Conservation in Alaska

An Intimate Cruise Highlighting the Majestic Alaskan Wilderness

Unlike the huge corporate cruise ships anchored far offshore, the Boat Company’s smaller 20-24 passenger boats get up close and personal with Alaska’s unmatched natural beauty. During our small boat Alaska cruises, we hug the coastline of the unspoiled Tongass National Forest – traveling amongst the whales and dolphins, one of the world’s last, substantially intact, temperate rainforests. A small boat Alaska cruise makes each journey a truly intimate occasion. It turns a family vacation, Alaskan fishing charter or Alaskan wilderness adventure into a conservation experience that will resonate for a lifetime. To the non-profit Boat Company, that means something!  

The Boat Company's Alaska Conservation Efforts

Until recently, Alaska's economy ran on natural resources, renewable and non-renewable. Alaska’s largest private employers are the fishing and tourism industries. The former has been more or less stable, while the latter has grown substantially.

Timber, however, has faced more difficult times in Alaska. From private lands, the product has been the sale of unprocessed logs for export (few jobs for the value of the resource removed). On public lands, substantial Government (taxpayer) subsidies have been necessary to make the industry economical (wood fiber grows more quickly in warmer climes).

There are inherent potential conflicts between Alaskan fishing/tourism and timbering, i.e., remove too many trees from a particular area and not only will erosion occur (causing damage to spawning streams) but those places are lost to tourism as well (clear cuts are not a beautiful sight).

The management of The Boat Company is convinced there are resources enough for all, as long as we all balance our decisions on long vs. short-term considerations.

Obviously, the land has a limit to its carrying capacity. Likely we cannot sustain the current quality of life people enjoy in Southeast Alaska if two or three times as many people want to live, vacation and/or work here.

Since Southeast Alaska contains the last substantial remnants of the earth's temperate rainforests, it is our hope that the major portions of what remains will be conserved for future generations to enjoy (whales, wildlife, people, "other critters", et. al.). Since we plan to be in business for a long time to come, we consider it an important goal to work toward that result.