Voices of the Wilderness traveling art exhibit debuts in Sitka

An exhibit of wilderness-inspired Alaskan art opens this week at the Sitka National Historical Park, kicking off a year-long celebration of wilderness in recognition of the fiftieth anniversary of the passage of the Wilderness Act

Voices of the Wilderness is a traveling art exhibit that features a wide range of artwork, including photography, music, poetry, and paintings created by participants in artist-in-residence programs hosted by agencies that manage federally designated wilderness. The exhibit is sponsored by the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Voices of the Wilderness exhibit is one of many events and activities the U.S. Forest Service will sponsor in Alaska this year to celebrate the Wilderness Act, which endorsed the idea of “untrammeled” public wildlands in 1964 and secured the wilderness heritage that Americans now enjoy.

In Alaska, Congressionally designated wilderness makes up one-third of the lands on the Tongass National Forest, where 19 separate wilderness areas cover 5.8 million acres in Southeast. The Chugach National Forest manages the Nellie Juan-College Fiord Wilderness Study Area, which encompasses more than one-third of that forest in South-central Alaska.

To foster understanding and enjoyment of wilderness areas on the Tongass and Chugach, the Forest Service will sponsor numerous events and products this year:

• The Voices of the Wilderness art exhibit will continue its run at venues in Ketchikan, Juneau, Fairbanks, Homer, Kenai, and Anchorage throughout the year.
• The Meaning of Wild, a 30-minute film that features stunning footage from four wilderness areas on the Tongass, will screen in numerous communities in Alaska during the coming year, including Juneau, Anchorage, and Ketchikan.
• The annual Chugach and Tongass poster series will highlight Forest Service wilderness in Alaska. Watch for the release of these commemorative posters in late March.
• A wilderness boat excursion will explore the Nellie Juan-College Fiord Wilderness Study Area in late May.
• Chugach Children’s Forest youth expeditions and teacher trainings in the Nellie Juan-College Fiord Wilderness Study Area are slated for this summer.
• In partnership with Alaska Geographic and the National Park Service, the Forest Service will develop a series of wilderness stories to debut this fall.

Watch for more information on these and additional events atwww.myalaskaforests.com; www.fs.usda.gov/r10;www.fs.usda.gov/chugach/; and www.fs.usda.gov/tongass/.

Prescribing The Path to Wealth and Fitness

Story and photos by Michael Hess, Park Ranger, Sitka National Historical Park, Alaska

Sitka National Historical Park -- While many visitors are enriched physically

NPS Photo by Michael Hess

and mentally walking the trails at Sitka National Historical Park, one walker also became a little wealthier this month as a participant of the Park Prescription Program.

Betty Joe Whitcomb was the first recipient of the quarterly drawing of completed Park Prescription cards, earning her the $100 cash prize, and recognition at a brief ceremony at the park’s second annual National Trails Day earlier this month. 

As a longtime Sitka resident Betty Jo has walked the popular Totem Trail at the national park every day for several years, interacting with out-of-town visitors, meeting old friends, and enjoying the rich cultural history and natural beauty of the park. Even with the other 20 program participants, her odds of winning were good this quarter. 

She stops by the park visitor center each day after her walk, presenting her Park Prescription punch card to one of the rangers for verification of her activity. As much as she walks, Betty Joe expects to have at least another card completed before the next drawing in October. 

“[The prize] adds a little extra incentive,” said Ann Wilkinson, president of the Sitka Community Hospital Foundation, the local organization that funded the prize and also purchased waterproof cellphone cases for Park Prescription participants, which conveniently also fits a folded prescription card. 

“The more cards you fill up, the better your chances to win the money and, most importantly, the better you’ll feel,” she said. 

Betty Jo found out about the program in the local newspaper, but many other walkers learn about the program from their doctors – as a real prescription for real ailments. Sharing thoughts about the Park Prescription’s fountainhead initiative, Call to Action #6: “Go Take a Hike, and Call Me in the Morning,” National Parks Service director Jonathan B. Jarvis said, “Being outdoors has positive effects on health that don’t cost a dime” – a feeling shared by the participating local doctors. 

As a preventative measure, walking reduces the risks of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, improves mental health and provides many other health benefits. Eric Jordan, another regular Sitka walker and the first person to fill his Park Prescription logged 180 miles in his first 5 weeks, and later received a clean bill of health from his doctor. In other cases, cardiac patients recover with regular walks on the park’s improved trails, and mental health providers write scripts for exercise and sunshine. 

The freedom for participants to achieve their health goals at their own pace, creating their own personal exercise regime is among the stated strengths of the program, along with low startup costs. 

This focus on personal responsibility was also what attracted the attention of Sitka Health Summit board members when they granted support for the program last year, said Patrick Williams, health educator at the Sitka Community Hospital and a member of the Summit. The Summit meets every year to grant seed money to low-cost, high-gain community wellness opportunities. 

This year the Summit invested another $250 that will go towards printing another batch of Park Prescription cards that will be available to local healthcare providers. 

Though a fledgling program with ambitious goals, already people like Betty Joe Whitman, Eric Johnson, and the other diligent walkers, strollers, and runners are punching their Park Prescription cards for health, and maybe even a little wealth, on the trails of Sitka National Historical Park. 

For more information about the Park Prescription program as a healthcare provider, participant, or volunteer, contact Carin Farley, Sitka National Historical Park chief ranger and program coordinator, at (907) 747-0110.

Sitka Salmon Derby and Boyhood Memories of SE Alaska Salmon Fishing

My family relocated to SE Alaska from the Midwest in 1975.  My dad was an attorney, fresh out of law school and my mom and the rest of us were in tow, helping him live out his childhood dream of living in Alaska.  The future realities for my dad were grim, but none of us knew that as we packed up a 1940's era Brockway truck, I think a predecessor to Mack trucks. I am not really sure how everyone else in my family felt about things.  I was conflicted between the excitement of going to a place that for a Midwesterner in 1975 seemed like stepping into a Jack London novel and sadness about leaving what I knew.
Since we were leaving in January, our journey involved taking a southern route - Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, and then into Washington where we would put our truck, car, and completely out of place tri-hull runabout lake boat on a ferry in Seattle where we would ride for four days through the famous Inside Passage - eventually to Sitka. There were lots of adventures along the way for us, but those are stories for a different time.  The picture of the truck at the bottom is very close to ours, but not exactly identical.  One nice detail that our truck had was hitching poles for horses attached to both front fenders. The last I knew, our truck was still parked near the ferry terminal in Sitka at the Sitka Sportsmen's property.  If any part of it remains, it is most certainly rusted beyond recognition.
An old friend posted today a photo from Facebook of the currently first place salmon from the Sitka Salmon Derby, a 55 lb 5 oz. beauty that has a real chance to take the big prize.  It got me thinking about the role that fishing and the outdoors played in my formative years in Sitka.
I was awfully lonely, and found ways to enjoy my time without many friends from the very beginning in Sitka.  I had always loved to fish, and it was a great way to spend my time in a healthy way, something I soon discovered many Sitka teens did not do often.  It was a rough place, and though I am now and was then a big guy for my age, I learned quickly that you had to literally fight your way to acceptance.  My first day at school, my math teacher stepped out of the room for a moment.  It was just enough time for Jeff M. (a future high school basketball teammate, and at least as long as I knew him one of the most despicable humans in existence), to greet me with a solid sucker punch in the face.  Yes, fishing and the outdoors was my escape.
I surely did not know much about how to fish there, but by trial, error, and observation, I learned a few things.  I also spent a lot of time fishing from the docks at the three harbors that were there at the time, and met some characters.  Some of them would take me out to jig for halibut, which I discovered was my personal favorite way to fish.  It also connected me to gaining some knowledge of commercial fishing, which came in handy later in life.
As time went by, despite a nature that was and is averse to fighting, I managed to do what was needed to convince enough people that it really wasn't prudent to go down that path with me.  Acouple of years after my Alaskan arrival, I saved Spencer B. from a caveman that was slamming his head on the pavement.  That caveman is now in prison for a murder he committed years later.  Spencer was in Hollywood the last I knew. 
As I grew taller, I discovered another outdoor passion that in SE Alaska has the potential to make you a big fish in a small pond.  I spent hour after hour playing basketball on a court adjacent to Crescent Harbor in Sitka.  I was probably more content to just practice by myself for hour after hour in the cold or rain or both.  During those rare times when the sun came out, the courts would fill with guys for pickup games.  Over the years, I went from being the last one picked to one of the two guys you had to put on separate teams.  One day I realized that I was not the outsider with no friends anymore, but in truth, I had developed a lot of comfort in the idea of either being alone, or only having a couple of close friends.
During the Summers throughout high school and college, I had the incredible good fortune to work on a number of the "power trollers" that fish SE Alaska and harvest the very best quality salmon available in the world.  I worked for some great guys and some not so great guys.  Truthfully though, in those days, the guys I didn't like were actually just hardnosed taskmasters. By then my parents had split, and my Mom had remarried the greatest guy I have ever known.  But I had experienced a pretty rocky and violent adolescent period with my Dad, and I was not great at putting up with a male authoritarian.
One of those guys was Vince Cameron, a skipper out of Washington.  We spent the majority of the Summer fishing the waters just south of Yakutat off Lituya Bay.  He had a very seaworthy steel hulled boat that I recall was about a 50 footer.  The outer bank of the Fairweather Grounds is quite a haul from the safety of Lituya Bay, and Vince believed the best fishing was when the weather got rough.  There were several times where we pushed things to the limit of what his boat could handle, and once, barely made it back during a storm where some of the smaller and less seaworthy boats did not return.  At least that is how I remember it.
Lituya Bay and the Fairweather Grounds are a magical place.  Lituya Bay was devastated by a tsunami after I believe the 1964 Alaska earthquake that devastated Anchorage and destroyed Valdez.  There were no trees for hundreds of feet up the deep fjord-like bay.  When we'd be holed up there during storms, we would put out shrimp pots and gorge ourselves on the bounty of the sea, drink like sailors (we were I guess), and tie up next to our fishing friends and tell stories for hours. 
When the days on the Fairweather grounds were clear, and the winds blowing from the west, Mt. Fairweather would show herself, and her beauty remains firmly in my memory to this day.  Trolling for salmon is 90 percent waiting, and on those clear days, meditating on that mountain's majesty was a truly religious experience.
The truth is, I never caught a salmon on rod and reel until years later when I lived in the Copper River Country of Interior Alaska.  That never occurred to me until years later when I started telling my Alaska stories to my own kids.
Fishing  in SE Alaska was a huge part of my growth to becoming a reasonably well adjusted adult. I'd like to believe there are a few adventures in my future.

Glacier Bay Beauty

I have some great childhood memories of trips over to Glacier Bay with my dad from Sitka.  We'd fly into Gustavus in his Cessna 150 and go exploring.   See if you can identify the animal making the sound in this video made in Glacier Bay National Park.

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Application Period for Summer Seasonal Positions

Sitka National Historical Park (November 22, 2011) - Are you interested in working for the National Park Service this summer?Sitka National Historical Park will be hiring seasonal park rangers, park guides, and one seasonal law enforcement ranger.

Please visit the federal jobs website at http://www.usajobs.gov/ to learn how to apply for Sitka National Historical Park's available positions.Summer positions will be announced beginning November 23^rd.The open period for applications will last three weeks from the date of the announcement.

Each job announcement on USAJOBS contains complete information about duties, qualifications and evaluations, benefits, and detailed instructions on how to apply. Be sure to read each announcement fully and carefully. Contact information for additional questions about the job are also listed in each announcement.

All federal job vacancy announcements, including permanent, temporary, and seasonal National Park Service jobs in Sitka National Historical Park, are advertised on www.usajobs.gov-the official job site of the United States federal government. Browse, search, and apply for jobs online; search by keyword, job title, occupation (e.g., "park ranger"), location (e.g., "USA," "Alaska," "Sitka" or "Sitka National Historical Park"), type of work, pay, and more.

For more information or to obtain a copy of the job announcements, please stop by the Administration Office at 103 Monastery Street or the Visitor Center at 106 Metlakatla or call 907-747-0110.Inquiries may also be directed to becky_latanich@nps.gov.

Related articles

• New Temporary Exhibits at Sitka National Historical Park (alaska-outdoors.blogspot.com)
• National Public Lands Day Celebrated September 24, 2011 (alaska-outdoors.blogspot.com)

Introduction to Alaska Big Game Hunting

FROM ADF&G

Alaska's hunting reputation is justly deserved. One-fifth the size of the entire United States, Alaska offers wilderness hunting opportunities found in few other locations in the world. It is true that huge moose occur here and that vast caribou herds dominate the landscape in some areas and seasons. Numerous mountain ranges support populations of Dall sheep and mountain goats, and Sitka black-tailed deer thrive in the coastal forests. Once extirpated from the state, muskox now range over the western and arctic coastal wilderness. Large numbers of black and brown bear also exist here. And wolves, which are found across most of the state, are also abundant in some areas. See the summary table Alaska Big Game Distribution, which briefly describes Alaska’s game and where it is located, or refer to individual species descriptions.

If marine mammals, wolf, and wolverine are considered, Alaska has over a dozen species of big game animals. However, big game densities are generally much lower than you may be used to in more southerly states and provinces. The state’s relatively cooler soil temperatures and short growing seasons can limit terrestrial productivity, with many game species in Alaska making long movements between seasonal ranges. Some species such as caribou and moose are widely distributed. However, depending on the month, they may be scarce in some areas—even where good habitat exists—and abundant elsewhere.

Alaska doesn't lend itself well to day hunts or short weekend hunts for most big game species. Many hunters find it best to plan and save up money and vacation time for one or two good 5-day or week long hunts a year. Given the uncertainty of weather and animal movement patterns, any additional days you are able to spend in a particular hunting area can really increase your odds of success.

Moose meat, ready for the freezer

Planning and preparation are the keys to a successful hunt, no matter how you define it. Do your homework to determine the best areas and times to hunt the species you seek. Purchase reliable equipment, and practice with it ahead of time. Be prepared physically and mentally for tough weather, difficult terrain conditions, isolation, and weather delays. All are normal features of many Alaska hunts.

This website has been designed to provide the novice and expert hunter alike with useful information on hunting in Alaska. The website covers a wide range of topics, from animal life history and tips on optics, to meeting legal requirements related to hunt reporting, meat care and transport of firearms through Canada. It does not take the place of the Alaska Hunting Regulations. Familiarize yourself with the regulations and carry a copy with you into the field. You may be glad you did, especially if you get weathered in for a day or two with nothing else to read.

We suggest you also obtain local information from private sources and government agencies before making firm plans. Consider taking the Alaska Hunter Education course, it's a good one. You may also want to take advantage ofAlaska Hunting Clinics offered for various species. Finally, feel free to seek more information about regulations or wildlife populations by checking with biologists at our regional offices, and with providers of transportation services. Taking advantage of these resources can help ensure that you have a safe and enjoyable hunting trip, and increase your chances of harvesting an animal.

Alaska Big Game Distribution

Species	Distribution
Black bear	Found throughout forested regions of Alaska. Greatest densities occur in parts of Southeast Alaska, but good populations can be found in many regions of the state.
Brown/grizzly bear	Brown/grizzly bears are distributed statewide. Brown bears occur along the coast. Grizzly bears are located inland. Highest population densities are on Kodiak Island, Admiralty Island and the Alaska Peninsula.
Caribou	Distributed throughout Alaska except Southeast. Caribou are found in herds ranging from a few hundred to hundreds of thousands of animals. The largest herds in the state today are the Western Arctic (NW Alaska), Porcupine (NE Alaska) and Mulchatna herds (SW Alaska).
Dall sheep	Found in major and some minor mountain ranges except in coastal regions. Highest densities are found in the Southcentral region.
Deer	Sitka black-tailed deer were originally found only in Southeast Alaska. Transplants in the early 1900s added huntable populations in Prince William Sound and the Kodiak Archipelago. Highest densities are found at Kodiak and in northern Southeast Alaska.
Marine mammals	While huntable populations of polar bears, walrus, and other marine mammals exist, federal law restricts hunting to Alaska Natives only.
Moose	Widely distributed in Alaska. Greatest population densities occur in Southcentral Alaska, but good populations are found in the Interior, Western, and Arctic Alaska as well. Limited moose hunting opportunities are found in Southeast Alaska.
Mountain goat	Found in the coastal mountains of Southeast Alaska and Southcentral Alaska. Greatest population densities occur in Southeast Alaska.
Muskox	Alaska's present day muskox populations are found on the wind-swept western and arctic coasts of Alaska from Nunivak Island to the Canadian border.
Wolf	Widely distributed in Alaska. Trapped and hunted under general hunting regulations. In some areas, also taken by permit via predator control programs.
Wolverine	Wolverine are uncommonly seen and infrequently taken by hunters. They are distributed throughout much of the state.

Park Offers “An Evening in the Park” Summer Program Series

Image via Wikipedia

Thursday, September 15th
Bentwood Box Cooking Demonstration
7:00 p.m.

The final evening presentation of the 2011 season will be a program about the bentwood box.
Don't miss this chance to learn how these uniquely fabricated containers were constructed and observe the way they were used for cooking food by the Tlingit and other Native people of the Pacific Northwest.

Please note, this is a family program for people of all ages, but children need to be accompanied by an adult. A portion of the program will be held outside on the porch, so be sure to dress for outdoor weather.

Camping Information

New Temporary Exhibits at Sitka National Historical Park

Image via Wikipedia

In celebration of National Park Service Founder's Day (August 25th) and National Public Lands Day (September 24th) two new temporary exhibits will be showcased at the Park's Visitor Center through September 30th.

Reflections of Renewal on Indian River--Stop by the Visitor Center to see the amazing entries from the park's recent photo contest.Submissions from all four categories (youth, teen, adult and professional) are on exhibit.


Alaska Fishing

Sitka National Historical Park Sponsors Photo Contest

Image via Wikipedia
Calling all local photographers! Sitka

National Historical Park will be holding a photo contest to celebrate the role of the Indian River
ecosystem in Sitka’s storied past.  As Park Biologist Craig Smith explains, “Indian River is the
heart of Sitka National Historical Park. The annual pulse of salmon in the river draws people and
wildlife to the area, as it has for generations. Historical events happened where the people were.
Without the Indian River, important things wouldn't have happened here, and ultimately Sitka
National Historical Park wouldn't be here either.”

Participating entries will be featured in a juried exhibit, “Reflections of Renewal on Indian
River” which will be on display from August 26 through September 30 in the lobby of the
Visitor Center.

All ages and levels of experience are encouraged to participate. There will be four main
categories based upon age and level of experience: Youth (ages 12 & under), Teen (ages 13- 17),
Adult (ages 18 &up), and Professional (anyone who makes any income from their photography).
Winners will be chosen in each category by a panel of judges and will be recognized for their
achievement during a reception which will be held on Public Lands Day, Saturday, September
24, 2011.

Entries are to be delivered to the Visitor Center front desk and will be accepted no later than 5:00
p.m. on Saturday August 20, 2011. Entry forms will be available at the front desk.  Only printed
photographs sized 5 x 7 or 8 x 10 will be accepted. Entries will be mounted by park staff and will
remain on display throughout the duration of the exhibit. Depending upon the number of entries
and spatial restrictions, not all entries may be displayed. Entries will be available for pick up
from October 1 through October 7 between 8:00 a.m. -5:00 p.m. at the Visitor Center.  
The park’s trails are open from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.

The Russian Bishop’s House is open seven days a week from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.  Tours to the
second floor residence at the Russian Bishop’s House will be offered every half hour beginning
at 9:00 a.m., with the last tour each day offered at 4:30 p.m.