Harding

The Harding Roadless Area encompasses 174,349 acres within the Tongass National Forest, Alaska, positioned along the Coast Mountains of Southeast Alaska with Duck Point marking a coastal feature. The area drains primarily through the Harding River system, with major tributaries including Gray Creek, Eagle River, Tom Creek, Marten Creek, Tyee Creek, Hidden Creek, and Hoya Creek flowing into a network of interior lakes — Little Eagle Lake, Marten Lake, Tom Lake, and Eagle Lake — before reaching coastal waters. This major hydrological system sustains pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha), chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta), and sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) accessing interior spawning grounds through the river and creek drainages. Dolly Varden (Salvelinus malma) occupy cold headwaters year-round.

The dominant vegetation communities reflect the Coastal Western Hemlock–Sitka Spruce Zone characteristic of Southeast Alaska. Western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) and Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) form the primary forest canopy on lower to mid-elevation slopes, with Alaska-cedar (Callitropsis nootkatensis) and mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana) occupying wetter upper-elevation sites where forest transitions to subalpine conditions. Devil's club (Oplopanax horridus) and salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis) define the dense shrub layer beneath the canopy. On poorly drained terrain and at higher elevations, bog communities develop around common Labrador-tea (Rhododendron groenlandicum), bog rosemary (Andromeda polifolia), black crowberry (Empetrum nigrum), and round-leaved sundew (Drosera rotundifolia). The slender bog orchid (Platanthera stricta) and hooded ladies'-tresses (Spiranthes romanzoffiana) appear in wet meadow and fen habitats, while leatherleaf saxifrage (Leptarrhena pyrolifolia) marks the upper subalpine margins.

The Harding Roadless Area supports wildlife tied to old-growth forest, freshwater drainages, and coastal marine environments. American black bears (Ursus americanus) and brown bears (Ursus arctos) concentrate along salmon-bearing streams during fall runs. Moose (Alces alces) browse shrub and meadow edges in riparian corridors. Bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) hunt both forest edge and shoreline. Marbled murrelets (Brachyramphus marmoratus, IUCN: endangered) nest in old-growth interior and commute to nearshore waters to forage. American dippers (Cinclus mexicanus) wade the swift creek beds in search of invertebrates. Sea otters (Enhydra lutris, IUCN: endangered) and harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) occupy adjacent coastal waters, while humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) feed offshore. Greater yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca, IUCN: near threatened) and black oystercatchers (Haematopus bachmani) use intertidal and wetland margins. Portions of this area fall within the potential range of several federally listed species; see the Conservation section for details.

Moving through the Harding Roadless Area from the coast inland, a visitor encounters the transition from saltwater edge — where surf scoters (Melanitta perspicillata) and common mergansers (Mergus merganser) work tidal outflows — to the dark interior of old-growth hemlock-spruce forest. Following the Harding River upstream toward Eagle Lake and Marten Lake, the canopy gives way to open lake margins bordered by sedge meadows and subalpine shrub. In the bog communities at mid-elevation, insectivorous sundews emerge from sphagnum mats, and Menzies' burnet (Sanguisorba menziesii, IUCN: vulnerable) — a Pacific coastal species of limited range — occupies shoreline habitats.

The Harding Roadless Area encompasses 174,349 acres in the Tongass National Forest, spanning Hoonah-Angoon, Ketchikan Gateway, and Wrangell Counties and draining through the Harding River watershed toward the waters of southeastern Alaska. The area is managed within the Wrangell Ranger District of the USFS Alaska Region. These lands lie within a landscape of Indigenous occupation extending more than 10,000 years before European contact — the Tongass National Forest is, and always has been, the traditional homeland of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples [1].

For the Wrangell area specifically, the ancestral inhabitants were the Stikine Tlingit, known in their own language as the Shtax'héen Ḵwáan — the People of the Bitter, Unwholesome Water, referring to the silt-laden Stikine River [11]. The Stikine Tlingit migrated from the Canadian interior down through Southeast Alaska's Stikine River corridor and established settlements dating back at least 8,000 years [8]. Archaeological sites within the Tongass National Forest near Wrangell have been reliably dated in excess of 9,000 years before the present [10]. The Stikine Tlingit maintained extensive trading networks extending from Southeast Alaska into the interior of Canada and along the Copper River corridor, and ten distinct Stikine River clans occupied the region surrounding what is now modern Wrangell [8].

Euro-American commercial activity reached the Wrangell area in the early nineteenth century under successive Russian, British, and American flags. In 1861, Alexander "Buck" Choquette discovered gold on a tributary of the Stikine River above Wrangell — the first known gold discovery in Alaska, which launched the first of three gold rushes that periodically transformed the regional economy [10]. The Stikine River served as the primary corridor into the Klondike interior during the rushes of the 1870s and 1890s, at one point drawing more than 10,000 persons to Wrangell simultaneously [10]. By 1929, two salmon canneries and two shrimp and crab canneries operated within Wrangell, employing over 150 people [10].

Following the establishment of the Tongass National Forest in 1907, commercial timber emerged as the dominant industry in the Wrangell area. By 1909, nearly all commercial timber in Southeast Alaska had been incorporated into the Tongass, with the region averaging approximately 15 million board feet of annual harvest [9]. During World War II, the Tongass supplied Sitka spruce for aircraft manufacture — Wrangell's first sawmill had itself supplied airplane lumber to Great Britain [10]. In 1951, the Forest Service signed its first fifty-year timber contract, underwriting the construction of a large-scale pulp mill at Ketchikan [9]. In 1954, Wrangell Lumber Company was incorporated by a Japanese parent firm — Alaska Pulp Company, Ltd. — as part of a broader effort to direct Tongass timber to postwar Japanese reconstruction [9]. The Wrangell sawmill operated under this framework until it was shut down in November 1994 [9].

The Harding area's federal designation began in 1902 when President Theodore Roosevelt established the Alexander Archipelago Forest Reserve, the precursor to the Tongass National Forest [3]. Five years later, in 1907, the Tongass National Forest was formally established by presidential proclamation [3]. Today, the Harding Roadless Area is protected under the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

Vital Resources Protected

Cold Headwater Stream and Lake Connectivity

The Harding Roadless Area maintains 174,349 acres of unroaded forest within the Harding River watershed, preserving intact riparian buffers that regulate temperature, sediment loading, and channel structure in the Harding River, Eagle River, Tom Creek, Marten Creek, Tyee Creek, Hidden Creek, Gray Creek, and Hoya Creek. Roadless conditions preserve the hydrological connectivity between interior lakes — Little Eagle Lake, Marten Lake, Tom Lake, and Eagle Lake — and coastal spawning habitat, enabling unimpeded salmon passage through the entire drainage system. Dolly Varden use the lake-stream continuum for seasonal movement, and the undisturbed forest floor and root systems prevent the sediment pulses that clog spawning gravels and reduce dissolved oxygen levels critical to pink, chum, and sockeye salmon reproduction.

Interior Old-Growth Habitat for Nesting Specialists

Roadless conditions across the Harding area preserve the large-diameter trees, standing snags, and multilayer canopy that old-growth-dependent species require. The marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus, IUCN: endangered) nests on large-diameter platform branches in old-growth spruce and hemlock, requiring interior forest far from fragmentation edges. Alaska-cedar (Callitropsis nootkatensis, IUCN: G4) occupies wetter upper-slope and subalpine habitats that depend on the undisturbed soil hydrology that intact forest sustains. Second-growth forest cannot replicate the structural complexity that these species require for decades after disturbance.

Wetland and Subalpine Ecosystem Integrity

The Harding area's bog and fen communities — anchored by sphagnum, Labrador-tea, black crowberry, and specialized bog orchids — represent high-productivity wetland habitat that exists in roadless condition as a continuous mosaic with the surrounding old-growth forest. Greater yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca, IUCN: near threatened) use wetland margins during migration and breeding; Menzies' burnet (Sanguisorba menziesii, IUCN: vulnerable), a Pacific coastal plant with limited global distribution, occupies shoreline habitats within the area. Roadless conditions preserve the intact hydrological regime — undisturbed water table levels, minimal nutrient loading, and sphagnum-dominated peat accumulation — that sustains these communities.

Potential Effects of Road Construction

Sedimentation and Disrupted Fish Passage

Road construction in the Harding watershed would require cut slopes and stream crossings on varied Coast Mountain terrain, introducing chronic sediment loads into salmon-bearing drainages. Culverts at road-stream intersections block fish passage to interior spawning habitat in Eagle River, Tom Creek, and Marten Creek, disrupting the lake-stream connectivity that sockeye salmon and Dolly Varden require. These blockages reduce accessible spawning area in the watershed, compressing salmon populations into smaller, lower-gradient reaches that degrade faster under increased fishing and predation pressure.

Forest Fragmentation and Old-Growth Loss

Road corridors fragment the interior old-growth that marbled murrelets depend on for nesting, reducing effective interior forest area and increasing predator access to nest sites. Edge effects spread laterally from road corridors — increasing wind exposure, solar radiation, and desiccation — and permanently alter the microclimate that multilayer old-growth structure provides for dozens of meters into the adjacent forest. Once old-growth is fragmented, the conditions that enable murrelet nesting require a century or more to restore.

Wetland Hydrological Disruption

Road construction in proximity to the Harding area's interior lakes and bog communities disrupts hydrological connections between lake basins and surrounding peatlands. Drainage alterations change water table levels in fens and bogs, converting high-productivity wetland communities to drier vegetation types with reduced capacity to filter nutrients and sediments entering lake and stream systems. These hydrological changes persist for decades and are rarely reversible without active intervention, progressively reducing the wetland habitat available to greater yellowlegs and other migratory species that depend on intact bog and fen communities within Southeast Alaska.

Backcountry Access and Dispersed Recreation

The Harding Roadless Area encompasses 174,349 acres of unroaded Coast Mountain terrain in the Wrangell Ranger District of the Tongass National Forest. No formal trails, trailheads, or developed campgrounds are documented within the area, and access requires water transportation — boat or floatplane — to reach the Harding River drainage or the coastal margins. This is a remote dispersed-use area. Visitors planning trips should contact the Wrangell Ranger District for current conditions, permit requirements, and floatplane access points.

Hunting

The area supports game species that draw hunters to remote Tongass drainages. Brown bears (Ursus arctos) and American black bears (Ursus americanus) are present throughout, with concentrations near salmon-bearing streams during fall spawning runs in the Harding River and its tributaries. Moose (Alces alces) occupy riparian and shrub-edge habitats in the creek corridors, and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) are also present. Hunting in Alaska requires current state licenses and applicable tags; species-specific regulations, seasons, and any unit restrictions are set by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Fishing

The Harding River, Eagle River, Tom Creek, Marten Creek, and Tyee Creek support pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha), chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta), and sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) runs, with Dolly Varden (Salvelinus malma) in cold headwater reaches and interior lakes — Little Eagle Lake, Marten Lake, Tom Lake, and Eagle Lake. Fly fishing for Dolly Varden and salmon in remote, unroaded drainages requires floatplane or boat access. Sportfishing requires a current Alaska fishing license; species-specific seasons are set by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Wildlife Observation

The bird community characteristic of old-growth Tongass forest is well represented: marbled murrelets (Brachyramphus marmoratus) forage in nearshore waters and nest in old-growth interior; bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) patrol shoreline and forest edge; and American dippers (Cinclus mexicanus) wade the creek beds in search of invertebrates. Black oystercatchers (Haematopus bachmani) occupy rocky intertidal zones along coastal margins. Sea otters (Enhydra lutris) and harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) appear in adjacent coastal waters. The varied thrush (Ixoreus naevius) calls from forest interior during spring, and the rufous hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus, IUCN: near threatened) visits flowering shrubs along drainages from spring through late summer.

What the Roadless Condition Sustains

Recreation in the Harding area depends on the absence of roads. The salmon runs in the Harding River and its tributaries — the foundation of both the fishing and the bear-viewing — require the undisturbed spawning gravels that intact, forested watersheds produce. The wilderness hunting character of the area depends on large unfragmented terrain without road access that would increase hunting pressure and reduce wildlife wariness. The remote lake basins accessible only by floatplane or on foot represent a category of fishing and wildlife experience that exists only because the watershed remains without roads.