Over the summer of 2016 (between wrapping up my Masters starting my PhD) I spent 7 weeks back in Alaska on contract with Sitka Conservation Society and the US Forest Service to draft Wilderness Character Narratives for three Wilderness Areas, including the Sitkine-LeConte. These narratives are essentially an “anchor to windward,” historical benchmarks that describe the Wilderness areas as they are today (warts and all) and characterize the trends that led up to this point. In an agency with high turn-over, these narrative will allow new wilderness managers to quickly understand the complexities that underlie the management of each landscape.

The intention with these narratives is to tie together all dimensions of a Wilderness’s management. In addition to physical, biological, and historical information about the area, I also needed to incorporate the human perspective of the river. So, for each narrative, I organized a public meeting to garner input from locals in the community.

Check out this local radio interview about the project.

In addition to my research, I also wanted to spend some time on the ground in each of the Wilderness Areas. It seemed artificial to write about these Areas’ “character” without experiencing them first hand. While I had been on the Stikine before, it was only for a few days well up the river. So, I recruited a friend and planned a long expedition.