STEWARDSHIP

Searching for Solitude in the of Southeast

BY MARY EMERICK and DAVID N. COLE

ur group of wilderness long-distance transportation routes. Barges hum past on campers perched on the the straits and floatplanes bring visitors to remote bays. Orocks, enjoying the Forest Service wilderness ends at the mean high tide level. sounds of the nearby waterfall That means that the long skinny fjords that dead-end at and the tide stealing in across glaciers and imposing sculpted walls are not wilderness. the flats. Granite walls soared Instead they provide marine highways for sightseeing thousands of feet in the air; ice- cruise ships and private yachts, motorized fingers that bergs floated by on their way extend scores of miles, deep into the heart of the wilder- from calving glacier to the open ness. Although the use on the water is not within the sea. Loons called, and a rustling wilderness boundary, the experience of visitors on shore is in the woods across the channel directly affected by that use. meant that a bear or deer might In the lower 48 states, many abut trans- step out onto the beach at any Mary Emerick. Photo by James portation corridors where one can hear and observe moment. We were more than 30 Boyce. motorized traffic. However, in those places, trails lead deep miles (48 km) by boat into the into the wilderness, where visitors can easily get away and -Fords Terror Wilderness, and it was easy to feel find quiet and solitude. In southeast Alaska, things are dif- that we were far removed from civilization. The possibili- ferent. There are not many trails, so few visitors penetrate ties for discovery were endless. This was the “southeast Alaska experience” that has been marketed to visitors and that some think will always be here due to wild weather, big seas, and an abundance of bears. Suddenly a gleaming white behemoth heaved into view, spewing amplified natural history information from loudspeakers. As the giant cruise ship powered by only a few hundred yards from camp, brightly clad visitors pointed their cameras and waved vigorously at us. A large wake barreled across the channel. Kayaks and zodiacs were launched, with chattering occupants aiming for shore. In an instant, solitude vanished (see figure 1).

Marine Highways Perhaps we should not have been so surprised and dis- Figure 1—Campers and cruise ships, Sawyer Island. Photo courtesy of the Juneau Ranger District. mayed. Here in southeast Alaska, the oceans are

APRIL 2008 • VOLUME 14, NUMBER 1 International Journal of Wilderness 25 past the first half-mile of rain-soaked, this essential and unique quality? Is We found litter and user-created trails junglelike interior. Use is concen- the natural quiet disappearing from in previously pristine spots, indi- trated on the rocky shores and islands the wilderness areas in southeast cating people are fanning out from where access is relatively easy—and Alaska? Can anything be done to pre- the areas that are commonly used. solitude is increasingly hard to find serve it where it does exist? These anecdotes provide clear evi- (see figure 2). dence that things are changing. Solitude can generally be assured Wilderness Other marine wildernesses, most for those hikers who are brave and Solitude Monitoring Project notably those managed by the strong-willed enough to ascend the In an attempt to find out about soli- , such as cliffs into the heart of the wilderness. tude, the Regional Wilderness Glacier Bay and Isle Royale National However, even here, more and more Solitude Monitoring Project was Parks, have addressed water use by small planes are landing on the launched, spearheaded by Forest regulation, including limiting large remote lakes that dot the high Service wilderness personnel Mary cruise ships and establishing no wake country in an attempt to avoid the Emerick, John Neary, and Kevin and quiet zones. But the Forest more congested coast. Guides are Hood. Along with Dr. David Cole, Service does not control the tide- clamoring for access to places where Forest Service research geographer lands. So what can be done? The first they won’t run into other people. User with the Aldo Leopold Wilderness step is to document what is going on. groups who object to seeing other Research Institute, we conducted How are opportunities for solitude parties have exchanged heated words. field trips in the South Baranof and changing? Is there a problem? If so, The Wilderness Act defines a Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wildernesses how bad is it? wilderness area, among other things, in the summer of 2007. Our group The task of monitoring opportu- as possessing outstanding opportuni- struck up conversations with sight- nities for solitude is difficult because ties for solitude. Generally, as visitors seers and hikers, paddled, hiked, solitude is such an ambiguous term. we expect to see and hear very few boated, and flew, and ultimately Walk around your office and ask and people when we make the effort to developed a draft protocol for col- you will get many different answers. enter wilderness, yet anyone who has lecting information that can be used Seeing just one other person is unac- tramped a popular trail in lower-48 to assess trends in opportunities for ceptable to some visitors. Others will wilderness areas has encountered mul- wilderness solitude. accept the presence of many cruise tiple groups and endured a night of Our talks with visitors—long- ships if it means that they can camp camping near other parties. The time guides, locals, and repeat or hike where they want. Our pro- wildernesses in Alaska have stood out visitors—struck a chord with many. tocol does not attempt to monitor as touchstones for natural quiet and Everywhere we went, people agreed solitude per se. Rather it monitors solitude. But are we in danger of losing that there were more: more jet skis, those things most likely to affect more helicopters, more opportunities for solitude—motor- people on shore, and more ized boats, aircraft, and crowds of boats at anchor. “You used people—things that emerged from to be the only one in this our conversations with visitors and bay,” was the common our years of personal experience. refrain. Others told us After much discussion, we boiled they avoid areas they used the protocol down to a few elements to visit and go to new ones that could be readily monitored. We where they won’t meet decided to conduct monitoring in others. Try camping near two different situations: (1) while the beach at the back of camping at popular destinations, and long, thin bay, with five (2) while traveling. Most of the boats running generators events to be recorded are interactions and pointing binoculars at with boats. Because the sights and Figure 2—The oceans are transportation corridors: Gut Bay, South Baranof your camp, and you will sounds of a skiff have much less Wilderness. Photo by Mary Emerick. get the idea (see figure 3). impact than a cruise ship whose

26 International Journal of Wilderness APRIL 2008 • VOLUME 14, NUMBER 1 Figure 3—Typical campsite in Endicott Arm, Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness. Figure 4—A visitor experiences solitude in the South Baranof Wilderness. Photo by Photo by David Cole. Mary Emerick. loudspeakers can be heard for three magnitude of impact on solitude as occasional passage of a motorboat or miles (4.8 km), boats were classified follows: the encounter of other visitors hiking by size as follows: • Low—not disruptive (e.g., boat was so unexpected that it tended to • 250+ passenger cruise ship passing in the distance) bother us more than if we were con- • 16–249 passenger ship • Medium—somewhat noisy or in stantly exposed to it. • 6–15 passenger ship close proximity, noticeable Development of the protocol has • 1–5 passenger ship • High—loud, very close, disrup- allowed us to produce a snapshot in • Kayak, canoe, rowboat tive (e.g., jet ski, plane takeoff, time with which we can measure boat generator running all changing conditions and a framework We also recorded a class for the night). for defining opportunities for solitude. distance of the boat from the There has been widespread acceptance observer. Distance seemed important Preliminary Observations for this effort among our partners and because the normal commerce of a After just one season of using our local users—a sense that “it’s about barge chugging along three miles (4.8 protocol, we have hard data to back time.” It will not be easy to preserve km) away is less bothersome than a up our initial impressions. We were opportunities for solitude that are jet ski screaming by at close range. heartened to find that opportunities being lost due to uses that occur out- We were also interested in the nature for solitude are still readily available side of the wilderness boundary; of encounters with people associated in many areas. Some locations had perhaps it is impossible (see figure 4). with boats. If there were any verbal fewer than 15 minutes of disruption Nevertheless, we believe it is our exchanges, this was recorded. If within a 24-hour period. However, at responsibility as wilderness stewards people camped onshore, we noted the attractions such as Endicott Arm, to document what is happening in this number of people as well as whether with a majestic glacier at its end, the wild, remote, and unique part of the they were within our immediate use sights and sounds of people were world. IJW area and whether a verbal exchange nearly constant during daylight took place. hours. At Fords Terror, visitors MARY EMERICK is a wilderness manager We counted aircraft if they were trooped on foot and paddled by on the Sitka Ranger District in the Tongass flying below a height of 1,000 feet kayak so close to our camp that we National Forest in Alaska; email: mem- (305 m) above ground level. If so, could hear their conversations. From [email protected]. they were classified as flying, landing, a human perception perspective, we or taking off. Encounters with people were surprised to observe that where DAVID N. COLE is a research geogra- on aircraft were recorded the same the hum of motorboats was nearly pher at the Aldo Leopold Wilderness way they were for boats. Finally, we constant, we learned to tune the Research Institute, Missoula, Montana; made a subjective assessment of the noise out. In less popular bays, the email: [email protected].

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