McKenzie

McKenzie covers 83,103 acres on the southern half of Prince of Wales Island in the Tongass National Forest of Southeast Alaska. The terrain is mountainous and montane, rising from saltwater shorelines to Nipple Butte (2,329 ft), Beaver Mountain, and Barren Mountain (3,294 ft), with Clover Point projecting into the bay. The Clover Bay watershed defines the area's hydrology: rainwater and snowmelt run off the slopes through Clover Creek, Old Tom Creek, Omar Creek, Polk Creek, Portage Creek, Rock Creek, Spiral Creek, and Sunny Creek, each cutting its own short, steep path through hemlock-dominated forest into the headwaters of Clover Bay. The streams carry spawning salmon into the interior and return organic matter to the marine system at every tide.

The dominant canopy is Western Hemlock - Sitka Spruce Maritime Forest, with Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) holding the windward edges and western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) filling the wetter interior slopes. On richer benches and lower valley walls, Western Hemlock - Western Redcedar Forest mixes western redcedar (Thuja plicata) and Alaska yellow cedar (Callitropsis nootkatensis) into the canopy. Along the creek bottoms, Sitka Spruce / Salmonberry Floodplain Forest builds a dense understory of salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis), red-berried elder (Sambucus racemosa), and green alder (Alnus alnobetula). On flat, poorly drained terraces, Shore Pine / Sphagnum Muskeg supports stunted lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) over thick peat, with round-leaved sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) and the white-flowered choriso bog orchid (Platanthera chorisiana) anchoring the surface. Mountain Hemlock / Blueberry Forest takes over above 1,500 feet, where western lily of the valley (Maianthemum dilatatum) and rice root (Fritillaria camschatcensis) mark the wetter subalpine pockets.

The forest supports a vertically distributed wildlife community. Pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) and coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) ascend the named creeks each summer and autumn, drawing American black bear (Ursus americanus) into streamside gravels and bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) onto the spruce snags above. Steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) hold the deeper pools. Sitka black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus sitkensis) browse the salmonberry margins and bed in the muskeg edges. The Pacific banana slug (Ariolimax columbianus) cycles cellulose through the forest floor, and the varied thrush (Ixoreus naevius) calls from the mid-canopy of the hemlock-spruce interior. In the offshore waters bounding the area, the pink-footed shearwater (Ardenna creatopus), listed as vulnerable by the IUCN, passes overhead, and the IUCN endangered pinto abalone (Haliotis kamtschatkana) clings to rocky subtidal walls. Portions of this area fall within the potential range of several federally listed species; see the Conservation section for details.

A walk inland from Clover Bay begins at sea level on a salmonberry-tangled creek mouth and climbs through dripping Sitka spruce. Light shifts from the green half-shade of the floodplain to the open canopy of cedar benches above; the air carries the iron smell of stream gravel and the sharper scent of fresh hemlock needles. Higher up, the muskeg opens beneath shore pine, the ground turning spongy and footing slower. Toward Barren Mountain's shoulder the forest thins into mountain hemlock and blueberry, the sea visible again between trunks, and the constant sound of running water gives way to wind across the upper slope.

McKenzie lies on the southern half of Prince of Wales Island, the largest island in Southeast Alaska, within the Craig Ranger District of the Tongass National Forest [4]. The history of these forests is inseparable from the people who have lived along them for ten millennia.

Archaeologists have dated artifacts found on Prince of Wales Island to as much as 10,300 years before the present [2]. The Tlingit were the first to settle the island, harvesting salmon, weaving cedar and spruce-root baskets, and carving canoes for trade with coastal Haida and Tsimshian and with inland peoples [2]. The Tlingit and Haida record their presence on these lands as extending from time immemorial, when the two nations lived as separate and distinct peoples, stewarding lands and waters, practicing art and science, and engaging in trade [1]. Beginning in the early 1700s, Kaigani Haida migrated north from Haida Gwaii in present-day British Columbia and established permanent settlements on the island [2].

After the United States purchased Russian America in 1867, federal interest in Southeast Alaska's spruce and hemlock forests grew. In 1902 President Theodore Roosevelt established the Alexander Archipelago Forest Reserve, a precursor to the Tongass National Forest [3]. In 1907 Roosevelt's proclamation established the Tongass and Chugach National Forests, bringing the lands that include the present McKenzie roadless area under federal management [3]. The reservation came without the consent of the Indigenous nations: in 1929 the Alaska Native Brotherhood passed a resolution to sue the United States government for the creation of the Tongass National Forest without the permission of the Indigenous people of Southeast Alaska [1].

Across the early twentieth century, the Haida people consolidated five villages at Hydaburg in 1911 [2]. In 1933 the Civilian Conservation Corps began to build campgrounds, roads, and trails on the Tongass and to restore the totem poles of Southeast Alaska; many of the poles standing on Prince of Wales today were carved in the 1930s by CCC artists replicating older village poles [3][2]. Industrial logging arrived in force during the Second World War, when in 1942 the Alaska Spruce Log Program was established on the Tongass to provide airplane lumber for military use [3]. In 1951 the first of two 50-year federal timber contracts began with a pulp mill in Ketchikan, opening Prince of Wales Island to large-scale industrial logging [3].

Congress recognized the Tlingit and Haida people as a single tribe in 1935 (49 Stat 388) [1], and in 1968 the U.S. Court of Claims awarded the tribe $7.5 million for the lands withdrawn to create the Tongass National Forest and Glacier Bay National Monument [1]. The 83,103-acre McKenzie Inventoried Roadless Area, in the Craig Ranger District of the Tongass National Forest, is today protected under the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

Vital Resources Protected

• Cold-Water Stream Integrity: The Clover Bay watershed gathers cold rainwater and snowmelt across the 83,103-acre roadless area and delivers it through Clover Creek, Old Tom Creek, Omar Creek, Polk Creek, Portage Creek, Rock Creek, Spiral Creek, and Sunny Creek into the headwaters of Clover Bay. With forested slopes intact, the system retains the shaded, low-sediment, structurally complex spawning substrate that pink salmon, coho salmon, and steelhead trout depend on. Each named stream serves as both a salmon corridor and a delivery route for marine-derived nutrients back into the surrounding forest.

• Unfragmented Maritime and Floodplain Forest: Western Hemlock - Sitka Spruce Maritime Forest and Western Hemlock - Western Redcedar Forest extend in continuous canopy from the saltwater shoreline upslope, with Sitka Spruce / Salmonberry Floodplain Forest threading the valley bottoms. Without internal road networks, this contiguous canopy maintains the deep-shade microclimate, large woody debris recruitment, and old-growth structural complexity that distinguish the maritime rainforest of Southeast Alaska from logged-over second growth.

• Wetland-Upland Transition Zones: Shore Pine / Sphagnum Muskeg (peatland) sits on flat, poorly drained terraces between floodplain forests below and Mountain Hemlock / Blueberry Forest above. The undisturbed hydrology of these peat surfaces preserves long-term carbon storage and the small wetland flora that depend on a saturated, undrained surface. The unbroken transition from muskeg into adjacent forest types maintains habitat continuity for amphibians, invertebrates, and species moving between elevational bands.

Potential Effects of Road Construction

• Sedimentation and stream temperature shifts in salmon-bearing creeks: Cut slopes, ditches, and unstable fill on logging roads in Southeast Alaska deliver chronic fine sediment into receiving streams, smothering the clean gravels that pink, coho, and steelhead salmon require to spawn. Where roads cross or parallel a creek, the loss of riparian canopy raises summer water temperatures, and undersized or perched culverts block adult salmon from reaching upstream spawning reaches. These hydrological and thermal changes can persist for decades after a road is closed.

• Fragmentation of contiguous maritime rainforest: A road through the Western Hemlock - Sitka Spruce Maritime Forest converts continuous interior canopy into linear edge habitat. The edge effect dries soils, opens the canopy to windthrow, and admits invasive species into corridors that previously had no point of entry. Once introduced, blowdown chains and non-native plants can propagate inward from the road for years, eroding the structural complexity that defines old-growth on Prince of Wales Island.

• Hydrological disruption of peatland muskeg: Roads built across Shore Pine / Sphagnum Muskeg require fill that compacts and de-waters peat, while ditching alters the saturated conditions that allow sphagnum and bog plants to persist. Drainage changes propagate beyond the road footprint, lowering the surrounding water table and converting low-productivity peatland into a different, drier system. Because peat accumulates over thousands of years, the original wetland hydrology and carbon function are effectively irreversible within management timescales.

McKenzie covers 83,103 acres on the southern half of Prince of Wales Island in the Tongass National Forest. Access is limited: McKenzie Road (FR 2156000) runs roughly 4.3 miles of imported loose material along the eastern boundary, and a short spur (FR 2150600) provides a secondary entry point. The Craig Ranger District does not maintain designated trails, trailheads, campgrounds, or developed sites within the roadless area itself. Recreation here is dispersed and self-supported — visitors plan their own routes from the road system into Clover Bay's drainages and up the slopes of Nipple Butte (2,329 ft) and Barren Mountain (3,294 ft).

Saltwater and stream fishing The Clover Bay headwaters and the named creeks draining into the bay — Clover Creek, Old Tom Creek, Omar Creek, Polk Creek, Portage Creek, Rock Creek, Spiral Creek, and Sunny Creek — carry runs of pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) and coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch). Pinks return in heavy mid-summer numbers; coho follow in late summer and fall. Anglers also work the offshore and nearshore waters off Clover Point for Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis), kelp greenling (Hexagrammos decagrammus), and yellowfin sole (Limanda aspera). All Alaska state fishing regulations apply, and a current Alaska sport fishing license is required.

Hunting The roadless interior supports an American black bear (Ursus americanus) population. Sitka black-tailed deer use the salmonberry margins of the floodplain forest and the muskeg edges. Hunters plan multi-day trips on foot from the road system, using shore landings on Clover Bay where weather and tides allow. Alaska Department of Fish and Game regulations and game management unit boundaries govern season dates, bag limits, and licensing.

Sea kayaking and small-boat paddling Clover Bay opens directly into Cordova Bay, and its sheltered headwaters provide a protected launch for sea kayakers and small skiffs. Paddlers move along forested shorelines under Sitka spruce and western redcedar canopy, with the option to land at creek mouths and follow them upstream on foot. Open-water crossings require attention to wind, tide, and exposure.

Wildlife and bird observation Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) and orcas (Orcinus orca) pass through the surrounding marine waters during summer feeding. Tufted puffin (Fratercula cirrhata) and the IUCN-vulnerable pink-footed shearwater (Ardenna creatopus) frequent the offshore waters. Bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) nest in the older spruce along the bay; northern flicker (Colaptes auratus) work the standing snags inland. Spring and early summer bring giant red paintbrush (Castilleja miniata) and dark-throated shooting star (Primula pauciflora) into the open forest, and the small white-flowered choriso bog orchid (Platanthera chorisiana) on the muskeg surfaces — features photographers and naturalists time their trips around.

Dispersed backcountry travel With no maintained trails, off-road movement requires route-finding through Western Hemlock - Sitka Spruce Maritime Forest, around Shore Pine / Sphagnum Muskeg terraces, and up into Mountain Hemlock / Blueberry Forest above 1,500 feet. The Sitka Spruce / Salmonberry Floodplain Forest along the creek bottoms can be thick going. Most parties keep to creek-side benches when ascending toward Nipple Butte or Barren Mountain.

The recreation here depends directly on the area's roadless condition. The interior of McKenzie has no internal road network beyond the boundary roads — that absence is what preserves the salmon spawning gravels of the named creeks, the unfragmented black bear and deer range, and the quiet, low-traffic shorelines where humpback whales and orcas pass offshore. Each activity above would be measurably reduced by the sedimentation, stream-temperature changes, habitat fragmentation, and increased disturbance that road construction would introduce.