New Recording 73

The discussion focused on the importance of citing examples when making arguments, the legacy of forestry in Southeast Alaska, sustainable forest management, the value of the Tongass as a carbon sink, challenges faced due to clear-cutting in native lands, the potential for carbon credit work, and the need for sustainable practices. The conversation also touched on personal experiences, resource issues, interviewing experts, and study enthusiasm. The dialogue ended with a warm exchange and offers of further assistance. So you're always going to be looking for examples to see if there's something and a lot of times you're going to need to cite, refer back to those when you're making an argument for doing one thing or another. You can say, these have been done elsewhere and here's what the pros and cons are or what have you. Yeah. So you're always going to be looking for something like along those lines. Obviously the closer to home, it's hard to say something in Arizona that's going to overlap quite the same as it might be in Alaska, but there still might be similarities with the visitor study about how things are implemented or what have you that you know, you might apply or overlap. Yeah. Did I answer your question? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. The phrasing took me a little while. Yeah. No worries. No worries. And I think my last question is kind of broad, but what would you like the legacy of forestry to look like in Southeast Alaska? Hmm. Well, I'd like it to be done environmentally, you know, correctly. Now that varies depending on what, you know, a person's particular viewpoint is, but it's done so it's sustainable and, you know, it makes economic sense, but it has to be sustainable. It can't just be about dollars, it's got to be about the other resources. And obviously, I think the forest is, you know, management has changed in that direction quite a bit. You know, the one thing we haven't really talked about that's become bigger and bigger is the Tongass as a carbon sink for global warming and more and more in the forest plan, you're going to see, you're seeing that being factored in, you know, the fact, the value of the Tongass as a, you know, carbon source. Mm-hmm. It's a big one. Yeah. Yeah. I almost had a summer job with, I think Terra Verde, Terra Verde, which is like a firm, I think the owner lives in Juneau, but they do a lot of like carbon credit work. I think on native corporation lands, and I almost did that down in Prince of Wales, but I guess their funding didn't work out. Yeah. So, that's why. Right. And, you know, it wouldn't surprise me because, you know, a lot of, you know, Prince of Wales and native lands actually got stripped bare, you know, clear cut because they were chasing the dollar and they basically wiped it out, much like, you know, you get around Hoonah right around Fort Frederick, where Hoonah's at, you know, and they were subject to some of the same restrictions that the Forest Service imposed on its own lands. And so, they really went to town and cut everything, you know, no buffers and things like that. And so, the only thing left is carbon, you know, and some to a degree is going to be carbon credits because they don't have anything else to, you know, they took a short-term approach to managing the land. Yeah. Okay. That's really interesting. Yeah. Yeah. The subsistence value disappeared. They clear cut it. The subsistence and the clear cut, you know, you know, the fisheries may have been impacted and certainly the recreation aspect disappeared, so all that's left is, you know, the carbon in terms of that, even a lot of that's gone because the trees were gone and sequestered a lot of the carbon. So, yeah. It's an interesting situation. Yeah. So, like, people don't really go there, like, animals don't really go there as much with all of that, like, it's not as used anywhere with that. Yeah. Yeah. There isn't, like Kim was saying, the obstacles from the cut trees, but many, I don't know, I think a lot of the land that was cut was many, many years ago and hopefully things have... Yeah. I mean, it was cut in the 80s, probably in the 80s and 90s, and a lot of that would now and once again, it's probably 40, 50 years in, so it's probably, it's gone from the, what they call the, you know, dense, what they call dog hair, it's the thick, dog hair is thick, it's so thick, it's like dog hair. I mean, you literally, and so now the trees are probably, you know, they might be this big around and, but they're still probably too dense, so, you know, maybe they can do a commercial thinning versus what they call, you know, commercial thinning is when you try to cut trees and make some money off of it. Pre-commercial thinning is just trying to clear them out so you can allow some trees to grow and you're not really getting any money back out of it. I don't know, and on the native land, they maybe do have doing more thinning than the Forest Service has done, so I don't really know the status of what's going on on their land. That would be a question you might want to ask someone at, you know, Gold Belt, BC Alaska, or what have you. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. Thank you. I think that was all the questions that I had. Well, I have a ton more, but I, but thank you so much for chatting with me. Well, you can always call us back if you have more, and if you are interested in talking to anyone else in the Forest Service, for sure. Yeah. I can give you names, and if you want to talk to them, what I'll do is I touch base with them and say, hey, this woman, Sally Thompson, may call you. She's in Sweden, and I suspect that they'd love to talk to you. Okay. Yeah. We all love talking about these resource issues, so I suspect that if you're interested, they'll be as enthusiastic as Ann and I were tonight. Okay. Yeah, that would be great. I think, like, yeah, I have so many questions, and I think talking to people helps so much, like understanding and also what I need to pay attention to in school, like points of interest and what, making sure I make the most of things that'll be helpful later on. I think the hard part for you is there's so much out there to think about that narrowing it down to something meaningful that you can put into a paper without it being, you know, so you have enough to distill down to one or two resources or what have you you want to talk about versus the whole Congress plan, which covers everything under the sun. Yeah, definitely. I think it makes it more interesting when you get a personal touch, like people who have actually worked in the field, rather than just quoting something from a book that you read or something. Right, yeah. Yeah. They've experienced it and they've worked it, and they have the history of the forest and knowledge from that. Yeah, and that's good. Yeah. And that's good for interviewing people. That's a good idea. Yeah. And like what they've seen personally and like experienced on the ground. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Is there anything you want to add or do you have any questions for me for in the interview? Nothing really to add. We've probably overwhelmed you already in that regard. But no, it just sounds to me, you know, it's great you're enthusiastic about what you're studying, which is really the most important thing. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. When do you go come back home? I think June 9th or sometime in June. I'll be, I think I'll finish up here and then I might try and go home for like a month or two and then be in Vancouver next year, Vancouver, BC. But, yeah. And you may be home at Christmas time, you said? Yeah, I might. I didn't really expect that, but then I was looking at, I had more time than I expected. I had like almost three weeks off. So, I thought that would be worth it. So, you don't want to spend it in Sweden? Yeah. I know I was excited to and maybe have my parents visit, but my brother has basketball. So. They don't want them? No, they said your brother has basketball. Yeah, which I guess is, you can't miss that. So, yeah. Is he a senior? Is he a senior in high school now? He's a junior. Oh, okay, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay. I knew for a while he was playing soccer, but I didn't know he was also a basketball player. Yeah, he kind of does everything. Yeah, he does like cross-country basketball and soccer. He stays pretty busy. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, good for him. Or if you wind up coming back and you want to, you know, have any more questions, you can just wander over. Walk down the street. Right down the street. You know, we see your mom and dad. In fact, I saw your mom walking Rio today, and I stopped and talked to her. I think it was two days ago, I talked to your dad. Yeah. He was walking Rio, and I said, hey, I understand I'm going to be talking to your daughter soon. And he was like, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Aw. That's awesome. Yeah, definitely. Oh, yeah. That would be great. Okay. All right. Take care. Good luck with your studies. Yeah. Thank you. Let us know if you need anything else. We're happy to help. Okay. Sounds good. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning.