United States

Department 

of Agriculture

Forest Service

September 2004

Pacific Northwest

Research Station

 Introduction

The Maybeso Experimental Forest

is in southeast Alaska within the Tongass 

National Forest, the largest national forest in 

the United States and home to the Northern Hemisphere’s largest temperate rain forest. Located about 

42 miles west of Ketchikan, Alaska, it is on Prince 

of Wales Island, the largest island of the Alexander 

Archipelago and the third largest island in the United 

States. The Maybeso watershed, near Hollis, was chosen 

in 1956 as an experimental forest to investigate the effects 

of timber harvesting on salmon streams, forest regeneration, and tree growth because it was a spruce-hemlock 

old-growth forest with commercial timber. The 11,000-

acre Maybeso watershed experienced the first large-scale 

industrial clearcut logging in southeast Alaska. Past 

and current research within the Maybeso watershed 

has focused on growing managed forests, on studying 

landslides and slope stability, and on understanding the 

effects of timber harvest on the watershed, yielding much 

that managers can apply to other watersheds.

Water and land intertwine.

Hollis was the first logging camp established on the east coast of 

Prince of Wales Island.

USDA Forest Service Tom Iraci

Tom Iraci
Environment

I

f there is one striking feature in the 

environment of Maybeso, it is water. Like intertwined fingers, the land and sea of southeast 

Alaska mesh in multitudinous contacts. Moisture-laden 

storms from the Pacific introduce considerable precipitation—for Maybeso as much as 120 inches per year. Water 

drips as rain, hangs as overcast and fog, and clings as 

dampness, which means that all organisms here must 

face the ever-present wet. 

Very little water is lost from the forests through 

evapotranspiration—the transfer of moisture from the 

earth to the atmosphere by evaporation of water and 

transpiration by plants. The majority of the year, a buffering blanket of clouds covers the area, which keeps the 

climate temperate, rarely exceeding 70 °F in summer and 

seldom below 10 °F in winter, and frost free from roughly 

the middle of May to the beginning of September. Huge 

amounts of heat flow to the region through ocean currents. Waters of tropical origin warm southeast Alaska; 

clouds keep in the warmth. This interplay of sea and 

storm enables a temperate rain forest to exist at a latitude where frostier conditions exist in other parts of the 

world. Coastal water plays an important role in creating 

the unique and globally significant environment that 

supports southeast Alaska’s temperate rain forests.

Just as the presence of water distinguishes southeast 

Alaska, so does the absence of throngs of people. For 

millennia, native peoples held a special relationship with 

Prince of Wales Island. Archaeologists have found signs 

at prehistoric sites of human presence dating back 

approximately 10,000 years. The Kasaan Haidas in the 

southeast, Klawock Tlingits in the west, and Stikine 

Tlingits in the northeast relied on the offerings of land 

and sea. The Kasaan used the Maybeso River drainage 

as a source of game, fish, and plants. When hopeful 

European and American miners arrived in 1900, staking 

claims near present-day Hollis and within Maybeso, 

they found the Haidas and Tlingits living on the island. 

Human population burgeoned when industrial logging 

began in the 1950s. Although no mining occurs in the 

area now, several mining claims still exist within the 

experimental forest and in the upper part of Puyallup 

Creek, a tributary to Maybeso Creek.

 Forest Types

The long, rainy coastline from Monterey, California, to Kodiak Island, Alaska, is often described as a single ecologic unit, or 

biome. The marine influence of rain and humidity keeps 

things cool in summer and warm in winter, and allows 

the plant and animal communities that thrive on this 

environment to stretch as far inland as the moisture 

does. In many areas 

along this biome, 

mountains present a 

barrier to Pacific 

storms and create a 

rain shadow—an 

abrupt change in 

precipitation east of 

their crests. Dense, 

wet, coniferous 

Windthrow and landslides—the major forces of 

disturbance on the Maybeso.

Tom Iraci

Salmonberry.

forest—from redwoods in California to Douglas-fir in 

Oregon and Washington, to western hemlock and Sitka 

spruce in British Columbia and southeast Alaska—

characterizes the Pacific temperate zone. Unlike the 

rest of the Pacific rain forest and most places in the 

contiguous United States that dry out in summer, it is 

wind, not fire, that disturbs the forest in southeast 

Alaska, sometimes toppling acres of trees at a time. 

Disease and landslides also alter the forest. Owing to 

commercial logging activity, most of the present forest 

in Maybeso is 40- to 50-year-old second-growth Sitka 

spruce or western hemlock. Other conifers include 

Alaska yellow-cedar and mountain hemlock.

Red alder is the most common deciduous tree in the 

watershed. Red alder takes advantage of disturbed soils, 

growing in the places that have been upset by landslides, 

log-dragging, tractor usage, road construction, and 

streambank change. Because these events create gaps in 

the forest canopy, shade-intolerant red alder finds a place 

to grow, usually in linear patterns owing to the nature of 

these disturbances. With rapid juvenile height growth, 

red alder in Alaska usually occurs as a pioneer species, 

Trees reveal their ages; crew extracts a pencil-thin cylinder of wood 

from Sitka alder to count tree rings and determine age.

USDA Forest Service

Tom Iraci
along with Sitka spruce and western hemlock. In almost 

all sites where these trees occur, the biggest diameter 

and tallest trees are conifers. Individual alders rarely 

live longer than 100 years, and when they die, they leave 

small openings among the long-lived conifers, which 

creates a patchy canopy. The patchy canopy allows 

shrubs and other plants to grow on the ground, adding diversity to the forest and providing critical winter 

forage for Sitka deer. Most mortality occurs in young, 

small-diameter conifers and alders. In younger, mixed 

red alder-conifer stands, a richness of understory plants 

can be found in higher numbers than in pure conifer and 

predominantly alder stands. Recent logging has contributed to the increase in red alder numbers in the forests of 

southeast Alaska. The 40-year-old mixed red alder-conifer stands currently found in Maybeso provide abundant 

and diverse understory plant communities.

 Plant and Animal Species

Red alder, salmonberry, stink 

currant, devil’s club, and blueberry, mixed 

with new growth of Sitka spruce and 

western hemlock dominate the streamside, or riparian, 

areas in Maybeso. Delighting in the moist environment, 

myriad flowers spring up—western skunk-cabbage, 

deer-cabbage, marshmarigold, yellow violet, copperbush, false hellebore, laceflower, twisted-stalk, single 

delight, ground dogwood, five-leaved bramble, fernleaf 

goldthread, deerberry. Damp-loving ferns include clubmoss, deer-fern, bracken-fern, oak-fern, and sword-fern.

Maybeso supports anadromous, 

or seagoing, fish—

fish that migrate 

from freshwater to 

the ocean and 

return—as well as 

resident fish. 

Anadromous pink, 

chum, and coho 

salmon, and Dolly Varden char, steelhead, and cutthroat 

trout are the salmonids that travel throughout the main 

stem of Maybeso Creek, as well as its tributaries. Pink 

and chum salmon spawn in freshwater in late summer, 

and the fry migrate to the ocean immediately after they 

emerge in spring. The others—coho salmon, cutthroat 

trout, and Dolly Varden—all spend several 

years in freshwater before they migrate. Some juvenile 

salmonids can be found in small, high-gradient creeks, 

although few in number at these locations. Resident 

cutthroat trout also live in the Maybeso Creek system. 

Maybeso also is home to black bear, Sitka black-tailed 

deer, marten (introduced), wolf, ermine, mink, dusky 

shrew, northern flying squirrel, Keen’s mouse, longtailed vole, and bats. River otter and beaver take advantage of water and land locales. Serenading all is an avian 

chorale composed 

of Townsend’s 

warbler, Pacificslope flycatcher, 

golden-crowned 

kinglet, winter 

wren, Swainson’s 

thrush, chestnutbacked chickadee, 

hermit thrush, and 

varied thrush.

Water

Fed by many small tributaries that 

rush from steep slopes, the main stem of 

Maybeso Creek flows approximately 5 miles, 

drains a U-shaped valley, and delivers freshwater to the 

sea at Twelve Mile Arm. During fall storms, streamflow 

can be 10 times the low summer flow. Fallen trees are 

swept into logjams, and boulders and gravel accumulate, 

forming pools and gravel bars, creating habitat for fish. 

Beavers build dams, which have created numerous ponds 

on the valley floor. Juvenile coho salmon—starring role in 

a study on forest management practices.

USDA Forest Service

Wildlife research provides new information about relations between predation 

on bird nests and habitat factors.

USDA Forest Service

How is water processed through the land and into streams? Studies 

in Maybeso are yielding data.

Tom Iraci

Red alder was once considered a weed tree, but research shows it 

has many ecological roles.

Tom Iraci

Geology

The forces of plate tectonics and 

glaciation have wrought the physical characteristics of Prince of Wales Island. As a conveyor belt 

moves objects, plate movement brought fragments of land 

to the island and accreted, or joined, the masses. Rocks 

of the Alexander Terrane, a large accretionary fragment 

consisting of granodiorites, greywackes, conglomerates, 

limestones, and sandstones, dominate the island. Prince 

of Wales Island also bears the effects of past glaciers—

rivers of ice that stretched down from the mountains or 

vast sheets that buried expanses of the North American 
Years of data have been recorded on stream changes in relation to 

forest processes.

USDA Forest Service

Legacy stump.

Tom Iraci

continent. During the major ice ages, so much of the 

world’s water was locked up in glacial ice that sea levels 

dropped. But in areas that supported glaciers, the weight 

of vast glacial ice had the opposite effect, and pressed the 

land down, in some places twice as deep as the lowered 

global sea level. Several thousand years after the ice 

retreated from the Alexander Archipelago, the ancient 

shorelines were cut off from sea contact. Today, they can 

be found hundreds of feet above sea level, and in some 

cases, miles inland. With the weight of the ice removed, 

land eventually rebounded, much as a mattress does 

when a sleeper arises. Coupled with continuing glacial 

rebound are the forces of plate tectonics that continue to 

create uplift, to shape, form, and shape again southeast 

Alaska. The Maybeso Experimental Forest exists within 

this shifting context.

Prince of Wales Island is a recently deglaciated 

landscape. About 20,000 years ago at the height of the 

Wisconsinan Glaciation, almost all of southeast Alaska 

was covered by ice. Creeping like giant bulldozers, 

glaciers cut out broad, flat, U-shaped valleys as opposed 

to V-shaped valleys that are cut by fast-running water. 

The watershed of Maybeso Experimental Forest is a 

steep, wide, U-shaped valley—characteristic of formerly 

glaciated landscapes—with a single stream network. 

Land rises from sea level at the mouth of Maybeso Creek 

to roughly 3,000 feet in the north, and 2,500 feet to the 

south. Stream channels developed in the last 10,000 

years. Varying thicknesses of till—mixed fine and 

coarse, poorly sorted rock debris, a legacy of glaciers—

cover most of the bedrock below 3,000 feet on the island. 

Soil ranges from 1 to 31⁄2 feet deep. Soils are well drained 

and sandy along the valley bottom, with raw humus 

and litter, typical of southeast Alaska hemlock-spruce 

forests, found elsewhere.

 Past Research

When the Maybeso watershed

was designated as an experimental 

forest in 1956, the original purpose 

was to investigate the problems involved in harvesting old-growth forests—characterized at the time as 

“overmature climax type”—to study forest regeneration 

and growth in southeast Alaska, and to understand the 

effects of clearcut logging on salmon spawning habitat. 

Logging in Maybeso Valley began in 1953 and continued through 1963, with nearly all commercial timber 

removed for 41⁄2 miles along both sides of Maybeso 

Creek, and up the valley walls, comprising one-fifth of 

the forest. Studies of natural regeneration after harvest 

were begun, as well as research on silviculture treatments—the science, art, and practice of caring for forests 

with respect to human objectives—that were suitable 

for young, even-aged stands of Sitka spruce and western hemlock. Landslides were frequent on the steep, 

clearcut slopes, leading to the start of research on soil 

mass movement. Scientists studied the relations of root 

strength, soil saturation, soil depth, and slope steepness 

to hillslope stability.

Over the years, research on the watershed has evolved 

from studies of salmonid spawning habitat to a broader 

study of stream and riparian habitats as these environments move through successional stages—the cumulative change in types of plant species—following removal 

of large trees along the stream, and subsequent regrowth 

of conifers and alders. Scientists have worked to understand the effect these changes have on juvenile salmonid 

populations. These studies have established a long-term 

analysis of stream channel evolution by using physical 

measurements taken from 

1949 through 1960, and 

expanded in 1984 to the 

present. A recently completed study of small, highgradient streams in the 

Maybeso watershed has 

revealed that these streams 

are used by resident and 

anadromous fish, and may 

be important spawning 

areas for anadromous Dolly 

Varden.

Clearcutting has been the primary timber management practice in forests of southeastern Alaska since 

commercial timber harvesting began in the 1950s. 

Conifer forests in southeast Alaska have no trouble 

regenerating after harvest and rarely need artificial 

planting. Although the amount of water limits the regeneration and proliferation of life in other areas, southeast 

Alaska has abundant water. The dense, uniform, evenaged conifer stands that develop after clearcutting can 

shade out other understory species that might provide 

browse or cover for wildlife; as a result, biodiversity can 

be limited in these stands. Forest canopy closure generally occurs 25 to 35 years after cutting and is followed by 

a nearly complete elimination of understory vegetation 

for 100 years or longer.

Research began in 1974 on the management of these 

young, dense, hemlock-spruce stands in coastal Alaska. 

Plots included in this study were established in the 

Maybeso, among other locations, and have been remeasured every 2 to 4 years since the study began. Some 

plots have been thinned according to regimes specified 

for the study. The long-term study is planned to last 

until the trees mature and are harvested sometime in 

the 21st century. Scientists have discovered that inclusion of red alder may provide more benefits than would 

thinning the even-aged conifer stands, although alder 

will not mitigate all wildlife habitat problems. Thinning 

to encourage understory plants often leads to more new 

conifer growth and little opportunity for understory 

species. Mixed red alder-conifer stands provided more 
Understory plant diversity is higher in mixed red alder-conifer stands (left) than in young, dense, pure conifer stands (right). Tom Iraci

Tom Iraci

structural variety than pure conifer stands with different tree sizes, varying canopy layers, and similar numbers of large-diameter trees. Understory plant diversity 

and abundance were significantly higher in mixed red 

alder-conifer forests, and most of the increase was in 

plants important for deer forage and other small wildlife 

species. Mixed red alder-conifer stands also potentially 

provide more food for songbirds, more nest sites, and 

more safety for nests from predators. These interdisciplinary studies provide a significant information base 

from which to evaluate the evolution of an intensively 

managed landscape.

 Current Research

Current research in the watershed

is focused on the management of secondgrowth forests and on the development and 

evaluation of watershed restoration methods. Studies 

on silviculture, fish habitat, and hydrology will yield 

information vital to these goals.

Forest management and silviculture. The long-term 

growth-and-yield studies started in 1974 continue in 

the second-growth hemlock-spruce forests. The first 

25 years of data have produced worthwhile results, and 

scientists plan to continue the study until 2074, a century after it began. Long-term data sets such as these are 

extremely valuable in forest science and useful to forest 

managers. For example, forest managers could discover 

that the volume of pure conifer timber may decrease 

with increased volumes of alder, but alder as a timber 

resource has become valuable in the Pacific Northwest. 

Managing to increase red alder would supply market 

trends. Giving up a small amount of timber production 

to provide for the needs of deer by selecting mixed-species conditions is another possible management strategy. 

Management decisions can be made to favor one resource 

over another to reflect evolving values and objectives. 

By understanding resource amounts produced in stands 

with different amounts of red alder, managers may apply 

what they learn at Maybeso to watersheds or larger 

tracts as they develop forest plans. Scientists are evaluating low- to moderate-intensity partial-cutting of oldgrowth hemlock-spruce forests as a way to provide for 

many values such as wood production, wildlife and fish 

habitat, and aesthetic quality. The effectiveness of a wide 

range of alternatives to clearcutting will continue to be 

tested by experimental studies in Maybeso.

Fish habitat. The Maybeso watershed is part of a study 

that uses coho salmon to monitor the effects of forest 

management on stream habitat throughout the Tongass 

National Forest. Long-term data from Maybeso provide a 

historical record of riparian changes in a young-growth 

forest watershed, and how those changes relate to salmonid abundance and distribution. Detailed scale maps of 

the main stream were made before timber harvest began 

in 1953 and updated annually during timber harvest. 

These maps, combined with low-level aerial photography 

during many subsequent years, provide roughly 50 years 

of recorded changes in channel shape and habitat quality 

for fish. Forest managers can use information from past 

and current studies on these relations within younggrowth forests to restore watersheds affected by timber 

harvests.

Hydrology. Despite the significance of water in southeast Alaska, hydrologic processes in these watersheds 

are poorly understood. For example, when it rains, how 

long does water reside in the subsurface soil, bedrock, 

and till layers? What are the relations between tree 

species and water chemistry? How does rainfall amount 

vary with elevation? Streamflow and temperature data 

have been collected intermittently during the past 40 

years, and a stream gauge was recently re-established on 

the stream. Data collection helps researchers investigate 

these questions; eventually the answers will help scientists and managers to better predict streamflow, soil 

saturation, and nutrient concentrations not only in the 

Maybeso watershed but also in watersheds throughout 

Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.

Nearby Research Natural Areas

Research natural areas (RNAs) are designated on  national forest lands to represent different types of 

naturally occurring terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. 

The RNAs protect examples of terrestrial or aquatic 

ecosystems for comparison with similar areas influenced 

by people. Two RNAs in various stages of forest succession on Prince of Wales Island are valuable study areas 

for comparison with the Maybeso, adding to the significance of studies on the experimental forest itself.

Old Tom RNA. This RNA is located in the Skowl Arm 

area and is accessible by boat or floatplane. It can provide an old-growth control for some aspects of studies 

in the Maybeso. Old Tom is approximately 15 air miles 

south, 25 miles by saltwater from Twelvemile Arm to 

Old Tom Bight.

Rio Roberts RNA. Portions of this RNA have natural second-growth stands, and its riparian flood plain 

has Sitka spruce. Rio Roberts is about 15 miles west 

of Thorne Bay and 15 miles northwest of Maybeso 

Experimental Forest. It is accessible from Route 929 

or by helicopter.
Travel

To visit Maybeso, travel to Prince of Wales Island. 

Daily ferry service is available from Ketchikan to the 

inter-island ferry dock in 

Clark Bay, Prince of Wales 

Island (http://www.interislandferry.com/calendar.html). Alternatively, charter 

airlines have regularly scheduled flights from Ketchikan 

to Prince of Wales Island. The Maybeso Experimental 

Forest is approximately 2 miles west of the Clark Bay 

ferry terminal on paved Route 924 toward Craig, Alaska. 

Two roads access the Maybeso Valley itself. These roads 

are located 1.8 and 2.3 miles from the ferry terminal (no 

Western columbine.

Map by Keith Routman and Frances Biles

Pacific Northwest

Research Station

Tom Iraci

signs). Route 924 crosses Maybeso Creek at approximately 2 miles from the ferry terminal. Ketchikan, Alaska, can 

be reached by air or ferry. Daily jet service is provided by 

Alaska Airlines from Anchorage and Seattle. The Alaska 

Marine Ferry schedule is available on the Web at http://

www.akferry.com/pages/schedule.html.

Facilities

Maybeso Experimental Forest is day use only. A 12-person bunkhouse for researchers only was 

completed in 2002 at Hollis, 2 miles from Maybeso. Two 

older buildings at the Hollis site provide storage and 

work space for ongoing research at the forest. A Forest 

Service campground for other visitors is located 10 miles 

west of Hollis on Highway 924. The campground is 

equipped with pit toilets, drinking water, 

picnic tables, fire pits, picnic shelters, and 

dump station.

Resources on the Web

PNW Research Station. http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw. This 

site lists all publications by Station scientists, including those based on research at Maybeso Experimental 

Forest.

Maybeso Experimental Forest. http://www.fs.fed.

us/pnw/exforests/

maybeso.

U.S. Geological Survey site for real-time data on 

Maybeso Creek stream gauge. http://waterdata.

usgs.gov/ak/nwis/current/?type=flow&group_

key=NONE&search_site_no_station_nm=15085800.

USDA Forest Service experimental sites participating 

in HydroDB (hydrology database). http://www.fsl.

orst.edu/climhy/hydrodb/.

For Further Information

Pacific Northwest Research Station

333 SW First Avenue

 P.O. Box 3890

 Portland, OR 97208

 Phone: (503) 808-2592

 Web site: http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw

Juneau Forestry Sciences Laboratory

2770 Sherwood Lane Suite 2A

Juneau, AK 99801

Phone: (907) 586-8811

Craig Ranger District

 Tongass National Forest

 900 Main Street

 Craig, AK 99921

 Phone: (907) 826-3271

 Web site: http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/tongass

0 1 

Miles

Cat 

Island

Harris River Bay

924 to Craig

Maybeso 

 Experimental 

 Forest

Harris 

 Peak

T W E L V E M I L E

A R M

Ha rris R iver

Hollis

Ma y b es o Cree k

o

Granite

Mountain

Craig

SOUTHEAST

 ALASKA Petersburg

Prince of Wales Island Craig Ketchikan

Sitka

Juneau

Maybeso C A N A DA

A L A S K A

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