The hardships of conducting field ecology in remote and rugged places like Alaska are legendary. But that same ruggedness draws kayakers from all over the world.
The results of Andis and his team’s efforts will help shape an accu- rate picture of ecological well-being and human use on these islands, allowing conservationists and land managers to create strategy based on facts on the ground. “We can use the data from the Outer Island Survey to inform management decisions and assess what’s a reasonable carrying capacity for outfitter permits in the wilderness,” says Tory Houser, a Recreation Planner for the Forest Service. The data will also provide a baseline for a 2018 Forest Plan update.
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his rubber-boots-on-the-ground approach to ecology is essen- tial in remote landscapes like Alaska’s Southeast. Far from the watching eyes of land managers, these areas can easily suffer from benign neglect during the long intervals between visits. Camps and boat traffic can intrude into areas meant to be refuges. Sensitive spe- cies can decline before anyone notices.
Southeast’s particular geography makes studying the region as criti- cal as it is difficult. Islands like Coronation, far out to sea, will be the last to feel the disruptive effects of invasive species that are spreading across the globe. But if invasive species do make it to Coronation, they will spread like wildfire thanks to the isolated biogeography of small islands. Southeast Alaska is also the northern limit for many plant species. “We expect forests to move northward with warming trends,” says Lauren Oakes, a researcher at Stanford University who used kay- aks to study Alaska yellow-cedar decline, “so the latitudinal margins are a critical laboratory for understanding the effects of climate change.” Declining Forest Service budgets in the sprawling Southeast have taken “spreading thin” to the point of gross understatement. “We’re lucky if we can get out there once a year,” says Houser. “You charter a boat months in advance, and then you get held up by weather. We couldn’t put in the time you can from a kayak, seeing the shoreline on a slow, intimate level.”
Nor can satellite imagery, LIDAR and Geographic Information Systems provide answers. These gizmos can’t reliably tell a stand of Alaska yellow-cedar from hemlock, let alone distinguish native from invasive plants in the alpine zone where a whole botanical commu- nity exists in a single square foot. Satellites can’t spot outlaw cabins hidden under trees, swab newts or measure the elusive feeling defined as “wilderness character” that includes everything from the sound of aircraft to footprints on a beach.
The Sitka Conservation Society has long tapped local paddlers, hikers, hunters and fishermen to report on-the-ground conditions,
The outer coast of Coronation Island is exposed to the full fury of the Pacific, eroding the limestone cliffs into massive rock gardens, canyons and caves. Citizen scientists require both paddling skills and keen powers of observation: in one cave, the team discovered daddy long-legs (above) entombed in cave-growing fungi. Over a demanding 16 days, the Outer Island Survey team hiked to alpine ponds and collected samples from amphibian populations (opposite top) and paddled with humpback whales in the Maurelle Islands (opposite bottom).
48 | ADVENTURE KAYAK
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