND

from the Natural Resources Defense Council

 

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To see the html version with pictures, go to:

http://www.nrdconline.org/ct/DdL6Ofs1ecum/

Please feel free to forward this to friends!

=============================================

 

Small Visitor to a Giant Land

by Patricia Adams

 

This summer I returned with my husband, John, NRDC's founder, to

the Tongass National Forest in southeast Alaska, the site of one

of my first NRDC trips 27 years ago. On the surface, not that

much has changed. Today as then, the Tongass still appears, as

it did to John Muir, "in the morning of creation."

 

We traveled through the southeast archipelago, which stretches

forever through deep fjords, massive glaciers and endless

forests, with a group of NRDC trustees and staff as well as

people who are concerned about the fate of the Tongass. As we

started out into this last substantially intact temperate

rainforest, we knew we were in a land of abundance. Whales

spouted and dived before our boat with their fluked tails

seeming to wave in greeting. Porpoises leapt and raced alongside

us. Once a startled seal popped up with a salmon clenched in his

mouth, his whiskers quivering.

 

The morning we anchored in Sitkoh Bay, a group of us gathered

our fly rods and hiked up a clear stream to look for rainbow

trout. The stream was narrow and clear and we had to keep a good

distance between us so as not to scare the fish. Our guide left

me where a moss-covered log had created a shelter for trout and

I was happy to have a good stretch of water to myself.

 

As I tied a fly onto my line, I looked up at the hemlock and

Sitka spruce towering hundreds of feet above. Patches of

sunlight broke through the high canopy, making the green moss on

the fallen log almost glow. Behind me in the forest, ferns rose

to the height of my shoulders and devil's club, a tall plant

with broad green leaves and covered with sharp thorns, created a

tangled barrier. Fish darted in the clear water and although I

could not see them, I knew there were animals near -- squirrels

chattered, there was movement in the leaves and we had passed

fresh bear scat as we came up the stream.

 

For the first time I was alone in this wilderness. Not

absolutely alone, but distant enough from the others to

recognize my vulnerability. I felt the power of nature, which

surrounded me there as I stood in the stream. I was a small

visitor to a giant land. To be alone, even for a short time, in

the presence of such power in this great forest was sublime. I

have to admit, it was also scary.

 

I experienced this same sense of fear and reverence when we

motored up Endicott Arm towards Dawes Glacier. Our small boat

moved between steep granite mountain slopes that plunged

straight into the deep water. Icebergs sloshed and rippled

around our skiff as harbor seals slid from them, disappearing

into darkness.

 

A persistent whisper of wind flowed off the glacier, a reminder

of eternal coldness. Deep rumblings came from this powerful

river of ice where large chunks break off, creating tidal waves

for miles down the fjord. The 2000-foot-high blue-green wall of

ice towered above us. It was the face of a glacier that

stretched hundreds of miles back into the mountains. This was

earth in the making.

 

The Tongass is like the forests our forebears met when they

first came to America. With its grandeur is also the darkness,

the fear and the impersonal natural forces of water and ice.

This is something we have lost except in the grand scale of the

Tongass.

 

Standing alone in the stream and feeling the wind off the

glacier reminded me that we are not masters of nature but are a

part of nature. In the Tongass, the power of nature is still the

greatest force. It is a land of grand proportions. Over a

thousand islands cover an area roughly eight times the size of

Yellowstone National Park. It has the highest coastal range of

mountains in the world that holds the largest ice mass on the

North American continent. It has some of the largest fish runs

and the biggest concentration of bald eagles.

 

It is a land of superlatives but it is more than that. The

Tongass is one of the few places on earth that is so wild, so

scenic and so vast. It is a wilderness that we cannot afford to

lose.

 

The fact that the integrity of the Tongass still exists is a

monument to stewards of the past, but we need stewards today.

The Bush administration is seeking ways to open up this forest

to clear-cut logging by eliminating the Roadless Rule to allow

road construction for logging on millions of acres. Bills have

been proposed to waive environmental laws that protect the

complex relationships of the millions of plants, animals and

fish there. We are lucky to have Sharon Buccino, NRDC's senior

attorney and program director for land and forests, leading the

fight to thwart plans to open up this national treasure to

intense logging. To divide this national treasure with logging

roads and clear-cutting is to destroy the essence of one of

nature's greatest wildernesses.

 

It was misty the last morning as I stood on the deck and looked

at the sea stretching endlessly between steep mountains capped

with ice and snow. It was quiet except for the sound of lapping

water and the occasional call of an eagle. "Civilization" was

not visible in any direction -- it was an eternal land of

serenity and power.

 

We must take a stand to keep this great wilderness intact.

 

December 2006

 

SUGGESTIONS:

 

Here are two things you can do right now to help keep the

Tongass intact:

 

Speak out

http://www.nrdconline.org/ct/Z1L6Ofs1ecui/

 

Donate to our Tongass Campaign

http://www.nrdconline.org/ct/ZdL6Ofs1ecuk/

 

RESOURCES:

 

THE ENVIRONMENTAL LEGEND AND THE REAL TONGASS

Another personal take on the Tongass

http://www.sustainabilityinstitute.org/dhm_archive/index.php?display_article

=vn

762tongassed

 

TONGASS NATIONAL FOREST

Visitor information and more from the U.S. Forest Service

http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/tongass/index.shtml

 

TEMPERATE RAINFORESTS

Overview from the David Suzuki Foundation

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Forests/Forests_101/Temperate_Forests.asp

 

.. . .

 

Patricia Adams has been a strong supporter (in more ways than

one) of NRDC since its founding in 1970. With her husband, John,

she has traveled, entertained, solicited and celebrated the

growth of this organization. As a teacher and writer, she is

pleased to describe her experience in Alaska last summer and

hopes you will put Alaska on that "must do" list -- must support

NRDC's work and must go see this amazing legacy.

 

.. . .

 

Copyright 2006 Natural Resources Defense Council

 

.. . .

 

Thank you for your interest in Firsthand, an occasional series

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