SEAWEAD - Applying Wildlife Habitat Studies in Southeast Alaska

In the Spring of 2007 we helped US Fish and Wildlife Service ornithologist Brad Andres conduct a survey of Sitka Sound for Oyster Catcher nest sites. Brad's interest was in revisiting islets and rocks that had been documented as active nest sites back in the 1940s. Anecdotal observations suggest there has been a decline in nest activity in Sitka Sound and Brad wanted to verify this possibility and investigate potential causes with a field visit.

On June 9th and 10th we skiffed the entire coastline of Sitka Sound scanning for oyster catcher's exhibiting breeding behavior and searched upwards of 30 exposed rocks, islets and rocky outcrops for nest sites. Brad is preparing a field trip report that we will make available as soon as it is ready. 

SEAWEAD is providing GIS and data collection support for an ambitious "mega-transect" project schedule for June 2007 to March 2008: Journey on the Wild Coast . Erin McKittrick and her husband Bretwood "Hig" Higman are walking, rafting and skiing 4,000 miles from Seattle to the Aleutian Islands!

SEAWEAD naturalist Bob Christensen assembled a GIS to aid in route planning, collaborated with Erin on a simple but informative habitat description protocol and help secure GPS technologies to assist in georeferencing field notes and images collected while en route.

Bob also joined Erin and Hig for a few days of the Ketchikan to Wrangell leg of this expedition. Click here to have a closer look at this leg.

The Ketchikan to Wrangell leg is surely one of the more challenging and interesting legs on Erin and Hig's Journey on the Wild Coast mega-transect. Bob met with Erin and Hig in Ketckikan to plan the details of this section of their trip and to join them on as much of the trek as he could handle.

This leg begins in Ketchikan with a paddle south out of town and east into Carrol Inlet. Once into the heart of Revilla island, the plan is to walk across the island to the NE into Misty Fjords National Monument. Another saltwater paddle will be involved in crossing the Behm Canal and getting into the head of Walker Inlet. From the head of Walker inlet the trekkers will walk over a small ridge into the Chickamin River valley. As soon as is reasonable they will board their packrafts to descend the south fork of the Chickamin River to the confluence with the Leduc River.  Next there is a 20 mile section of gravel bar hopping up the Leduc River to a pass that connects to a small tributary of the Unuk River called Lake Creek. The route will probably stay in the upper elevations of this pass until reaching a point up the Unuk watershed that is close to where the Blue Lava flow comes into the valley from the NW. The plan is to at least explore a portion of the Blue Lava valley before heading further up the Unuk valley to a long and surprisingly low open ridge that will drop the trekkers into the Iskut River valley in Canada. It is in this area of the leg that Erin and Hig are particularly interested in the recent increase in mineral exploration activitiies. They are hoping to get an on the ground impression of the mining work in this area so that they might better participate in informed discussions of the conservation issues associated with such activiites.

The rest of the route is fairly straight forward in terms of picking a route because the plan is to simply float down the Iskut river to the Stikine and float down the Stikine to Wrangell. Though the route is straight forward, the actual experience will remain challenging as the Iskut has a reputation for complicated braids and abundant sweepers. Click on the thumbnail above to see a large version of the route for this leg of the trip or click here to use a KML file to view the route in google earth.

What about Bob?