ELSA SEBASTIAN on Loving the Last Stands of the Tongass /141

The Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska is the largest temperate rainforest left in the world and it is under attack. Wrapping around 11,000 miles of coastline, this land is the unceded territory of the Haida, Tlingit and Tsimshian peoples and home to precious wild salmon, towering ancient old-growth trees, and endangered wildlife species like the Alexander Archipelago wolf. Stretching 17 million acres, the Tongass holds some of the most pristine and productive estuaries still alive on planet Earth that Trump’s Forest Service would like to hand back over to a dying logging industry. Last year, the state of Alaska announced their decision to seek exemption from Roadless Rule, a 2001 landmark conservation measure, which would remove protections for over half of the Tongass and unleash devastating resource extraction upon the land. We will not stand by and watch the beating heart of this forest be cut out and assaulted by a management system that quantifies its productivity in board feet. What happens here and now will forever mark the landscape and impact the future generations of all beings who depend on these sacred forests and waters. Described by many as a sacrifice zone and subsidized timber colony of the US, Prince of Wales Island is one of the most heavily logged areas of the Tongass; there are over 2,500 miles of logging roads on an island that’s only 135 miles long. Our guest this week, Elsa Sebastian, knows this region well, having grown up in the fishing village of Point Baker on northern Prince of Wales Island. For most of her 20’s, Elsa captained a commercial salmon troller, fishing the wild coastline of Southeast Alaska. These days, Elsa deckhands on a drift gillnetter in Bristol Bay, and spends her winters working in conservation, most recently as Executive Director of Lynn Canal Conservation. Elsa loves wildlife and spent several years working with Alaska Whale Foundation to establish a remote field station on Baranof Island, now serving as chair of the Alaska Whale Foundation Board of Directors. Elsa founded the Last Stands project in 2017 to learn more about what remains of the worlds largest coastal temperate rainforest, the Tongass. Since founding the project she’s bushwhacked and beachwalked through hundreds of miles of forest and coastline, and sailed to threatened last stands of old-growth on her home island of Prince of Wales. Elsa is a 100 ton licensed captain and adventures from a 38-ft ketch sailboat, the Murrelet. We invite you to listen deeply to Elsa’s words and fall in love with the Tongass, as she shares stories from her time in the field, alongside communities where boom and bust industry have torn people apart, and out on the water salmon fishing. Joyful and heartbreaking, Elsa’s reflections as a second-generation activist fill us with the necessity to contend with our dark, complex histories around land and rethread them into our movements. Elsa brings us the urgent truth of this time: “It really comes down to now. Will we make the decision to actually gracefully transition the Tongass away from clear cut logging? Will we take care of the people who work at that mill and provide them other jobs? Or will we just let this go as every other boom and bust community will go if it’s allowed...take the last of what stands.” ♫ Music by Erin Durant