We’ve been seeing a lot of flotsam in the water out in Lynn Canal in the last month, and a whole lot of jetsam on the beaches.
The Katzehin River, about 3 miles across Lynn Canal from our cabin, originates from Meade Glacier in the Coast Range. Meade comprises the northwest tip of the vast Juneau ice field, a glacial body larger than the state of Rhode Island.
Meade, like most glaciers and ice fields in our area, melted heavily over the last summer. This caused an odd coincidence of hot, dry weather, and repeated flood warnings. Meade’s melt water apparently flooded a good deal of the shores of the Katzehin, flushing trees, both alive and dead, into Lynn Canal.
This means that just about every day we can see a couple of large trees sailing south. Many of them end up in Mud Bay, stranded by the flood tide.
A lot of them end up on our beach. This can be good and bad.
A small sample of the tide line deposit in front of the homestead (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).
We’ve abandoned our fire pit as a loss, as it’s buried under several feet of finely crushed wood, seaweed, and other jetsam. Footing to and from my favorite fishing rocks has become uncertain from this same deposit. trees, root wads and branches jam our tide line.
Luckily, some of this can be salvaged for firewood.
We don’t burn driftwood as a rule; seawater soaked wood may release noxious gasses when burned, and the salt might corrode cast iron stoves. However, these trees from the Katzehin are a special case.
The river’s outflow often blankets the salt water of Lynn Canal. Fresh water, being less dense than salt water, “floats” atop it if conditions are right; that’s easy to tell, because the glacial silt in the fresh water makes a clear visual demarcation between itself and the fjord water. In these conditions, many of the trees deposited on the beach barely touch the salt water. We’ve gotten some prime firewood this way in the past (see An Embarrassment of Riches). This year, we’re getting a lot more.
Harvesting firewood from flotsam solves two problems: it satisfies our never-ending need for firewood, and it clears up the beach. Not that I can clean it all, but the trees I’ve bucked and stowed for the winter make a good start.
Many of these trees died a while ago, and have cured on the river bank. Others, I need to buck up and store to season for a while before burning. I prefer the former, to fill this winter’s “quota,” but we’re grateful for it all.
A lot of this is too old to burn, but you can see rounds I’ve cut, and root wads that I’ve trimmed (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).
Our temperatures have cooled significantly as autumn advances. Now, any trees washed down river will more likely be driven by the seasonal monsoons, although we’re not getting very many of them. Before long, I’ll need to return to the forest for firewood. But, for the moment, the pickings are abundant, and easy—I’ll take it while I can!