Resource Management Issues
Introduction
Renewable Resources
Non-Renewable
Resources
Non-Consumptive Users
Population Management
Release of Toxics Substances and
Waste
Vehicle Traffic
Issues Related to
Development
Information and Planning Needs
Resource management issues
The purpose of this section is to introduce resource management issues identified by managers and others in the Glacier Bay region. For analysis of impacts, see recent Environmental Assessments accompanying the National Park Service's Vessel Management Plan and soon-to-be-published Resource Management Plan, the US Forest Service's Tongass Land Use Plan, and the Hoonah Coastal Management Plan.
Consumptive uses
Renewable resources: fishing
Commercial fishing is a major activity throughout the region's waters, though a few portions of Glacier Bay proper may soon be placed off limits by just-published regulations. In recent years the issue of commercial fishing has been a prominent management concern. The status of commercial fishing in waters within the Park was made further confused by the passage of the Alaska National Interest Conservation Act (ANILCA) and the temporary humpback whale regulations in 1980. The issue remains unresolved.
Fishing as a mainstay of the regional economy is mostly focused on salmon, halibut and crab, with secondary to minor emphasis on shrimp, cod, rockfish, ling cod, and sea cucumbers. Sport fishing (especially commercially guided) is a rapidly growing activity that is now taking a significant portion of the total harvest of halibut, king salmon and coho salmon. Several issues relate directly to harvest or the way it is apportioned (see also the "vessel traffic" section). These are discussed below.
Concerns have been expressed regarding possible population depletion from fishing pressure especially in the cases of localized populations of spot shrimp, king crab, halibut or salmon homing to specific streams; populations with vulnerable life histories such as rockfish and ling cod; and populations generally in over-fished status.
There are also issues pertaining to possible adverse effects on non-target species or the aquatic/marine systems including potential effects on the abundance, distribution and behavior of bears and others predators feeding on spawning salmon; marine mammals using target species for food and changes to ecosystems via wholesale removal of biomass (e.g. crab), top carnivores (e.g. halibut). Some resource management agencies believe there is insufficient monitoring and regulation of commercial charter sport fishing.
There are also conflicts between user groups such as between Dry Bay setnet and dump sites; Beardslee Island crab buoys and pot storage sites and anchorages; and sport fishing use of Berg Bay trails and wilderness users.
Socioeconomic effects of reduced or shifted harvest among commercial, subsistence and sport fish users may have negative effects on communities (e.g. Elfin Cove and Hoonah) largely dependent of fishing in the region.
Renewable resources: wildlife
Sport hunting of mammals and birds occurs legally for many species in non-Park areas within the Glacier Bay region. Principal species include deer, moose, bears, mountain goat and waterfowl. Trapping also occurs on these lands, principally for marten, mink and otter. Illegal hunting of unknown magnitude is believed to occur throughout the region, for bears (trophies, gall bladders and paws), for deer in excess of bag limits, and perhaps for other species. The two primary wildlife harvesting issues are the illegal taking of animals and insufficient monitoring of the legal harvest.
There is insufficient information on the effect of total harvest on areas opened up to intensive use via roads and back country airstrips. Northeast Chichagof Island and the mainland south of Excursion Inlet are extensively roaded as a result of timber harvesting. While access to these areas has increased significantly, it is essentially unsupervised. Whether the current level of legal and illegal harvest of deer, marten, brown bear and other species is sustainable is unknown.
A number of legal hunts occur on the periphery of Glacier Bay National Park on populations that utilize habitat within and outside of Park boundaries. These include a large legal moose harvest in the Gustavus area on a moose population that is highly integral with that of the Park. Endicott Gap has several airstrips and considerable hunting pressure immediately adjacent to the Park in a pass well-used by animals to transient in and out of the Park.
The legal sea otter hunting by Tlingit people could result in negative conditioning of hunted animals which could impair wildlife viewing by tourists. Sea otter harvest may diminish sea otter numbers sufficiently to significantly reduce the otters' predation of commercially harvested crabs. (see also "sea otter reintroduction" below)
Renewable resources: timber
Timber harvesting on Tongass National Forest lands along eastern Icy Strait during the last two decades has resulted in large-scale clear cutting in virtually every watershed. Additional extensive timber harvesting on Native corporation lands around Hoonah during the last decade has resulted in the removal of most high-volume old-growth timber in a number of watersheds.
This has resulted in habitat loss or alteration with impacts on wildlife and anadromous fishes. A recent USFS fish habitat assessment predicts that riparian protection standards under which timber harvesting has occurred to date will result in some long-term habitat degradation. Interagency wildlife modeling predicts substantial reductions in deer populations in areas most heavily logged. The predicted impacts on brown bear populations are also pessimistic.
The effects on human uses of fish and wildlife on areas receiving extensive timber harvest and road construction have been short-run increases in harvest levels for some species as access is increased. In the long-run, wildlife population losses are predicted to result in displacement of harvest effort to unharvested forest lands.
Timber harvesting also results in the displacement of recreational uses to more unharvested areas. This may result in consequent accumulation of visitor use impacts in unharvested areas.
Subsistence and traditional use
For millennia, Tlingit people have based their physical and spiritual well-being on the area's natural resources. This remains true to a significant extent today. The Glacier Bay region and the Park itself have traditionally been used for subsistence gathering. However, subsistence gathering activities are restricted in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. Seagull egg gathering, subsistence fishing and all forms of hunting are now illegal. That subsistence activities such as berry, kelp and shellfish gathering opportunities are allowed is not widely known among Tlingit people.
Timber harvest on Native corporation and Tongass National Forest lands throughout northeast Chichagof Island has allowed short-term enhancement of some subsistence opportunities as a result of increased access. Timber harvesting, however, is predicted to have negative long-term effects on key subsistence species, notably deer and salmon, as a result of habitat degradation. In addition, increased access via logging roads can increase competition for these resources from persons who are not traditional users of the areas.
There is a lack of information on the magnitude and impact of subsistence harvest. For example, the size of the legal subsistence take of gull and tern eggs, bears, moose and wolf at Dry Bay is not known. Important cultural and subsistence sites are poorly know outside the Tlingit community. As a result of agency and Congressional decisions, timber harvesting, residential development, tourism, and competition with other fish and wildlife harvesting activities, there has been major cumulative erosion of subsistence use opportunities. There is no on going research that analyzes on a regional basis the cumulative effects of development activities on subsistence use of resources.
Non-renewable resources: mining
Although no active mines exist in the Glacier Bay region at present, there are two groups of legal claims within Glacier Bay National Park and many others on National Forest lands. The potential impacts of mining activity on either claim group in the Park is conjectural at this point. The most real and substantial potential impact may relate to the Nunatak lode claim group under the Brady Glacier. If these patented claims were developed, they would lead to a large operation in the heart of remote, pristine country. The mine would produce heavy metal ore in an acidic context. No plans are known at present for development of these claims.
Non-consumptive uses: tourism
Tourism is one of the primary basic industries in Southeast Alaska and the fastest growing. Tourism includes independent travelers, cruise ship and tour package travelers, and the growing number of ecotourists. Most of the issues in this resources issues section are directly or indirectly affected by tourism growth.
Within the Glacier Bay region, one of the most contentious issues is the number of vessels, especially cruise ships and other tour boats, entering Glacier Bay. This is largely a result of concerns and uncertainty regarding the impact of vessel noise on whale, especially endangered humpback whale, populations. Especially pertinent to tourism include the management issues of vehicle and aircraft use, fishing and hunting, increased development, waste management and toxic substances, and regional planning.
Camper use of the region's back country is increasing. Camper use is concentrated along shores of upper Glacier Bay, often in relatively productive sites important to wildlife in this otherwise austere environment, or in barren areas chosen as bird breeding areas because of their scarcity of predators.
Habituation of bears to campers' supplies or refuse as food disrupts the normal habits of these animals in otherwise wild areas. In extreme instances, bear habituation leads to exclusion of either campers or bears from an area. This process is well advanced along Glacier Bay's shores. Small-scale disturbance of vegetation occurs where camper use concentrates.
Population management: spruce bark beetle infestation
Spruce bark beetles began to irrupt along lower Glacier Bay about 20 years ago. The infestation has spread widely through even-aged successional spruce forests. The infestation has apparently been transmitted to the sub-montane spruce belt east of Gustavus. Though having an undeniably major effect of forest structure and succession, there is no known way of combating this infestation, with the exception of harvesting infected trees. This is not a management strategy to be pursued in the Park.
Clearing for community development in Gustavus is producing considerable amounts of downed spruce logs and slash. Unless properly disposed of, this debris increases beetle breeding sites.
Population management: sea otter reintroduction
Sea otters populations were severely reduced by over harvesting for their pelts. Since their reintroduction 30 years ago, sea otters have spread widely through the Icy Strait-Cross Sound province of the Glacier Bay region. Sea otters are spreading into lower Glacier Bay and along the outer coast. Studies have documented significant changes in marine ecosystem composition as a result of sea otter predation. These changes include impact on populations of shellfish, notably Dungeness crabs, that form the basis for a major fishery in the Glacier Bay region.
Because sea otters can reduce shellfish, some believe sea otters should be controlled through hunting. However, sea otter hunting is not allowed in the Park and is controversial. Outside of the Park, the Marine Mammal Protection Act allows harvest by Natives for traditional uses. This may provide a mechanism for reducing sea otter predation on shellfish populations, which may in turn affect other aspects of the ecosystem.
Release of toxic substances
Shipping traffic through Icy Strait-Cross Sound includes vessels and barges loaded with a wide variety of toxic materials, including petroleum products. Fuel barges regularly resupply local towns, the Whitestone logging camp, the Excursion Inlet fish processing plant, and the Park and visitor facilities inside Glacier Bay National Park, all of which have large storage facilities ashore. Vessel groundings or sinkings are not unusual. Many small private fuel and chemical storage facilities receive little regulatory oversight. All these have attendant risk of fuel or other toxic spills or seepages. Despite US Coast Guard regulations for fuel handling and storage, many shore-based facilities in the region have the potential for spill or leakage. For instance, such leakage has contaminated an unknown amount of substrate near the Bartlett Cove fuel farm.
It is likely that many small, chronic toxic materials spills are not reported, contained, or cleaned up. The reporting, containment and cleanup of larger spills is probably better. A concerted inter-agency effort has been made to preparing response plans for the region. Glacier Bay National Park personnel are preparing an ecological baseline for the Park's shore zone resources to identify sensitive areas and provide a baseline to contrast potential spill damage and recovery. Yet it is probable that cleanup of a major spill under severe weather conditions, especially in rough outer waters, would probably be inadequate.
Waste management
Human garbage and sewage are disposed of in numerous places throughout the Glacier Bay region. Two large fish processing facilities dispose of fish waste. Private sewage waste treatment systems are often inadequate. This is a particular problem in the Gustavus area where the high water table is very susceptible to contamination. Of the region's communities, only Hoonah, Yakutat and Bartlett Cove have municipal sewage treatment systems. The Bartlett Cove system at present is inadequate to serve the entire need of that community.
Wastes from back country users may be reaching problem levels in heavy use areas, such as the Alsek River and Ptarmigan Creek. Giardia parasites have been introduced by human sewage and are probably continuing to be spread by this mechanism.
The Bartlett Cove and Gustavus landfills meet State of Alaska standards; some others in the region do not. Much of residential refuse disposal in the region occurs outside of supervised landfills, to widely varying standards. Refuse disposed of by back country users may be a significant aesthetic detraction in certain places, such as high altitude climbing routes and along beaches.
Fish processing waste is produced in large quantities at Dry Bay and Excursion Inlet. Though both facilities have taken steps to mitigate the effects of fish waste disposal, it is not clear whether such potential problems as attractiveness to bears (Dry Bay) or benthic accumulation of rotting waste (Excursion Inlet) are adequately managed.
Vehicle traffic: marine vessels
Given the lack of a regional road network, the presence of a major shipping route through the region, a large fishing fleet, and rapidly increasing water-borne tourism, boat traffic is considerable throughout the region's waters. Waterways are in effect highways. These waterways are adjacent to shores that contain many of the region's key resources, most of which are subject to impact by vessel traffic. Issues pertaining to vehicle traffic relate to economics, aesthetics/wilderness values, wildlife, water quality, and safety.
Much of the region's economic activity is vessel-supported. Vessel regulations in Glacier Bay directly affect the level of economic activity in the region, and indirectly affect areas outside the region (e.g. more cruise ship entries allowed in Glacier Bay may lower the visitation in other ports-of-call such as Sitka and Skagway.). The apportionment of Glacier Bay entries among different vessel classes affects the degree to which various economic interests benefit.
Cruise ships emit large volumes of combustion products that can accumulate under inversion layers, especially in the upper fjord arms of Glacier Bay. These layers are unsightly and smelly in an otherwise pristine area and my have some biological impacts. A few small marine areas are closed to motorized craft during summer. Otherwise all of the region's waters are open to all types of craft (though the numbers of non-fishing vessels are limited in Glacier Bay). For those seeking wilderness solitude, the presence of vessels can be intrusive.
Vessel approach distances to major seal and all sea lion haulout areas in Glacier Bay National Park are regulated. While minor seal haulouts in the Park and all haulouts outside the Park, which in aggregate are of major importance, vessel approaches are not regulated. These species are easily displaced by vessels. Vessel approach distances to bird breeding bird colonies are regulated in the Park by recently installed regulations. It is not yet clear how and if they will be applied to smaller colonies, some of which (e.g. upper Glacier Bay cormorants) may be quite vulnerable. Colonies outside the Park are not protected from vessel approach.
Glacier Bay, especially, hosts large numbers of molting waterfowl and sea ducks. These are very susceptible to disturbance by vessel traffic, and are not specifically protected. Humpback whales are protected in Glacier Bay by an elaborate set of vessel limit and approach regulations. Outside the Bay, National Marine Fishery Service restrictions are far less stringent and seldom enforced. The rapidly increasing whale-watching industry may be problematic in this regard.
Airboats on rivers in the Yakutat area have the potential to harass riparian wildlife and displace more traditional river uses. Coastwise travel by small craft, notably kayaks, have the potential to disturb shoreline traveling and foraging by bears and wolves. Small craft use is growing rapidly in Glacier Bay and Icy Strait.
Many vessels discharge sewage, bilge, and other wastes directly into the sea. This may be significant in some well-visited, poorly flushed water bodies like the lagoon near Park headquarters along Glacier Bay. Wakes from larger vessels, especially catamarans, can unexpectedly overtake kayakers along shorelines and lead to capsizing, injury and loss of gear.
Vehicle traffic: off-rroad vehicles
Use of road vehicles will be considered under "roads" below. Off-road vehicle use is common only in the Yakutat-Dry Bay and Gustavus areas. Snowmobiling is not uncommon, and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) are used extensively, especially during summer, at Dry Bay and along outer coast beaches and open habitats northwestward to Yakutat. Use is mostly in conjunction with fishing, hunting and recreational activities. They have become common in Gustavus during the fall moose hunt.
These vehicles have considerable potential to displace wildlife from open habitats in this prime wildlife country. They also diminish solitude on large stretches of beach for back country hikers. In Gustavus, ruts made by off-road vehicles may accelerate brushing in of fen habitats that are important stopover areas for migrating sandhill cranes.
Vehicle traffic: fixed-wing aircraft
Given the region's lack of connecting roads, small "air taxis" are a major conveyor of passengers and light freight between communities and into the back country. Alaska Airlines flies larger craft into Gustavus-Glacier Bay during summer as well. Fixed-wing flights have long been important in the visitor industry, both for basic transportation and "flight-seeing". Tourist-related use has increased dramatically in recent years, bringing more overflying of, and occasional landings in, otherwise remote sites in the Park and elsewhere.
Aircraft have a major impact on solitude in otherwise remote areas. Aircraft land on remote lakes and shores and overfly scenic attractions, sometimes in considerable numbers. This is especially so in upper Glacier Bay. Animals of open habitats, notably bears and mountain goats, are very susceptible to disturbance by aircraft "buzzing". Flight seeing pilots often attempt to get close to wildlife. There are advisories but no firm regulations against this.
vehicle traffic: helicopter
Helicopter use has burgeoned in recent years, mostly as a result of aggressive tourism marketing. Most use now takes the form of short sightseeing flights to glaciers and the alpine for brief on-the-ground experiences. Major attempts are being made to open up many remote sites in the Tongass National Forest, including wilderness areas, to helicopter landings. Helicopter use is presently based out of Juneau, Haines and Skagway, peripheral to the Glacier Bay region. This use is still relatively light in the region by comparison to these areas.
Issues related to increased development
Human presence — residential, resource extractive and visitor — in the Glacier Bay region is growing rapidly, with a corresponding increase in support infrastructure. This growth is greatest in Gustavus/Bartlett Cove and secondarily at Excursion Inlet. Hundreds of miles of logging roads have been built through nearly every watershed on northeast Chichagof Island and south of Excursion Inlet during the last two decades. This development is an important contributor to the generally increasing level of concern regarding most resource management issues discussed to this point. Under the present heading, we will consider only those issues related directly to the placement of infrastructure.
Facilities (and related roads)
Increasing residential and resource use often preempts or otherwise lessens the attractiveness of formerly remote, quiet or wild country to visitors or residents seeking an alternative to urban conditions elsewhere. Development often targets the most productive and accessible localities, which are typically important wildlife habitat. This is especially true for nearshore, riparian and meadow habitats. Increased presence of humans and their domestic animals often causes sensitive wildlife species to avoid localities or to be killed there if they fail to leave or are attracted by human food or refuse. Bears, wolves, wolverines and marten are particularly vulnerable species in this regard.
Access roads
In two decades, the entire southeast quadrant of the region has been made accessible to land transportation. This has resulted in concern for populations of marten, deer and brown bear, which receive higher levels of legal and illegal mortality while suffering considerable habitat degradation. Local sport and subsistence hunters now have heightened levels of competition for game.
Information and planning needs:
1) Insufficient baseline information
Managers and scientists point to a variety of needs in basic data for the region. These pertain to data necessary to 1) judge sustainable harvest limits, 2) to design non-harvest management strategies, 3) to understand socio-economic impacts of management decisions. The types of data that resource managers have identified include:
- forest inventory data for improved and more effective compliance monitoring on timber harvesting practices;
- more current and thorough freshwater habitat and salmonid escapement data (species of particular concern: cutthroat trout, steelhead);
- biological information on marine fisheries population structure and habitat use (priorities: Tanner crab, shrimp, rockfish, and developing fisheries);
- distribution and habitat use data to allow design of a marine reserve in the Park;
- continuation of ongoing long-term monitoring of humpback whales, kittiwakes, harbor seals, sea lion;
- population monitoring data of likely threatened populations (e.g. marbled murrelet, goshawk, glacier bear, Glacier Bay water shrew) plus a variety of species (e.g. oyster catcher, pelagic cormorant, wetland nesters) that have critical habitat impacted by increasing human use;
- identification and monitoring data on molting, breeding and other sensitive bird/mammal use areas (priority areas: Dry Bay, upper Glacier Bay);
- monitoring of underwater vessel noise and resulting impacts to marine species' communication;
- socio-economic trends including documentation of the importance of various economic activities in the region (especially in the Park) to community viability; and
- traditional use sites and harvest patterns.
2) Insufficient understanding of biological and physical processes
Many scientific questions remain unanswered in this coastal marine ecosystem. Forest dynamics relative to clearcut timber harvesting and wildlife habitat are poorly understood. Basic physical characteristics of the marine ecosystem, especially as they relate to key fisheries, are poorly known. The environmental contexts for declines in the marbled murrelet and other threatened and endangered species are poorly understood.
3) Insufficient regional planning
Within parts of the region, there have been numerous comprehensive planning efforts. Examples include the Hoonah and Pelican coastal management plans, the Glacier Bay National Park general management plan, the interagency oil spill plan, and the US Forest Service's Tongass Land Management Plan. However, no planning efforts consider the entire region as a planning unit.
