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Duncan Murrell - A Whale of a Time

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Duncan Murrell - A Whale of a Time

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  • Many parts of Port Houghton were like a magical fairyland, where only the smallest and lightest of footprints would be permissible to preserve the delicate beauty. It is quite clear from the vegetation that it a particularly wet place that receives maximum amounts of localised rainfall. The trees were the mossiest that I saw anywhere in Southeast Alaska.<br />
Wet meadow with common cottongrass (Eriophorum angustifolium), western hemlock trees (Tsuga heterophylla) festooned with moss and usnea (Usnea longissima), and false azalea (Menziesia ferruginea) and western skunk cabbage (Lysichiton americanus).
    Alaska-vegetation19-2.jpg
  • Western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) growing beside beaver pond, on the mainland just north of Petersburg, Southeast Alaska, USA.
    Alaska-vegetation31.jpg
  • I particularly used to enjoy photographing the lush vegetation at Port Houghton during the extended twilight in the summer. Using a tripod I took very long exposures of more than a minute, and the results were very atmospheric. As the light slowly faded the lighter features of the scene like the pastel green shade of the leaves of the rusty menziesia, and the usnea or old man's beard dripping from the trees, appeared to become luminous and suspended in the encroaching darkness, giving a ghostly life to the stunted trees.
    Alaska-vegetation12.jpg
  • Many parts of Port Houghton were like a magical fairyland, where only the smallest and lightest of footprints would be permissible to preserve the delicate beauty. It is quite clear from the vegetation that it a particularly wet place that receives maximum amounts of localised rainfall. The trees were the mossiest that I saw anywhere in Southeast Alaska. This was my most successful plant entry into the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition, reaching the final stage of judging.
    Alaska-vegetation9.jpg
  • As this beaver pond was quite near Petersburg I was able to observe them quite often here.
    Alaska-forest-beaver-pondAlaska-vege...jpg
  • The Kadashan River valley is one of my favourite places for many reasons, and for a variety of habitats: it has a beautiful beaver dammed flooded area in the forest not far from the river: avenues of birch trees: and there are very extensive grass meadows and mud flats at the mouth of the river. It is an excellent place to watch brown bears catching salmon in the fall. The Kadashan River flows into Tenakee Inlet where I always used to end up in September to photograph the bubblenet-feeding humpback whales. It provided a beautiful break from my high-octane pursuit of the whales up and down the inlet, as did soaking in the hot springs in the small town of Tenakee Springs opposite.
    Alaska-forest-beaver-pondAlaska-vege...jpg
  • Southeast-Alaska-winter11.jpg
  • I became involved with the campaign to stop the excessive and heavily-subsidised logging, clearcutting and roadbuilding in Southeast Alaska in the 1980s. The Tongass Timber Reform Act, enacted in 1990, significantly reshaped the logging industry's relationship with the Tongass National Forest. The law's provisions cancelled a $40 million annual subsidy for timber harvest; established several new wilderness areas and closed others to logging; and required that future cutting under the 50-year pulp contracts be subject to environmental review and limitations on old-growth harvest. Alaska Pulp Corporation and Ketchikan Pulp Corporation claimed that the new restrictions made them uncompetitive and closed down their mills in 1993 and 1997, respectively, and the Forest Service then cancelled the remainders of the two 50-year timber contracts<br />
Unfortunately it is under threat once again. The Forest Service is currently preparing its largest auction of the Tongass in a decade to logging companies. In nearly six decades, loggers have cleared more than 700 square miles of the Tongass. Furthermore, the Forest Service has bulldozed more than 4,500 miles of roads through the forest for the logging companies to use.<br />
Legislation working its way through Congress could allow a single corporation, Sealaska, to log some of the best, oldest, most biologically-rich areas left in the Tongass. Sealaska Corporation, which has a history of clearcutting its lands, is seeking ownership of some of the most ecologically and biologically diverse parts of the Tongass National Forest. In fact, the lands targeted by Sealaska have more than ten times the habitat value of other Tongass forest land. Ketchikan lumber mill applied and was granted access to clear-cut 381 acres in one of the Tongass’ pristine roadless areas.
    Alaska-Tongass-National-Forest1.jpg
  • Alaska-Tongass-National-Forest3.jpg
  • Although the temperate rain forest of Southeast Alaska is evergreen there is never any shortage of beautiful autumnal colours in the understory vegetation such as the blueberry bushes and the sphagnum moss and miniature plants of the muskeg.
    Alaska-vegetation13.jpg
  • The most controversial logging in the Tongass has involved the roadless areas. Southeast Alaska is an extensive landscape, with communities scattered across the archipelago on different islands, isolated from each other and the mainland road system. The road system that exists in the region is in place because of the resource extraction history in the region, primarily established by the Forest Service to enable timber harvest. Once in place, these roads serve to connect local communities and visitors to recreation, hunting, fishing, and subsistence opportunities long into the future. However, installing roads in the vast wilderness areas of the Tongass is also a point of controversy for many in the American public, as reflected in the roadless area conservation movement, which has opposed further road construction on the grounds that it would promote habitat fragmentation, diminish wildlife populations and damage salmon spawning streams; they argue that existing roads are sufficient. <br />
Native Corporation Lands were designated by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA). This Act conveyed approximately 44,000,000 acres (180,000 km2) of Federal land in Alaska to private native corporations which were created under the ANCSA. 632,000 acres (2,560 km2) of those lands were hand-picked old growth areas of the Tongass and are still surrounded by public National Forest land. These lands are now private and under the management of Sealaska, one of the native regional corporations created under the ANCSA. <br />
Transference of public National Forest land to a privately owned corporation removes it from protection by Federal law and allows the owners to use the land in whatever way they see fit without regard to the effects of the use on surrounding lands and ecosystems. This fact has caused much controversy involving the business interests of Native Regional Corporations and the personal interests of local Native and non-Native residents of Southeastern Alaska.
    Alaska-Tongass-National-Forest2.jpg
  • Alaska-vegetation32.jpg
  • Southeast-Alaska-winter12.jpg
  • Western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) trees festooned with moss and usnea or old man’s beard (Usnea longissima), Tongass National Forest, Southeast Alaska, USA.
    Alaska-Tongass-National-Forest5.jpg
  • Beaver dam flooded area of western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) and Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) temperate rain forest, with devil's club (Oplopanax horridus) and western skunk cabbage (Lysichiton americanus), Kadashan River Valley, Chichagof Island, USA.<br />
The Kadashan River valley is one of my favourite places for many reasons, and for a variety of habitats: it has a beautiful beaver dammed flooded area in the forest not far from the river: avenues of birch trees: and there are very extensive grass meadows and mud flats at the mouth of the river. It is an excellent place to watch brown bears catching salmon in the fall. The Kadashan River flows into Tenakee Inlet where I always used to end up in September to photograph the bubblenet-feeding humpback whales. It provided a beautiful break from my high-octane pursuit of the whales up and down the inlet, as did soaking in the hot springs in the small town of Tenakee Springs opposite.
    Alaska-forest-beaver-pondAlaska-vege...jpg
  • Birch and other deciduous trees near Haines, Southeast Alaska, USA.<br />
<br />
Although much of the Tongass national Forest is made up of conifers like western hemlock, Sitka spruce, red and yellow cedar, there are plenty of deciduous trees, particularly in wide open river valleys.
    vegetation-14.tif
  • Although much of the Tongass national Forest is made up of conifers like western hemlock, Sitka spruce, red and yellow cedar, there are plenty of deciduous trees, particularly in wide open river valleys.
    Alaska-deciduous-trees-autumn1.jpg