[peaceful orchestral music]
- More than a million people a year
visit southeast Alaska.
Most of them arrive by cruise ship
and visit attractions
in many of our coastal communities.
In Juneau, the most popular attraction
is the Mendenhall Glacier,
but people also visit the Tongass National Forest
for the wilderness, the wildlife,
the recreation, and to experience
the unique Alaskan lifestyle.
But wherever the location and whatever the attraction,
visitors seem to want to get close to nature.
They want to get closer
to the Alaska of their dreams.
[jazzy instrumental music]
[people laughing]
[birds chirping]
[people cheering]
At nearly 17 million acres,
the Tongass is America's largest national forest.
Congress has designated nearly 6 million acres,
more than 1/3 of the Tongass,
to be managed by the Forest Service
as wilderness.
[glacier rumbling]
It's that wilderness-- and much more--
that attracts so many visitors
to the Tongass each year.
There are differences that set the Tongass apart
as a visitor destination.
For example, much of this national forest
is real wilderness
that requires real safety skills
and local knowledge to enjoy safely.
Another difference for Tongass visitors
is the difficulty of access.
While many national forests have extensive road systems,
the Tongass has few.
As a result, visitors here frequently rely on others
to provide transportation.
- We'll start today by going in Ketchikan.
We're going to head down Tongass Narrows
and up Behm Canal
into the Misty Fjord National Monument.
- The result of real wilderness dangers,
lack of easy access,
and reliance on others to provide transportation
or guiding services to Tongass attractions
has created a thriving tourism industry
throughout southeast Alaska.
They range from tour ships run by large corporations
to small, family-sized companies.
Brenda Schwartz, a third-generation Alaskan,
is one of many involved in tourism in southeast Alaska.
She was born in Wrangell,
a historic community of 2,000
at the mouth of the Stikine River,
and raised in a commercial fishing family.
Like many small-town residents,
Brenda has several jobs.
- I paint, like, coastal watercolor scenery,
and most of that blends in to
lots of other coastal watercolor art.
I'm probably best known for the fact
that I paint on navigational charts.
- Brenda also owns a Wrangell company
that offers small-group tours in jet boats,
what she describes as a cross between a tank
and a Porsche.
[jaunty country music]
Brenda is not just the company owner.
She's also a skipper and a guide.
One of her most popular trips
is cruising the Stikine River.
- In the Tlingit language,
the Stikine means "the Great River."
It's a significant body of water.
It's North America's fastest
free-flowing navigable river,
draining 20,000 square miles of land.
- Depending on what her guests want to see,
each trip up the Stikine has its own character.
Her goal is to deliver a wilderness experience.
- I try to take people there
in small, kind of intimate groups
and put them in touch with something real authentic,
some real Alaska.
- One part of the real Alaska
Brenda takes visitors to on the Stikine
is the Chief Shakes Glacier.
- In a jet boat, you can navigate the stream
at most river levels up
and enter the lake through a narrow entrance
and play around in the icebergs
and view the face of the glacier.
[jaunty country music]
- The Chief Shakes Hot Springs
is another of Brenda's popular river tour stops.
The Forest Service maintains the public facilities.
- They are just natural gravity-fed hot water
coming down PVC pipe
that comes from a little hot water spring
that comes out of the side of the mountain.
And you can sit there and enjoy beautiful scenery
in a wonderful wilderness setting.
It's a must-do on the Stikine River.
- Brenda also takes visitors to Anan Creek,
about 35 miles south of Wrangell.
This famous bear-viewing area
is managed by the Forest Service.
- Well, we do a couple basic things
on the trail is, one, we make noise
so the bears know we're coming
so that we don't appear as a threat
if we come into their space
before they're prepared for it.
- Anan Creek historically is one of southeast Alaska's
largest pink salmon returns.
The structure of the creek has a couple of waterfalls
that kind of pool up the fish.
There's even a little developed
deck and boardwalk area
that was put together by the Forest Service
to make it easier to watch bears.
It's highly regulated and restricted.
You have to have a permit
or basically like a reservation to go there.
[playful piano music]
- Brenda Schwartz has one of many businesses
catering to summertime visitors.
She has specialized in attractions
in the Tongass National Forest
that are close to Wrangell.
- It's a wilderness area,
and that's why it has stayed the way it is,
is because it's part of the Tongass National Forest,
so through Forest Service regulation,
which some people balk at,
but it's what's keeping it the way it is.
Hopefully it'll keep it that way
so 100 years from now, when, you know,
my children's children are going there,
I hope it looks the same way it does to us today.
- Whether it's jet boating on the Stikine River
or watching bears at Anan Creek
or enjoying the Mendenhall Glacier,
there's no shortage of attractions
on the Tongass National Forest.
As land managers, we understand
the importance of tourism
to the economy of southeast Alaska,
but when a visitor says to me,
"You get to work in a place like this?"
I understand just how important it is
we manage this land
for future generations to enjoy.
For the Tongass National Forest,
I'm Pete Griffin.