Tongass National Forest

Southeast Alaska Discovery Center
Interpretive Exhibits

Landscapes of Southeast Alaska

Southeast Alaska is so large that the state of Rhode Island can fit into it 50 times. It's wet. Precipitation ranges from 4 to 25 feet of rain annually. 40,000 miles of streams and 20,000 lakes and ponds on the Tongass National Forest. the islands, fiords and mountainous coastlines were formed by earth-shaping processes, one working on the surface and the other far below the ground.

Below the surface of the earth, 11 fragments of ocean floor and former continents collided to form the geologic foundation of southeast Alaska. As these fragments continue to grind into each other, volcanoes erupt along the deep faults, and mountains push further into the sky.

On the surface of the earth, periods of cooling and warming are evedint in the landscape. During the cool times, huge masses of snow formed rivers of ice as glaciers in deep valleys and broad ice fields. The advancing and retreating glaciers sculpted the varied landscapes, creating deep fiords that were later filled with rising sea levels.

A Rainforest in Alaska?

Yes! The largest temperate rain forest in the world exists in Southeast Alaska and British Columbia. The Tongass National Forest contains 14 percent of the world's total acreage of temperate rain forest.

Temperate rain forests are much cooler than tropical rain forests but just as wet. Rainfall in Southeast Alaska varies from four to twenty-five feet each year, depending on location. The rain forests here have fewer species of plants than those in the tropics, but the total amount of plant life is about the same in a given area.

A temperate rain forest has:

• More than 55 inches of annual precipitation, with 10 percent or more occurring in the summer.
• Cool, frequently overcast summers, with midsummer average temperatures less than 61 degrees Fahrenheit.
• A dormant season caused by low temperatures.
• Infrequent forest fires.
  
  Explore the temperate rainforest diorama and discover some of the sounds and heartbeats of a temerate rainforst.

Evidence of Humans

Approximately 13,000 years ago, the earth warmed and the glaciers receded. Plants and animals colonized the glacial till. Eventually, humans made their homes on the shorelines and islandsof the Tongass. The people carved petroglyphs to mark their territories or to record cultural or natural events. These petroglyphs represent the first evidence of people living here, perhaps as long as 10,000 years ago.

Native Traditions

Since time in memorial , Alaska Natives living in Southeast Alaska had their own laws, social structure, art and religion. Each tribe had distinct ethnic identities and unrelated languages, yet their connections to the land and sea were similar. The exhibits in the Native Traditions Hall represent a way of life before contact with Europeans. Today many Native peoples in Southeast Alaska carry on these traditional skills, technologies, art and subsistence ways in their modern life.

Living with the Land and the Sea

For a hundred centuries, as master weavers, carvers, hunters, cooks, builders, fishers and traders, the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian have lived in harmony with Southeast Alaska's seasons. All of their food, clothing, medicines, and shelter came from the land and sea. They used only the resources they needed and gave thanks for every tree they cut down and every animal they killed.

The Salmon Harvest

In the spring, most families left winter homes to journey to fishing camps. In a few short weeks, the Native people caught most of their food for the year.

The salmon were filleted for drying. Fillets were soaked briefly in a salt brine and draped over drying racks for one day. Then they were taken to the smokehouse and hung over slow-burning fires. Smoked salmon was packed in cedar bark or spruce root baskets and wooden boxes and stored to provide food for the winter.

Living With the Sea

Before the Russians and Europeans arrived in the 1700s, the sea's resources seemed endless. "When the tide's out, dinner is served. " is a trademark Alaska Native saying. Seaweed and 27 types of marine animals, such as abalones and barnacles were collected for food.

Using the long, seaworthy cedar canoes, Alaska Native peoples fished the open ocean to fish for halibut, cod and red snapper.

Large canoes were used for long distances. They were paddled hundreds of miles to trade soap berries, dried halibut and salmon, eulachon and seal oil for copper, skins and abalone or dentalia shells. Trade was enhanced by the ease of travel along the relatively protected coastal waterways.

Living With the Forest

Temperate rain forests are - quiet, mysterious places dominated by trees of great stature. From the trees, the people derived their shelter, the totems and masks for their most important ceremonies, the implements for food gathering, and the canoes for their transportation. They gave thanks for everything they took from the forest. The men who were experts in felling trees fasted and prayed before deciding which large cedar trees to cut for big plank houses and canoes.

Gathering the inner cedar bark was a task almost entirely carried out by women. Two narrow ribbons of bark, sometimes up to 40 feet long, were stripped vertically from the tree. This allowed the tree to live on. Women prepared the bark for weaving and then wove the baskets, mats, and other items they needed throughout the year. Men did most of the carving. They made tools to fit their own hands and often shaped the handles into their clan's animal crests.

Traditions Live On

In the 1800s, life in Southeast Alaska changed dramatically. As the outside world moved in, different ways of life were introduced into Native Alaska communities. Cash economies in which people relied on others to grow their food, build their houses and make their clothing were introduced.

However, many of the traditions of gathering from the land and the sea still endure. Alaska law ensures that Alaskans may continue traditional and customary uses of wild resources. Today, thousands of people draw on the land and the sea for food, shelter and clothing. The Native people of today live in the modern world, and their rich cultural heritage endures in the works of contemporary carvers, weavers and crafts people.

Ecosystems

The temperate rain forest dominates the landscape of Southeast Alaska. But within and around the rain forest are many different ecosystems of plants and animals. These different ecosystems, are interwoven, like patches in a living quilt, spread across over two thousand islands and the costal mainland.

Marine: Home to the tiniest to the largest creatures on earth, Southeast Alaska's seas are some of the world's more diverse and most productive.

Intertidal: Along Southeast Alaska's rocky shores, remarkable creatures with wondrous shapes adapt to the tides' ebbs and flows.

Estuaries: Where salt water and fresh water meet and mix, these salt marshes, mud flats and sub-tidal areas teem with life.

Lakes, Rivers and Streams: The arteries of the temperate rain forest distribute nutrients throughout the forest and into the estuaries.

Muskegs: The water regulators of the temperate rain forest act like giant sponges that release water into rivers and streams.

Forest: In the world's largest remaining old-growth temperate rain forest, trees may live for 300 to 1,500 years and may grow to 180 feet in height and 12 feet in diameter.

Alpine: Hardy alpine plants lie dormant on the high, cold, snow-packed, rugged mountains during the long winters. In the short summers, animals feed in the lush meadows.

Visit the interactive ecosystems and explore each of these more fully.

The World Beneath: Caves

Geologists and spelunkers, or cave enthusiasts, have mapped miles of caves beneath the Tongass National Forest. Caves have formed over thousands of years in areas that contain calcium carbonate domenated karst landscapes. Karest landscapes in the Tongass are dominated by limestone that dissolve in acidic water. Sinkholes, vertical shafts and caves form as the limestone dissolves. Caves form from the top of 3,400-foot mountains to sea level. The deepest vertical shaft in the United States, El Capitan Pit on Prince of Wales Island, drops 598.3 feet.

Karst landscapes exhibit well drained soils and support old growth stands of spruce and hemlock forests. Productive streams and ponds, as well as abundant plant and animal communities, are characteristic of karst areas. Salmon have been found swimming in cave streams.

Cave explorers have located pictographs, or paintings in the in the Tongass that date back several thousands years. They have also found the remains of black bears estimated to be 11,000 years old and brown bears 12,000 years old.

Resources in Alaska: A Management Challenge

In much of Southeast Alaska, the lands and seas remain as Alaska Native peoples knew them centuries ago. Forests cover the islands and coastal mainland. Wildlife roam freely and abundantly. The waterways teem with fish, birds and sea mammals.

Although each of us perceives the values of these resources differently, there are some common values. Many who see commercial values also appreciate recreation, wilderness and wildlife. Some pursue a subsistence lifestyle. All are touched by the beauty of this place.

Conclusion

Above all, the Tongass is a working forest. The management challenges remain, but through the application of collaborative decision making and best scientific practices with careful attention to all steakholders needs, the Tongass National Forest seeks to sustain its unique resources for all residents and visitors to enjoy.

As visitors, consumers, residents and public land managers, we share responsibility for the use and conservation of Southeast Alaska's resources. We can all contribute by being aware of how much we consume and by recycling. We have an obligation to ensure that the natural treasures of Southeast Alaska are still here for our children and their grandchildren.

"The practice of conservation must spring from a conviction of what is ethically and aesthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient. A thing is right only when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the community, and the community includes the soil, waters, fauna and flora as well as the people"...Aldo Leopold.

Home Trip Planning Theater Store Maps Virtual Tour Learning Center Friday Night Insights Program Home page FS Home page