Randy Olson, Melissa Farlow Photography

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  • A small community seen from the air is located in the fringes of an estuary along the Lynn Canal part of the Inside Passage. The intertidal or littoral zone in Alaska's Southeast maintains a balance between the land and the sea. The habitat of fresh and salt water is harsh and critical for marine life and birds.
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  • Estuaries seen from the air along the Lynn Canal are shrouded in morning fog. The intertidal or littoral zone maintains a balance between the land and the sea. The shoreline is along the Inside Passage in Alaska's Southeast is a combination of saltwater and freshwater, a hostile environment but a habitat refuge for some species.
    MM7258_20060729_18629.tif
  • Tongass National Forest is the largest remaining “temperate rainforest” in the world. Islands above Sitka Sound's steep, rugged mountainsides are often cloaked in fog because it receives up to 200 inches of rain a year. The land contains slowly draining granite soil with reflective muskeg bogs as well as limestone karst.
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  • Islands surrounded by icy waters are seen from the air near Glacier Bay National Park. The wilderness contains rugged mountains, glaciers, rainforest and wild coastlines with sheltered fjords in Southeast Alaska.
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  • Cradling his puppy, “Meatball,” a youth hangs out on the dock of the float house. The family built their home off the coast of Prince of Wales Island which is only accessible by float plane or by boat. The houses are characteristic of Southeast Alaska, tied down with ropes and floating on the water in an isolated bay.<br />
Life in remote Alaska offers adventures and an atypical lifestyle rich in experiences.
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  • Fog-draped forest wilderness and rugged mountains are typical in Southeast Alaska where the 17 million acre Tongass National Forest receives an average of 200 inches of precipitation a year.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075040.jpg
  • Conservationists hike through a 600-year old uncut old growth forest of tall trees. It can take a 1000 years for spruce, hemlock and Sitka cedar to grow and tower over a lush forest floor.<br />
Tongass National Forest in Alaska's Southeast  is the world's largest remaining intact coastal temperate rain forest. Nearly 17 million acres provides habitat for the largest population of Bald Eagles in the world.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075041.jpg
  • Fog shrouds steep cliffs on the forested hillsides of Mount Juneau in the Tongass National Forest. Sitka Spruce and Hemlock thrive in the wet environment that receives over 200 inches of rain a year.
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  • A conservation group hikes through wilderness and old growth crossing creeks and rough terrain in Tongass National Forest.
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  • Fog lifts over forested islands and muskeg terrain above Sitka Sound. Tongass National Forest is 17 million acres, the largest temperate rainforest in the world.
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  • Wilderness islands off Prince of Wales Island at the Dixon Entrance of the Inside Passage seen in an aerial view.<br />
Tongass National Forest covers 16.7 million acres stretching over mountains, bays, glaciers, 1,000 islands, 18,000 miles of coastline, and almost all of mainland Southeast Alaska. Approximately 94% of Southeast Alaska is federally managed lands, and of that, 60% is set aside as Congressionally-designated Wilderness, National Parks, and National Monuments.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075088.jpg
  • Scientists climb on gigantic stumps of trees cut years ago while they hiking through surveying what is left of the old growth forest. Tongass National Forest encompasses 16.8 million acres and is the largest temperate rain forest on the planet. The 600 to 800 year old trees lin these forests forests contribute irreplaceable biological diversity.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1073538.jpg
  • Trees in the Tongass National Forest, which is a temperate rainforest, grow on a moss-covered rocky shore near Sitka Sound.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075039.jpg
  • A kayaker carries his boat to higher ground to explore the wilderness in Southeast Alaska's Tongass National Forest. Tidal changes are extreme along islands in the Inside Passage.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075153.jpg
  • A timber faller works alone with a chain saw in the forest cutting trees one by one at Winter Harbor on Prince of Wales Island. It is dangerous work.<br />
 The forests in the Tongass can take a 1000 years for spruce, hemlock and Sitka cedar to grow and tower over a lush forest floor in Alaska's Southeast.<br />
Less than 5 percent of the entire Tongass is composed of high-volume old growth. The biggest and best trees, the biological heart of the rainforest, has been cut—much of it for pulp.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075148.jpg
  • Fog drifts over a secluded estuary and the Thorne River on Prince of Wales Island seen from the air in Southeast Alaska. The main island includes hundreds of adjacent smaller islands—a total of more than 2,600 square miles with 990 miles of coastline and countless bays coves, inlets, and points.<br />
Fjords, steep-sided mountains, and dense forests characterize the island. Extensive tracts of limestone include karst features.
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  • Early morning fog lifts revealing snowy Mount Juneau above the Tongass National Forest seen from Douglass Island across Gastineau Channel.
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  • Shredded remains of trees on the edge of a forest that was clear cut on Prince of Wales Island in the Tongass National Forest. At nearly 17 million acres, the Tongass rainforest is composed of considerable stands of old-growth forest, with some trees standing more than 800 years old. <br />
Less than 5 percent of the entire Tongass is composed of high-volume old growth.<br />
The biggest and best trees, the biological heart of the rainforest, has been cut—much of it for pulp.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075108.jpg
  • Shredded remains of trees are the spoils left after a forest is clear cut on Prince of Wales Island in the Tongass National Forest. At nearly 17 million acres, the Tongass rainforest is composed of considerable stands of old-growth forest, with some trees more than 800 years old.<br />
Less than 5 percent of the entire Tongass is composed of high-volume old growth.<br />
The biggest and best trees, the biological heart of the rainforest, has been cut—much of it for pulp.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075083.jpg
  • Logging roads zig zag making a pattern seen from the air after a recent clear cut forest creating a barren slope on Admiralty Island. Less than 5 percent of the entire Tongass National Forest is composed of high-volume old growth. The biggest and best trees, the biological heart of the rainforest, has been cut—much of it for pulp.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075047.jpg
  • Cody, a timber faller, works alone in the woods at Winter Harbor on Prince of Wales Island. It’s dangerous work, and fallers listen for others’ saws between cuts to make sure a buddy isn't injured. Following his father’s example, Cody wanted to be a timber faller since he was a kid. He got his first chain saw when he was nine and has been working since he turned seventeen.<br />
  He leaves home at 5 a.m. driving an hour to the work site. Carrying a heavy chain saw, he walks with the grace of a ballet dancer on a maze of fallen trees. His shoes, called corks that cost as much as $750, have metal-spiked soles so he is stable on fallen trees.<br />
  Loggers and fishermen rank in the top two spots for most dangerous jobs. Both are common lines of work for people in the Alaskan outdoors. Since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking fatal occupational injuries in 1980, there were 4,547 fatal work injuries in 2010, and fatality rates of some occupations remain alarmingly high.
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  • Fog slowly lifts in the valley following a morning snow in Juneau near the Mendenhall Glacier and surrounding mountain peaks in the Tongass National Forest.
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  • Friends play on a rope swing on an island in the Tongass National Forest where they were camping with their families.
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  • The Taku River flows out of the Coastal Range in British Columbia to 100 miles northeast of Juneau, Alaska. <br />
A world-class wilderness, the Taku River watershed contains some of the richest wildlife habitat in North America and is teeming with grizzlies, wolves, Stone’s sheep, moose, woodland caribou, migratory birds, and abundant populations of salmon.  The Taku is southeast Alaska’s top salmon-producing river with nearly 2 million wild salmon returning to the river annually.
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  • Clearing fog slowly dissipates above islands and the reflective, quiet waters in Sitka Sound. Alexander Archipelago has around 1,100 islands, which are actually the tops of a submerged section of the Coast Ranges in Southeast Alaska.
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  • Sunrise gives a warm glow to morning mist rising over Control Lake framed by the forest on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska.
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  • Cross country skier glides along side his dog as snow falls on frozen Mendenhall Lake surrounded by trees at the base of the glacier in Alaska's Southeast.
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  • Shredded tree trunks stand on the edge of a clear cut forest near Thorne Bay on Prince of Wales Island. This is the waste that is left behind that small mills sort through and find usable lumber. As one mill owner said of this opportunity, "One man's trash is another man's treasure."
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  • The axe throwing contest at the annual logging show is one of the many competitions among locals to show off their skills on Prince of Wales Island. Red bulls eye targets are painted on cuts from trees in the Tongass National Forest.
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  • Families hike through the wilderness following the few rough trails on Moser Island in the Tongass National Forest.
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  • A camper juggles outside a cabin to pass time before a trek into the wilderness to explore and survey old growth forests in Alaska's Southeast.
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  • Researchers who study brown bears navigate by boat through driving rain on the Unuk River in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. This is the "dry season," and the region receives more than two hundred inches of rain each year.<br />
Brown bears or grizzlies are prevalent in the Tongass, so there is interest in study of their behavior and range. A decline in the lower 48 states has heightened management concern and an increased interest in habitat-related studies in Alaska. <br />
Results show brown bears avoid clearcuts and are more often found in riparian old growth, wetland, and alpine/subalpine habitat because of more nutritious foraging and better cover.<br />
<br />
The Unuk Study Area is part of Misty Fiords National Monument and classified as wilderness. Because of this, no helicopters are allowed, making primary access by boat since no roads exist. Located 100 km northeast of Ketchikan, the Unuk River, which means “Dream River” in the native Tlingit language, flows from the Canadian border to salt water. Although much of the main river channel is too deep and glacial for bears to fish, the river contains several clear tributaries with spawning salmon.
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  • A logging truck hauls timber from the Tongass National Forest to a sawmill where it will be processed and loaded on ships for export.<br />
Less than 5 percent of the entire Tongass National Forest is composed of high-volume old growth.  The biggest and best trees, the biological heart of the rainforest, has been cut—much of it for pulp.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075024.jpg
  • Loggers compete climbing a 65-foot pole during a logging show that attracts locals to show their skills on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075019.jpg
  • LeConte Glacier issues from the air in the Stikine Icefield. It is one of the few remnants of the once-vast ice sheets that covered much of North America during the Pleistocene, or Ice Age, the epoch lasting from 2.5 million to 11,700 years ago.<br />
<br />
 LeConte covers 2,900 square miles along the crest of the Coastal Mountains that separate Canada and the U.S., extending 120 miles from the Whiting River to the Stikine River in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest.<br />
There are over 100,000 glaciers in Alaska and LeConte is the southernmost active tidewater glacier in the northern hemisphere. Since first charted in 1887, it has retreated almost 2.5 miles but is considered stable.
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  • Sawdust covers a worker’s boots at a salvage mill on Goose Creek on Prince of Wales Island. Although the timber industry has declined in southeast Alaska, the family operation makes red cedar shakes and cuts boards from salvage after a company is done clear cutting trees.<br />
The small company’s work is considered “value–added,” and is acknowledged as the best way to get the most dollars out of each board foot of timber harvested and processed locally.
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  • Hatchet in hand, a man steadies his grasp on the handle during a target competition-one of many challenges at a traditional logging show. The Southeast Alaska region's roots are deep in the heyday of a vibrant logging industry when locals come together for fun competing with saws and hatchets, pole climbing and wheel barrow races.
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  • Melissa Farlow, a photographer on assignment in the Tongass National Forest poses with a tranquilized brown bear (Ursus arctos) that was darted and studied by wildlife researchers.
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  • LeConte Glacier is marked by granite peak formations such as Devis Thumb in the background in the Stikine Icefield seen in an aerial view.<br />
It is one of the few remnants of the once-vast ice sheets that covered much of North America during the Pleistocene, or Ice Age, the epoch lasting from 2.5 million to 11,700 years ago. LeConte covers 2,900 square miles along the crest of the Coastal Mountains that separate Canada and the U.S., extending 120 miles from the Whiting River to the Stikine River in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest.<br />
There are over 100,000 glaciers in Alaska and LeConte is the southernmost active tidewater glacier in the northern hemisphere.
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  • Estuaries along the Lynn Canal are shrouded in morning fog while Lion's Head in the Tongass National Forest rises above as seen in an aerial view.
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  • A storm clears creating a serene landscape along the Mendenhall River after a light, morning snow on trees and surrounding mountains in the Tongass National Forest.
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  • The Taku winds blow icy ridges framing an overlook of the Inside Passage from Douglas Island and the Tongass National Forest near Juneau. Sunset comes early and days are short in the winter months with approximately 7 hours of light.
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  • Taku Glacier is the deepest and thickest alpine temperate glacier in the world. Seen from the air, it originates in the Juneau Icefield of the Tongass National Forest, and converges with the Taku River.
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  • A young black bear (Ursus americanus) feeds on salmon in Anan Creek. The site is accessible for tourists to view wildlife in Alaska's Tongass National Forest.
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  • Aerial view of a cruise ship that docks at Ketchikan's harbor bringing a city full of tourists for shopping and sightseeing. The once logging town is dependent on the growing tourism industry. Nearly a million cruise ship passengers visit Alaska, sometimes doubling a town’s population on a summer day. <br />
The ships travel the Inside Passage, a network of waterways between islands along the coast of Alaska, British Columbia and Washington state. <br />
Travelers can shop for native art and souvenirs or diamonds in one of many jewelry stores along what was a former red-light district during the Gold Rush. The Misty Fjords National Monument is one of the area’s major attractions.
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  • Climbers leave their base camp to trek on the ice field of Mendenhall Glacier. The glacier is one of many that connect to the vast Juneau Ice Field, a 1,500 square mile remnant of the last ice age, cradled high in the coastal mountain’s lofty peaks in the Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075016.jpg
  • Float planes dock to board and carry tourists, then take off over cruise ships to sightsee glaciers, whales and bears. The Misty Fjords National Monument is one of the area’s major attractions.
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  • Heads together, two girl friends beach-comb near the water's edge investigating sea life at low tide in Southeast Alaska. <br />
Scientists have counted at least 170 species of macroscopic invertebrates in the rich marine intertidal zones.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075009.jpg
  • A detail showing a brown bear’s paws and claws while he is tranquilized to be radio-collared by state biologists.  <br />
Grizzly bears, as they are commonly known, are found in most of Alaska from the islands of the Southeast to the Arctic. Over 98 percent of the brown bear population resides in Alaska.<br />
The coastal brown bear is the world’s largest carnivorous land mammal. Nearly 45,000 brown bears (Ursus arctos), roam Alaska, weigh up to 1,100 pounds. Salmon is their primary food source.
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  • Snow-covered Bullard Mountain east of the Mendenhall Glacier creates a peaceful winter scene in the Tongass National Forest.
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  • Hiking and exploring the wilderness in Tongass National Forest, conservationists playfully teach their daughters to whistle using blades of grass.
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  • A black bear (Ursus americanus) feeds on abundant pink salmon in Anan Creek adding needed protein to fatten up on a diet that otherwise consists of cranberries, currants, blueberries, devil's club ants and grubs.  Anan Wildlife Observatory in Tongass National Forest is restricted by permit to keep the bears families that feed there wild.
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  • Harsh winds blow snow across the craggy peaks of the South Chilkat Mountains, illuminating intense, orange colors of a winter sunset.<br />
Photographed from the air, the Coastal Range is directly across the Lynn Canal and the Juneau Icefield in southeast Alaska.
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  • A spotted fawn tries to hide in tall grasses along Pack Creek on Admiralty Island in Tongass National Forest.
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  • Harsh winds blow snow across the craggy ridges and peaks of the South Chilkat Mountains illuminating intense, orange colors of a winter sunset.<br />
The aerial view of the Coastal Range is directly across the Lynn Canal and the Juneau Icefield in southeast Alaska.
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  • A juvenile grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) frolics  while his mother fishes for salmon at Pack Creek on Admiralty Island. The creek runs through an open intertidal meadow before spilling into the ocean. It has the highest concentration of brown bears in Southeast Alaska. Young brown bears begin life on their own when they are approximately two years old.
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  • In spite of the 200 inches of rain the area receives every year, nearly a million cruise ship passengers visit Alaska, sometimes doubling a town’s population on a summer day. As many as six cruise ships make daily stops - and as many as 500 a year - bringing tourists on the Inside Passage, the route through a network of passages between islands along the coast of Alaska, British Columbia and Washington state. Tourism is Southeast Alaska’s fastest growing industry.<br />
One of the stops in Alaska’s Panhandle is the former logging town of Ketchikan. Travelers can shop for Native art and souvenirs or diamonds in one of many jewelry stores along what was a former red-light district during the Gold Rush.
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  • Father and daughter share a tender moment on their boat which is home for the family during fishing season off the coast of Prince of Wales Island in Alaska’s Southeast. When not the fishing for salmon, the family lives on nearby Marble Island and the children are home schooled.<br />
Alaska’s largest and most valuable fisheries target salmon, pollock, crab, herring, halibut, shrimp, sablefish, and Pacific cod.<br />
The total value of Alaska’s commercial fisheries is $1.5 billion for the fishermen, with a wholesale value of $3.6 billion. Economists estimate the commercial seafood industry contributes $5.8 billion and 78,500 jobs to the Alaskan economy. Fisheries management in Alaska is based on scientific assessments and monitoring of harvested populations and is regarded as a model of successful natural resource stewardship.
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  • Cruise ships dock at Ketchikan's harbor, while another waits its' turn. In spite of the 200 inches of rain the region receives every year, nearly a million cruise ship passengers visit Alaska, sometimes doubling a town’s population on a summer day. As many as six cruise ships make daily stops and as many as 500 a year. The Inside Passage is a network of channels between islands along the coast of Alaska, British Columbia and Washington state. Tourism is Southeast Alaska’s fastest growing industry.<br />
The former logging town of Ketchikan, now relies on tourism. Travelers can shop for native art and souvenirs or diamonds in one of many jewelry stores along what was a former red-light district during the Gold Rush.
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  • Nearly a million cruise ship passengers visit Alaska, sometimes doubling a town’s population on a summer day. As many as six cruise ships make daily stops in Ketchikan - and as many as 500 a year - bringing tourists on the Inside Passage. Viewed from the air when landing a float plane, the ship is docked near sunset.<br />
<br />
Tourism is Southeast Alaska’s fastest growing industry. Travelers can shop for Native art and souvenirs or diamonds in one of many jewelry stores along what was a former logging town.
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  • A commercial fishing boat loaded with nets departs in calm waters through Frederick Sound in Southeast Alaska.
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  • The Inside Passage is a draw for cruise ship passengers to shop and sightsee in Ketchikan. Travelers can shop for Native art and souvenirs or diamonds in one of many jewelry stores.<br />
Once a logging town, the city now depends on a growing tourism industry. Nearly a million cruise ship passengers visit Southeast Alaska every year—sometimes doubling a town’s population in one day.
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  • Passengers line up under the starts to wait to board a cruise ship after a rainy afternoon in the dry season in Alaska's Southeast. Tourism is once again a growing business driving the economy in coastal communities.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075037.jpg
  • Crew members refer to this maneuver as the  "fish walk" when they slide across a boat's deck to push pink salmon into the ice storage area. The fishermen were seining in the waters in Southeast Alaska.<br />
Alaska’s fisheries are some of the richest in the world, with fishermen harvesting hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of salmon, crab, herring, halibut, pollock, and groundfish every year. However, overfishing, exploitation, and poor fisheries management in the ‘40s and ‘50s took a heavy toll on the industry. The state adopted drastic measures that saved the fishing industry from collapse. Tough times again hit the fishermen in the 1970s as the number of boats grew and increasingly efficient gear depleted catch levels to record lows.<br />
<br />
Permit systems and reserves helped the commercial industry recover in the late ‘70s—a trend that has continued to the present because of cooperation between scientists and fishermen.
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  • Store window reflections mirror cruise ships arriving to unload shoppers and sightseers in the former logging town of Ketchikan located in Alaska’s Panhandle. Travelers can shop for Native art and souvenirs or diamonds in one of many jewelry stores along what was a former red-light district during the Gold Rush.
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  • Equiped with crampons and emergency equipment, a hiker crawls through a blue ice tunnel formed in the Mendenhall Glacier. As the glaciers in southeast Alaska melt, ice is exposed thousands of years after being buried. Some tunnels in the 1,500-square-mile Juneau Icefield are connected to ice caves, which formed as the glacier moved across uneven surfaces.<br />
<br />
During the Pleistoncene Great Ice Age several climate fluctuations created glacial advance and retreat, and vast sheets of ice covered nearly a third of the Earth’s land mass and one half of Alaska. As the climate warmed during the Holocene, ice retreated remaining in Alaskan at high elevations. The most recent variation in advance and retreat created the Juneau Icefield formed 3,000 years ago and ending in the 1700’s. Mendenhall Glacier has flowed for 250 years for 13 miles ending in a lake at its’ base.
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  • Estuaries shrouded in morning fog are revealed in the intertidal region of the Southeast Alaskan coast along the Lynn Canal in Alaska's Southeastas seen in an aerial view.
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  • A few cars make a traffic jam on a rainy afternoon at the main intersection in Coffman, Cove, Alaska, population 200.<br />
What began as a logging town on Prince of Wales Island is mostly made up of people who stayed on when the industry declined. Boats and off road vehicles are plentiful and a road connects the community to other parts of the island.
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  • A young girl investigates sea life at low tide on Moser Island in Southeast Alaska.<br />
Scientists have counted at least 170 species of macroscopic invertebrates in the rich marine intertidal zones.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075155.jpg
  • Two girls beach-comb near the water's edge investigating crabs and other sea life at low tide in Southeast Alaska.<br />
Scientists have counted at least 170 species of macroscopic invertebrates in the rich marine intertidal zones.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075154.jpg
  • A hiker explores an ice cave recently revealed at Mendenhall Glacier. As the glaciers in southeast Alaska melt, ice is exposed thousands of years after being buried. Some tunnels in the 1,500-square-mile Juneau Icefield are connected to ice caves, which formed as the glacier moved across uneven surfaces.<br />
During the Pleistoncene Great Ice Age several climate fluctuations created glacial advance and retreat, and vast sheets of ice covered nearly a third of the Earth’s land mass and one half of Alaska. As the climate warmed during the Holocene, ice retreated remaining in Alaskan at high elevations. The most recent variation in advance and retreat created the Juneau Icefield formed 3,000 years ago and ending in the 1700’s. Mendenhall Glacier has flowed for 250 years for 13 miles ending in a lake at its’ base.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075149.jpg
  • A rustic, float house, characteristic in Southeast Alaska, is reflected in the waters at dusk. The structure is tied off in a protected cove and accessible only by boat or float plane. Swede and his dog stand on the dock and watch for the evening guests' arrival.
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  • A colorful entrance to a Native Alaskan clan house greets visitors at Totem Bight State Historical Park. It is a replica of a community house representing of those in early nineteen-century native villages of Southeast Alaska. Tlingit or Haida chieftain’s dwelling also housed several families.
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  • Family and friends clean crabs to prepare for dinner at their float house on Piggy Cove in Southeast Alaska.
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  • Water flows off the tail of a diving humpback whale  (Megaptera novaeangliae). Studies show the humpback from Southeast Alaska travels mostly to Hawaii to breed and returns to the cold Alaskan waters.
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  • Rays of sunlight pierce the clouds hanging over Sitka Sound and Baranof Island. Southeast Alaska receives about 200 inches of rain a year creating its moody ambiance.
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  • Workers unload and weigh fish on the dock of a cannery. Petersburg port has the largest home-based halibut fleet in Southeast Alaska.
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  • Cannery workers suit up in gloves, masks, hairnets and protective suits to clean seafood. Petersburg, a fishing village in Southeast Alaska, is known for fishing fleets netting large catch for processing.
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  • Dressed in elegant formal wear, a bride and groom walk to the helicopter to fly up onto a glacier for their wedding ceremony in Southeast Alaska.
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  • A bride picks up the groom for the kiss completing the wedding ceremony. The couple strapped on crampons beneath their formal wear and flew by helicopter onto the Mendenhall Glacier for a memorable experience in Southeast Alaska.
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  • A couple arrives by helicopter and carefully negotiates walking on ice onto the Mendenhall Glacier for their wedding ceremony in Juneau, Alaska.
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  • A couple steadies themselves with crampons and kiss while waiting for their wedding on the icy Mendenhall Glacier in Southeast Alaska.
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  • Icy winds blow snow clouds blow over the jagged ridges of the South Chilkat Mountains that rise above Southeast Alaska's coast. Weather makes aerial photography a challenge as strong gusting winds force small float planes to land.
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  • A man and his dogs drive by in a pickup truck to check out strangers in Coffman Cove. The community is located in Prince of Wales, Hyder County in Alaska with a 2020 population of 168. It is the 110th largest city in Alaska and the 17,162nd largest city in the United States.
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  • A young girl wears a hair net at lunchtime outside a family take-out restaurant in the small fishing village of Petersburg. Located on Mitkof Island, the community attracted immigrants of Scandinavian origin to the Native Alaskan Tlingit settlement in Alaska's Southeast.
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  • A waterfall flows from a melting glacier in the Stikine icefields near Devils Thumb. The Stikine Icecap, seen from the air, straddles Alaska and British Columbia and is known to climbers for its technically demanding and dangerous peaks and spires of granite.
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  • A newly married couple dances while wearing crampons and formal attire as they celebrate on Mendenhall Glacier. Many passengers arrive on cruise ships making tourism the fastest growing industry in Southeast Alaska.
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  • As researchers take measurements to study a brown bear (Ursus arctos) they trapped and tranquilized near the Unuk River, the grizzlies eyes open. They had to work quickly  as the sedative began to wear off.
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  • A tranquilized brown bear (Ursus arctos) creates a problem for Alaska Department of Fish and Game wildlife researchers. They darted a 16-year-old male in Kingsburg Creek tributary of the Unuk River while studying the grizzly bear range and habitat in southeast Alaska near the Canadian border. <br />
The 600-pound males slipped down the edge of a muddy embankment and was too heavy to move. With only a short time to work before the bear is revived, the two men took their research notes and then quickly built the bear a nest of branches so he wouldn’t fall into the creek upon waking.<br />
Brown bears decline in the range and numbers in the lower 48 states heightened management concern in habitat-related studies. It is believed that brown bears avoid clearcuts and are more often found in riparian old growth, wetlands, and alpine/subalpine habitat because of more nutritious foraging and better cover.
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  • A humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) surfaces and dives into Stephens Passage. Studies how the humpback from Southeast Alaska travels mostly to Hawaii to breed and returns in the summer to the cold Alaskan waters.
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  • A young girl examines a common sunstar fish or Crossaster papposus that is exposed at low tide on Moser Island. They normally grow nine or ten arms but can have many more. They have a spiny texture and pray on other sea stars, sea urchins, snails, cucumbers and sea anemones living in the intertidal zone in Alaska's Southeast.
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  • A common sunstar fish or Crossaster papposus is exposed at low tide in a rich intertidal zone on Moser Island in Alaska's Southeast. It normally has nine or ten arms but can have many more. They have a piny texture and pray on other sea stars, sea urchins, snails, cucumbers and sea anemones.
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  • A brown bear (Ursus arctos) stares intently while exploring the intertidal meadow to nearby Pack Creek on Admiralty Island. <br />
With the highest concentration of grizzly bears in all of southeast Alaska, biologists estimate that the Alaskan grizzly population is holding strong at about 45,000 bears -about 40 times the number in the rest of the U.S. The decline in the range and numbers in the lower 48 states has heightened management concern and an increased interest in habitat-related studies. Juvenile grizzly bears usually separate from their mothers when they are two years old.
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  • Droplets of rain water bead on tall grasses in an uplift meadow on Moser Island in Southeast Alaska.
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  • Friends come together at The Riggin Shack, a general store that is one of a few businesses in Coffman Cove, Alaska, population 200. The community on Prince of Wales Island was settled as a logging town and people stayed although the industry declined. The community offers services for visitors that include a fuel station, liquor store, lodging, guiding for hunters and fishermen, a library with Internet service and outdoor tours.
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  • Warm light of the setting sun highlights jagged peaks of granite cloaked by hanging glaciers in the Stikine Icefield seen from the air. The icecap straddles the US-Canadian border between the Stikine River and Frederick Sound in Alaska's Southeast.
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  • A common sunstar fish or Crossaster papposus is exposed at low tide in the intertidal zone on Moser Island in Southeast Alaska. The sea creature normally has nine or ten arms but like this one growing sixteen, they can have many more. They have a spiny texture and pray on other sea stars, sea urchins, snails, cucumbers and sea anemones.
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  • Two fishermen net a salmon near Prince of Wales Island in the pristine waters of Southeast Alaska.
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  • A humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) surfaces and dives into Stephens Passage. Studies how the humpback from Southeast Alaska travels mostly to Hawaii to breed and returns to the cold Alaskan waters.
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  • Cottongrass in bloom create a fuzzy white blanket near Appleton Cove estuary on Alaska's Baranof Island.<br />
Eriophorum angustifolium is a native grass and part of the sedge family an important food source for some bird species.
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