ALASKA – It started with a pleasant stay in a Forest Service cabin and led to a handful of waterfront shelters being supplied with marine life information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

As a scientific and regulatory agency, NOAA has a reach that extends from the sun’s surface to the ocean floor. Enter Julie Fair, NOAA public affairs director, who saw an opportunity to fulfil this mission requirement during a winter outing on the Tongass National Forest.    

“My family and I stayed at a Forest Service cabin recently and I noticed there were brochures and outreach materials available to cabin users,” recalled Fair. “And I just thought it would be incredibly handy to have some of NOAA’s marine wildlife materials in cabins on or near the water.”
That idea quickly came to fruition as Fair’s vision of supplying information packets to be placed inside cabins by the water was eagerly supported by the agency.

The Juneau Ranger District asked for enough brochures and packets for its two waterfront cabins – the Taku Glacier Cabin and the Berners Bay cabin.
“It is great to add these informative brochures to our recreation sites. The content is pertinent to the locations,” said Juneau Ranger District Recreation Program Manager Pete Schneider. “I think when people are out enjoying these waterfront cabins, they find the time to relax and really take this information in.”

Other participating Forest Service locations include the Sitka and Ketchikan/Misty Fjords ranger districts. Sitka has 15 cabins near the water, while Ketchikan/Misty Fjords has eight.

The packets included information on how cabin dwellers can identify marine mammals, which marine mammal parts can be legally collected if remains are found on the beach, how to reach the marine mammal stranding network if they see a marine mammal in distress and what they should do if they spot a large whale that has become entangled or trapped. Other brochures distributed covered warnings about not feeding Steller Sea Lions and keeping the ocean entanglement free.

This collaboration between the agency and NOAA resulted in notable outcomes like the strengthening of a partnership between two federal agencies, making the most recent scientific information available to curious cabin users and affecting marine wildlife in a positive manner.

So, if anyone asks, “what do the Forest Service cabins and marine life in Alaska have in common?” A simple answer is “Two great partners who leverage their assets and information to make a positive impact on people and marine wildlife at the same time,” Fair concluded.