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I spent my twenties and early thirties working as a wilderness fishing guide in the Tongass National Forest. The place was Yes Bay Lodge in the Behm Canal. It was the most powerfully formative time of my life, because it was wilderness. The land and water taught me lessons that are unteachable in mainstream American culture. Like patience. And that nature has the answer, every time. Salmon that return from a thousands-mile journey feed the forest and the forest protects their spawning beds, cooling the streams. It is a symbiotic relationship that is of ancient wisdom that cannot be recreated by fish hatcheries or farms. And it was my great privilege to teach people this every time I guided them. And it was the most satisfying work I’ve ever done. It inspired my life so much, I’ve made two feature films about protecting them and their habitat, with a thrird on the way. You can watch them at www.augustisland.com – and click on the films tab. In Southeast Alaska, the combined visitor, tourism, and commercial/sport fishing industries support nearly 30,000 to 45,000 jobs (or roughly 1 in 10 to nearly a quarter of regional private employment), to the tune of $2 billion dollars to the region. Opening this completely intact bioregion again to aggressive commercial logging will only ship this resource away for pennies on the dollar and harm the people of Alaska, as well as devastate the salmon runs that bind everything in this region together, including its economy. Please keep the Roadless Rule intact.