Talk:Tongass National Forest

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[edit] Origin of word "Tongass"

What is the etymological origin of the word "Tongass"? Badagnani 06:00, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

Looks like it derives from the name of a Tlingit clan near Ketchikan; the name seems to be generally given as Taantakwaan in Teh Intarweb at large, but a check on that from someone with more direct knowledge would probably be A Good Thing. At that, the same goes for whether it's a "clan" or a "tribe" with component clans of its own. I'm seeing both, and have no idea which is more correct... —Zero Gravitas 06:56, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

I just got this email from the public relations/Web person at the Tongass National Forest:

Subject: Re: Question

From: "Merrily J Jones"

Date: Thu, 18 May 2006 12:05:30 -0800

I'm afraid we don't have a good comprehensive history of the Tongass to post on the Web. However, we do know that the forest was named for the Tongass tribe, a group of Tlingits who lived near Ketchikan. There's no agreement on what the word actually means, and we defer to the Natives themselves for any interpretation of their names. The Website for the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska is at http://www.ccthita.org/.

Merrily J. Jones, Public Affairs Specialist/Web manager

Tongass National Forest - Petersburg --Badagnani 20:41, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

I am unsure of the meaning and source of the name in Tlingit, but I’ve asked the community for some definitions. The khwáan or “regional people” of the Ketchikan-Saxman area are called the Taanta Khwáan (“sea lion people”). The Tsimshian IIRC call them Tamgas, which may be where the name comes from.

I think the article on Tlingit explains the khwáan concept, but in short it’s a regional grouping of Tlingit people based on their home towns, separate from their clan affiliations. It’s become somewhat synonymous with the groupings formed as ANCSA village corporations in the 1970s. — Jéioosh 01:52, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Endangered Species and Forest Health

I have to take issue with the logic of this statement:

"The health of the forest is evident in that there are no threatened or endangered species to be found in the forest or the streams."

Endangered and threatened species are generally those which are most sensitive to changes in their habitat, and are habitually found exclusively in high-value habitat. If anything, absence of indigenous endangered species would indicate poor ecosystem health.

I think what the writer meant to communicate was that the forest's health can be implied from the fact that none of its indiginous species are on the threatened or endangered list. But even this statement has logical flaws.

A better statement would be "The forest's healthy flora and fauna populations attest to the health of the ecosystem."

--Virginia Ryan 22:24, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

I don't think most people know that. If you have expertise in this subject and know this to be true, you should fix it. But a brief explanation of what you said here might be in order. It might be good to find out why the original editor wrote what they did, in reference to the actual situation as regards endangered species on the ground there. The statement may not have been accurate in the first place, or maybe the situation has changed since that text was written. Maybe you could check with people at the Tongass to see what they have to say about the current situation regarding endangered species there as well. Badagnani 23:04, 11 July 2006 (UTC)