Game Creek

Game Creek is a 54,469-acre Inventoried Roadless Area on northern Chichagof Island in Southeast Alaska, administered by the Tongass National Forest. The area lies just southwest of the village of Hoonah, with named landmarks at Burnt Point and Game Point on the shoreline. The Game Creek watershed (Lingít: Xutshéeni) is the central drainage, carrying a major part of the interior into Long Bay; tributary systems include Seagull Creek and Freshwater Creek. The shoreline meets Icy Strait through The Narrows, Kulichkof Reefs, and Seal Bay. The watershed's "major" hydrologic significance reflects the size and salmon-supporting role of Game Creek and its tributaries.

Game Creek lies within the Coastal Temperate Rainforest of Southeast Alaska. Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) and western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) dominate the closed canopy on lower slopes, with mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana) and Alaska-cedar (Callitropsis nootkatensis) at higher elevations and lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) on the muskegs. Red alder (Alnus rubra) and black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa) line riparian corridors. The understory carries devil's club (Oplopanax horridus), salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis), thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus), and Oval-leaf Huckleberry (Vaccinium ovalifolium). The old-growth canopy supports Methuselah's Beard Lichen (Usnea longissima) and Lettuce Lichen (Lobaria oregana), and the IUCN Vulnerable Menzies' Burnet (Sanguisorba menziesii) occurs in subalpine meadows on the area's higher ground.

The forest, freshwater, and marine habitats of Game Creek support a wide assemblage of large mammals, birds, fish, and amphibians. Brown Bear (Ursus arctos) occur at high density across Chichagof Island and depend on the area's salmon-bearing streams; American Black Bear (Ursus americanus), Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus, the Sitka black-tailed deer), American Marten (Martes americana), and American Mink (Neogale vison) also use the area. Marbled Murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus, IUCN Endangered) nests in the old-growth canopy and feeds offshore. Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), Pigeon Guillemot (Cepphus columba), and Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) occupy the shoreline; Olive-sided Flycatcher (Contopus cooperi, IUCN Near Threatened) and Vaux's Swift (Chaetura vauxi) use the canopy edges. Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris, IUCN Endangered) raft along the kelp shallows of Icy Strait, and Steller Sea Lion (Eumetopias jubatus, IUCN Vulnerable) and Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) work the deeper waters. The Game Creek and tributary system supports spawning Pink, Chum, and Coho Salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) and Coastal Cutthroat Trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii). Western Toad (Anaxyrus boreas) and Northern Red-legged Frog (Rana aurora) occupy wetland edges. Portions of this area fall within the potential range of several federally listed species; see the Conservation section for details.

Indian River Road (FS 317500) runs 6.7 miles into the area's eastern margin as a primitive surfaced route. There are no maintained trails or developed campgrounds in the interior. A visitor walks from the road end through dense moss-floored hemlock-spruce forest to the Game Creek drainage, or arrives by boat through The Narrows into Long Bay and Seal Bay. Salmon move up the creek in late summer, drawing bears to the lower-stream gravel bars and Bald Eagles to the surrounding forest.

The lands of the Game Creek Inventoried Roadless Area on northern Chichagof Island fall within the traditional territory of the Huna Tlingit, the Xunaa Kwáan, whose name in Tlingit means "protected from the North Wind" [2]. Glacier Bay was the ancestral homeland of the Huna Łingít clans, who sustained themselves for centuries on the abundant resources of the land and sea before villages inside the bay were overrun by the Little Ice Age glacial advance of the 1700s [1]. The principal pre-Little Ice Age village of the four Huna clans was located in what is now Bartlett Cove [1]. After the glacial advance — and, in the western reach of the homeland, a tsunami in Lituya Bay — forced the Xunaa Tlingit from those territories, the clans re-established fish camps and several villages along Icy Strait and the outer coast of Chichagof Island [1][3]. The village of Xunaa on the northeastern side of Chichagof Island became the largest Tlingit village in Alaska [2].

In 1901 E.F. Dickins of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey named the creek "Game Creek" during hydrographic surveys of the Chichagof Island shoreline [4]. Aside from the historical use of the area by local Tlingits, the Game Creek site was first non-Native settled by members of the separatist religious community known as "The Farm" [4]. The City of Hoonah, 2.6 miles northeast of Game Creek, was incorporated as a first-class city under territorial law in 1946 [2].

Federal protection of the surrounding national forest lands began on September 10, 1907, when the Tongass National Forest was created by presidential proclamation; on July 1, 1908, the Alexander Archipelago Forest Reserve and the Tongass were consolidated into a single Tongass National Forest covering 6,756,362 acres, and a further proclamation on February 16, 1909, added 8,724,000 acres to the Tongass, bringing the great majority of the forested Alexander Archipelago islands — including Chichagof — under Forest Service administration [5]. The federally recognized Hoonah Indian Association serves the Huna Tlingit community today, and the Huna Totem Corporation is the village corporation established under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act [3]. Industrial-scale logging reached Chichagof Island through a fifty-year Forest Service timber contract signed in October 1957 with Alaska Lumber and Pulp Company, which committed 5.25 billion board feet of timber over fifty years from a sale area that included Baranof Island and portions of Chichagof Island; that contract supplied the Sitka pulp mill of the Alaska Pulp Corporation, which suspended operations in September 1993 and had its long-term contract terminated by the Forest Service in April 1994 [6]. In 2016 the Hoonah Indian Association and the National Park Service dedicated Xunaa Shuká Hít (Huna Ancestors' House) at Bartlett Cove in Glacier Bay, the first permanent clan house in Glacier Bay since Łingít villages were destroyed by the advancing glacier over 250 years earlier [1]. Game Creek, a 54,469-acre Inventoried Roadless Area within the Hoonah Ranger District and Hoonah-Angoon Census Area, is protected today under the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

Vital Resources Protected

• Brown Bear Refugium: Chichagof Island holds one of the highest densities of Brown Bear (Ursus arctos) in North America, and Game Creek's 54,469 acres of unfragmented forest and salmon-bearing streams form a core component of that habitat. The roadless condition preserves the spatial scale and habitat connectivity that Brown Bear populations require, sustaining freedom of movement between salmon streams, denning sites, and intertidal foraging areas without bisecting linear corridors.

• Salmon Watershed Integrity: The Game Creek (Xutshéeni) watershed is rated by the Forest Service as of major hydrologic significance and supports spawning Pink Salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha), Chum Salmon (Oncorhynchus keta), Coho Salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), and Coastal Cutthroat Trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii). The roadless condition preserves cold, shaded water, stable spawning gravels, and continuous riparian buffers from headwater to estuarine outflow at Long Bay, sustaining the salmonid life-history conditions that downstream food webs and bear populations depend on.

• Marbled Murrelet Old-Growth Nesting Habitat: The contiguous Coastal Temperate Rainforest of Game Creek retains the large-diameter Sitka spruce and western hemlock canopy that Marbled Murrelet (IUCN Endangered) requires for nesting. Without internal roads, the interior-forest microclimate and intact canopy extend from the shoreline across the watershed's drainage divides, preserving the structural conditions on which this seabird depends. The IUCN Endangered Quinine Conk (Laricifomes officinalis) requires the large-tree substrate found only in unfragmented old-growth.

Potential Effects of Road Construction

• Salmon Stream Sedimentation: Road construction on the steep, wet hillslopes typical of Chichagof Island would expose cut-and-fill slopes that erode chronically into adjacent drainages. Sediment delivered to spawning gravels in Game Creek, Seagull Creek, and Freshwater Creek suffocates salmonid eggs and reduces invertebrate productivity in the cold-water habitats on which downstream tidewater food webs depend. Once installed, road-prism erosion continues for the operational life of the road, and recovery of pre-disturbance gravel structure can take decades after a road is decommissioned.

• Brown Bear Habitat Fragmentation: Road construction in Game Creek would bisect Brown Bear movement corridors with linear features that increase human encounter risk, raise mortality through defensive removal and unlawful take, and reduce the effective size of contiguous habitat. Roads also degrade the riparian salmon habitat used as a critical seasonal food source. Fragmentation of bear habitat at this scale is difficult to reverse once internal corridors are introduced.

• Old-Growth Canopy Fragmentation: Building roads through the unfragmented forest of Game Creek would convert closed-canopy interior habitat into a network of edge zones, increasing solar exposure, wind-throw, and invasive-plant establishment along disturbed corridors. The interior-forest microclimate that sustains the large-tree canopy needed by Marbled Murrelet does not re-form once it is broken; the resulting edges propagate further degradation into adjacent stands and reduce habitat value across far more forest than is physically cleared by the road.

Game Creek is a 54,469-acre Inventoried Roadless Area on northern Chichagof Island, just southwest of the Tlingit village of Hoonah. Recreation here is a mix of road-end access from Hoonah and water-accessed dispersed travel along the Icy Strait shoreline.

Hiking and Walking. Indian River Road (FS 317500) extends 6.7 miles into the area's eastern margin as a primitive forest road suitable for walking and limited vehicle use; an additional 2.1-mile unnamed road segment provides connecting access. There are no maintained trails, signed trailheads, or developed campgrounds within the roadless area itself. Walking from the road end leads into dense moss-floored hemlock-spruce forest along the Game Creek (Xutshéeni) drainage.

Sea Kayaking and Small-Boat Travel. The shoreline of Game Creek faces Icy Strait, with named landmarks at Burnt Point and Game Point and access through The Narrows into Long Bay and Seal Bay. The Kulichkof Reefs require attention to tide and swell. Paddlers based in Hoonah can reach the area's coves in a few hours of travel along the south shore of Port Frederick and around the western point. Open-water exposure to the wind and swell of Icy Strait makes weather windows the primary trip-planning variable.

Hunting. Brown Bear (Ursus arctos), American Black Bear (Ursus americanus), Sitka black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus), and waterfowl support hunting opportunities regulated by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Chichagof Island holds one of the highest densities of Brown Bear in North America. Hunters should consult the current Game Management Unit regulations and reporting requirements before traveling.

Fishing. The Game Creek system supports spawning Pink Salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha), Chum Salmon (Oncorhynchus keta), Coho Salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), and Coastal Cutthroat Trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii); stream-mouth and lower-stream zones can be productive when the runs are in. Saltwater fishing in Icy Strait targets Pacific Halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis), Yelloweye Rockfish (Sebastes ruberrimus), Quillback Rockfish (Sebastes maliger), and Pacific Cod.

Wildlife Viewing and Birding. The area's eBird hotspots include Game Creek (restricted access) with 139 species and the nearby Hoonah-area Long Island Causeway with 149 species. Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris), Steller Sea Lion (Eumetopias jubatus), Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae), and Orca (Orcinus orca) work the waters of Icy Strait. The forest interior holds Varied Thrush (Ixoreus naevius), Pacific Wren (Troglodytes pacificus), Olive-sided Flycatcher (Contopus cooperi), and Western Screech-Owl (Megascops kennicottii). Salmon-spawning runs in late summer concentrate Brown Bear, Bald Eagle, and Glaucous-winged Gull (Larus glaucescens) along the creek's gravel bars.

Photography. Salmon-run wildlife photography along the lower Game Creek drainage, marine landscape work from a small boat in Long Bay and Seal Bay, and coastal-forest landscape from the Indian River Road approach all draw photographers to the area. Bear-aware practice is essential during salmon season.

Every activity above depends on the roadless condition of Game Creek's interior. The salmon-bearing creek system that drives the area's bear density and fishery, the unfragmented forest that supports Marbled Murrelet nesting, and the absence of internal roads beyond the Indian River Road approach all turn on the protections in place under the 2001 Roadless Rule. Visitors should plan for full remoteness off the road, bear country at every creek crossing, and rapid weather changes on Icy Strait.