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Observer the CRUISING AND CONSERVATION IN SOUTHEAST ALASKA • PUBLISHED BY THE BOAT COMPANY SPRING 2018 theboatcompany.org

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Page 1: Observer - The Boat Company...Read The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben. No, really read it. Aside from

ObservertheCRUISING AND CONSERVATION IN SOUTHEAST ALASKA • PUBLISHED BY THE BOAT COMPANY

SPRING 2018

theboatcompany.org

Page 2: Observer - The Boat Company...Read The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben. No, really read it. Aside from

NO

TE

S +

CO

MM

EN

TS

It is hard to believe that Spring is already upon us and I find myself

spinning as to what to write in my message to all of our loyal friends

and clients. In just a few weeks the LISERON and MIST COVE will head

north for our 38th season plying the waters of The Tongass National

Forest, my daughter is turning double digits, and the conservation

fight in Southeast Alaska remains the same as when my father first

visited the Tongass as a deckhand on a fishing boat working for the

A&P. It is amazing that as much as times change, they remain the same.

As the second generation of the family to take the helm of The Boat

Company, I sit at my desk (the same desk my father sat behind at

home for as long as I can remember) and begin to formulate what my

message and legacy will be, along with continuing to promote that

of what my fathers’ vision and purpose of The Boat Company is/was.

For me, telling the real story about the legacy of conservation work spearheaded by The

Boat Company, The McIntosh Foundation and both my parents seems the most logical first

step in my journey. As we have written about in past issues of The Observer, we have taken

on the challenge of producing a full-length documentary, tentatively titled “The Tongass;

Americas Vanishing Rainforest”.

One of the first things I have learned about documentary film-making, in fact any film-

making I would venture to say, is just how much films can cost to make. It is for this reason

that I am requesting your help. The Boat Company will be launching something similar

to a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the film, but we will also be reaching out to

individuals and foundations with an interest in helping to fund a film such as ours. If you or

anyone you know might be interested in funding this project at a significant level, please

contact me, and I would be more than happy to share with you our sizzle reel, look book

and full budget for this film.

All of the above being said, “The Tongass; Americas Vanishing Rainforest” is going to cost

roughly $600,000 to produce beyond what The McIntosh Foundation and Boat Company

have already invested (just under $400,000 in cash and in-kind donations of time and

services in Alaska). I hope that we are able to make this film happen. Telling the story

of my parents’ legacy, The Boat Company, and the conservation movement to save The

Tongass from logging interests over a 40 year period thru the eyes of one family is now in

full swing. Keep your eyes out for funding opportunities, as well as future showings of the

film as it progresses. In 2020 the year of The Boat Companies 40th anniversary, the film

will be making the film festival rounds. Sundance film festival here we come.

A Family of StorytellersContact info:

Corporate Office

The Boat Company

1200 Eighteenth Street NW

Suite 900

Washington, DC 20036

(202) 338-8055 phone

(202) 234-0745 fax

www.theboatcompany.org

Conservation Programs

and Reservations

Street Address:

18819 3rd Ave. NE, Ste. 200

Poulsbo, WA 98370

Mailing Address:

PO Box 1839

Poulsbo, WA 98370

(877) 647-8268 TOLL FREE

(360) 697-4242 phone

(360) 697-5454 fax

email: [email protected]

Staff: Hunter McIntoshPresident / CEO

Bob VeyComptroller

Ken GerkenDirector of Operations & Engineering

Debra GerkenOperations/HR Assistant

Kathy NissleyDirector of Reservations & Guest Services

Mary Ann ConfarOffice Manager

Miri DimofReservations Assistant

Board of Directors:

Winsome McIntosh

Hunter McIntosh

Thu Pham

Liz Sutherland Riney

John Thomas

Design by:

Erica de Flamand-Shugg

the-summerhouse.com

02 theboatcompany.org

BY HUNTER H. McINTOSH

Fishing in Alaska with a Jackson Coosa HD Kayak

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,,

RICH + ROSIE | LISERON 2017

“Thanks for giving usthe greatest experience

of our lives, for keeping ussafe and for fulfilling my

lifetime dream of Alaska!”

Page 4: Observer - The Boat Company...Read The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben. No, really read it. Aside from

WRITTEN BY DR. BRANDON D. SHULER

Read The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from

a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben. No, really read it. Aside from the new ageish

sounding title, it’s a fascinating read dripping in scientific discovery that outlines

the interconnectedness of nature and particularly trees. There are interesting takes

on trees and their stretches of communications to humans as well. But trees, as

much as they may be the silently chattering chatterboxes of nature, as we know

from Tolkien and other writers, they are shy creatures who live solitary lives.

Nowhere is this more illustrated than on Campbell Island, New Zealand.

In 2017, in an effort to pinpoint the start of the current Anthropocene Epoch,

a geologic measure determined and defined by the effects of humankind’s

meddling and pollution of the planet, a group of scientists ventured to the farthest

south subantarctic Campbell Island that sits 700km south of Bluff, New Zealand.

The island, scientists argue, is far enough

south and far enough removed from the

congestion and pollution of human and

urban sprawl that its trees could hold the

story of human impacts on the planet

through the readings of the island’s trees’

rings. The beauty of this island, though,

is that it only has one standing tree. The

tree: a Sitka Spruce.

FE

AT

UR

E A

RT

ICL

E

theboatcompany.org | 07 | 06 theboatcompany.org

The Outspoken Nature of Human and the Secret Hidden Life of Trees

"Humans are pretty oblivious to signsand stories around us, while thousandsof years old spruce don’t forget and record everything."

Page 5: Observer - The Boat Company...Read The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben. No, really read it. Aside from

Yes, you heard that right, a Sitka Spruce

growing a planet away from its brothers

and sisters in the Tongass. The tree, at least

according to the Guinness Book of World

Records, is the loneliest tree on the planet.

The spruce is the only tree on the island

and was planted by Lord Ranfurly, Governor

of New Zealand from 1897-1904, as a claim

stake at the height of imperialism. Human

state building aside, Lord Ranfurly’s actions

created a wonderful opportunity for future scientists to measure human impacts within

the tree’s rings in almost an isolated and controlled natural habitat and little tread upon

ambient atmosphere.

Left to its own devices, the loneliest tree—and let’s name him Prufrock after T.S. Eliot’s

protagonist in the “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” because I envision this tree

staring across oceans wanting to connect with his fellow spruces—did not grow vertically

as his kind do but exploded outward looking like the lushest Christmas tree in the tree lot.

Prufrock’s isolation, though, gave him the unique ability to give a narrative of humankind

that is unheard of.

First, his rings tell a story of increasing carbon in the atmosphere at a steady rate that

increases as scientists work outward from his core to his younger rings. Along that

spectrum, Prufrock records war, and population growth, and nuclear testing. Prufrock’s

narrative and tale makes him almost the silent giant in the laboratory letting the humans

argue over the exact start of the Anthropocene, while he records and understands that

it is the birth of the Nuclear Age that really defines the tipping point for we lowly and

short-living humans. Humans are pretty oblivious to signs and stories around us, while

thousands of years old spruce don’t forget and record everything.

Scientists, particularly those of The Geologic Society are split. There is one school that

believes the Anthropocene began in the 1650s with massive deforestation and populating

of essentially the entire northern hemisphere. The second school defines the start of the

Anthropocene as the late-1800s and the rise of the Industrial Revolution and the copious

amounts of carbon dumped into the atmosphere through mass industrial production. The

third school and maybe the wakeup call is the beginning of widespread above ground

atomic and nuclear weapons testing in the 1940s in the South Pacific.

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"But trees, as much as they may be the silently chattering chatterboxes of nature… they are shy creatures who live solitary lives."

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All schools are valid, and I reckon in the geologic spaces of time, 200 years are

merely a blink. Take the amount of learning and discovery and impact in those 200

years from the Enlightenment to the Nuclear Age then they are all right. Whatever

intelligence that comes after humankind—be it artificial intelligence created in Silicon

Valley, an alien race yet to discover us, or merely a new rise of evolutionary design—the

measure of human’s impact on this planet, its ecosystems, and its atmosphere will be

profound and a cautionary tale for future carbon-based organisms. Prufrock will be

standing sentinel to time for a few more millennia recording our petty ramblings and

destruction of the world around us.

As Prufrock stands sentinel, though, a question arises. As he measures and records the

doings and damage of those that planted him, will there be a thriving humankind to

read his tale or will the current iteration of humankind have waned and disappeared

under its own hubris and environmental decline. Scientists predict that by 2050 there

will be more plastic in the oceans than fish, this is by mere fiat of overfishing and

continued plastics pollution.

Many scientists argue that the ocean has already began an irreversible trend of acidifying that

threatens the extinction of the world’s coral reefs—reefs hold the greatest biodiversity on the

planet and are a bellwether of the ocean’s health—and they could be dead and ‘extinct’ as soon

as the 2030s. More frightening, though, is the mass extinctions—if you’re looking for a great

summertime read, read Susan Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction—of the planets insects and

mega-faunas. Look around, humans are now one of the largest creatures on the planet, being

the biggest creature on the planet never seems to work out for that species, even if in Prufrock’s

world being big ain’t so bad.

"The Tongass whispered to me and consoled me. She told me long secrets that the ancients heard, but we have lost sight of.

The Tongass is not a forest. The Tongass is not a place. The Tongass is a cathedral in the most glorious of ways, and it’s a therapist that heals without words.

The Tongass, she told me and taught me, is a place of rejuvenation."

– DR. BRANDON D. SHULER

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• • • • •

“We just couldn’t get enough of Alaska.

We’ll be back in 2018. We’re going later so we

don’t miss Sammy and Moby; need to stock the

freezer with the former, and get slimed in a

bubble-net by the latter.”

RICH + ROSIE | LISERON 2017

• • • • •

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WRITTEN BY DR. BRANDON D. SHULER

Legacies are a weighty thing. Walking in hard-to-fill Xtra-tuffs is even more

challenging than stepping into a life and legacy defining role. Current Boat

Company president Hunter McIntosh has embarked upon a journey with

filmmakers Maxine Trump and Josh Granger of Helpman Productions, writer

Brandon D. Shuler, and photographer John Land Le Coq of Fishpond U.S.A.

to capture Michael & Winsome McIntosh’s Alaskan-sized legacy of protecting

the Tongass National Forest and its wildlife. In the process, Hunter questions

and redefines what the Tongass means to him and finds how to define his

own legacy while finding and honoring his parents'.

| 14 | theboatcompany.org theboatcompany.org | 15 |

Mr. McIntosh, a fisherman, a canner, and a

consummate philanthropist understood that

America’s wild spaces needed protection and

innately understood the nation’s conflicted

attitudes toward our natural resources. He

also understood that America has a complex

relationship with the frontier: one that the

human animal was to go forth into and conquer

for the species best interest. Nowhere can this be

better illustrated than in America’s Last Frontier,

Alaska, and its Tongass National Forest. The

Tongass: America’s Vanishing Rainforest seeks to

introduce the Tongass and Mr. McIntosh to those

in the lower-48.

The Tongass is the world’s largest temperate

rainforest, and since its designation in 1907

under President Theodore Roosevelt’s National

Forest Service, the forest’s thousands-years old

trees have been the target of extractive pulping

interests. Most have approached the Tongass for

its natural resources—salmon, lumber, wildlife,

and cheap local labor—but few have worked to

preserve the forest for its intrinsic value, its

natural ecological services, and its natural wealth of

beauty. Michael McIntosh is one of these men

that has, and he has passed this legacy on to

Hunter who must determine where he fits within his

father’s footsteps.

Michael McIntosh, the wealthy heir to the A&P

fortune, parlayed his five-million-dollar inheritance

into the 40-million-dollar McIntosh Foundation. A

renowned American philanthropist, Mr. McIntosh

held a special place in his heart for the Tongass. In

1980, as President Ronald Reagan’s administration

began deregulating many of the protections that

the Nixon and Carter administrations had put in

place to protect the Tongass, Mr. McIntosh opened

The Tongass: America’s Vanishing Rainforest seeks to Cement The Boat Company FoundersMichael & Winsome McIntosh’s Tongass Legacy

Most have approached the

Tongass for its natural

resources—salmon, lumber,

wildlife, cheap local labor—

but few have worked to preserve

the forest for its intrinsic value,

its natural ecological services,

and its natural wealth of beauty. ,,

,,

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the first eco-tourism cruise line dedicated solely to educating cruisers on the forest’s ecological

importance, its beauty, its fragility, and the legislative balance that places its very existence in

danger against extractive uses.

In the 38 years since The Boat Company’s founding, what started with one refurbished

minesweeper, has turned into a conservation powerhouse dedicating over 30-million

dollars to conservation in that time, while providing seed money to organizations such as Earth

Justice, Greenpeace, the Wilderness Society, and the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council. Mr.

McIntosh’s vision has shaped much of the legislation that has protected the Tongass, while his

family fortune, the McIntosh Foundation, The Boat Company, and his love of the wilderness

has funded many of the lawsuits that have fought against initiatives that have sought to undo

those protections Mr. McIntosh battled to get into place.

The Tongass: America’s Vanishing Rainforest is a tribute to Michael McIntosh’s and The Boat

Company’s legacies, while serving as a coming of age story as his son Hunter McIntosh takes

the helm of The Boat Company. Using the forest as the main character, this film will tell Mr.

McIntosh’s story through the eyes of Hunter as he struggles to articulate and to forge his own

conservation legacy as he raises the standard to continue many of the same battles his father

fought and won and lost.

theboatcompany.org | 17 |

To learn more about the documentary, The Tongass: America’s Vanishing Rainforest please contact:

Hunter McIntosh at [email protected]

Mr. McIntosh’s vision has shaped much of the legislation

that has protected the Tongass, while his family fortune,

the McIntosh Foundation, The Boat Company, and his love

of the wilderness has funded many of the lawsuits that have

fought against initiatives that have sought to undo those

protections Mr. McIntosh battled to get into place. ,,,,

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• • • • •

"Every single crew member was friendly, outgoing

and fun to be with. They shared their enthusiasm

for Alaska, as well as their knowledge.

I always felt that we were responding to our

environment rather than adhering to a schedule."

• • • • •

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A NOTE RE: A LETTER FROM PAUL OLSON

When we attend conferences and trade shows, we are often met with a perplexed look when we describe The Boat Company as a not-for-profit, conservation education, cruise/tour operator. The only one of its kind to our knowledge. The next question is usually, “How does that work?”

We then go into our pitch about conservation, reinvestment of income beyond operating costs and overhead, etc., and the conversations usually transition from there to reservations, availability, and planning a trip, next steps. We thought it would be good to share with you some of the ways in which we try to effect change in the Tongass.

On the pages that follow you can read a document that our Legal Consultant and In State Representative Paul Olson worked on for several months, with the inclusion of several of our competitors input in order to try to prevent yet another timber sale. Enjoy the read, it is a masterful piece of work that we can only hope will sway Forest Supervisor, Earl Stewart.

theboatcompany.org | 21 |

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• • • • •

"This trip with The Boat Company was one of the best

we have been on. The McIntosh Foundation’s mission

is an important task. Keep up the good work.

You are educating a lot of folks about the importance

of conserving our wild lands."

ANDY HODGES | LISERON 2015

• • • • •

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2018 Cruising Schedules

M/V LISERON

To reserve your trip, contact: 877.647.8268 | [email protected]

| 34 | theboatcompany.org

M/V LISERON

Dates Boarding Disembarking

May 11 – May 18

May 18 – May 25

May 25 - June 1

June 1 - June 8

June 8 – June 15

June 15 – June 22

June 22 – June 29

June 29 – July 6

July 6 – July 13

July 13 – July 20

July 20 – July 27

July 27 – Aug 3

Aug 3 – Aug 10

Aug 10 – Aug 17

Aug 17 – Aug 24

Aug 24 – Aug 31

Sold OutSold OutSitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Sold OutSitka

Sold OutSitka

Sold OutSitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sold OutSold OutJuneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sold OutJuneau

Sold OutJuneau

Sold OutJuneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Dates Boarding Disembarking

M/V MIST COVE

May 11 – May 18

May 18 – May 25

May 25 - June 1

June 1 - June 8

June 8 – June 15

June 15 – June 22

June 22 – June 29

June 29 – July 6

July 6 – July 13

July 13 – July 20

July 20 – July 27

July 27 – Aug 3

Aug 3 – Aug 10

Aug 10 – Aug 17

Aug 17 – Aug 24

Aug 24 – Aug 31

Sold OutSold OutJuneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sold OutJuneau

Sold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSitka

Sold OutSold OutSitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Sold OutSitka

Sold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutJuneau

Cruising Schedules 2019

To reserve your trip, contact: 877.647.8268 | [email protected]

theboatcompany.org | 35 |

Dates Boarding Disembarking

May 12 – May 19

May 19 – May 26

May 26 - June 2

June 2 - June 9

June 9 – June 16

June 16 – June 23

June 23 – June 30

June 30 – July 7

July 7 – July 14

July 14 – July 21

July 21 – July 28

July 28 – Aug 4

Aug 4 – Aug 11

Aug 11 – Aug 18

Aug 18 – Aug 25

Aug 25 – Sept 1

Sold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutJuneau

Sitka

Sold Out

Sold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSitka

Juneau

Sold Out

Dates Boarding Disembarking

M/V MIST COVE

May 12 – May 19

May 19 – May 26

May 26 - June 2

June 2 - June 9

June 9 – June 16

June 16 – June 23

June 23 – June 30

June 30 – July 7

July 7 – July 14

July 14 – July 21

July 21 – July 28

July 28 – Aug 4

Aug 4 – Aug 11

Aug 11 – Aug 18

Aug 18 – Aug 25

Aug 25 – Sept 1

Sold OutSold OutJuneau

Sold OutSold OutSitka

Juneau

Sold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold Out

Sold OutSold OutSitka

Sold OutSold OutJuneau

Sitka

Sold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold OutSold Out

1cabinleft!

1cabinleft!

2cabinsleft!

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2020 Cruising Schedules

M/V LISERON

To reserve your trip, contact: 877.647.8268 | [email protected]

| 36 | theboatcompany.org

Dates Boarding Disembarking

May 16 – May 23

May 23 – May 30

May 30 - June 6

June 6 - June 13

June 13 – June 20

June 20 – June 27

June 27 – July 4

July 4 – July 11

July 11 – July 18

July 14 – July 21

July 18 – July 25

July 25 – Aug 1

Aug 1 – Aug 8

Aug 8 – Aug 15

Aug 15 – Aug 22

Aug 22 – Sept 5

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Dates Boarding Disembarking

M/V MIST COVE

May 16 – May 23

May 23 – May 30

May 30 - June 6

June 6 - June 13

June 13 – June 20

June 20 – June 27

June 27 – July 4

July 4 – July 11

July 11 – July 18

July 14 – July 21

July 18 – July 25

July 25 – Aug 1

Aug 1 – Aug 8

Aug 8 – Aug 15

Aug 15 – Aug 22

Aug 22 – Sept 5

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sold OutJuneau

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Juneau

Sitka

Sold OutSitka

• • • • •

"We loved our trip so much! Everything was outstanding –

quite bittersweet when we had to say goodbye

to the captain and staff. They were the best."

• • • • •

theboatcompany.org | 37 |

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TRAVELLER'S SCRAPBOOK

theboatcompany.org | 39 |

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“To see Alaska withThe Boat Company

is to see Alaskaeven some Alaskans

never get to see.”

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PICKLED FENNEL PREPARATION

In a small saucepan, combine the vinegar, water, sugar, salt, pepper-

corns, red pepper flakes, garlic and grapefruit zest and heat until the

sugar is completed dissolved. Pack the sliced fennel bulb in a clean

glass jar or a non-reactive bowl. Pour the pickling liquid over the sliced

fennel bulb and allow it to come to room temperature, then refrigerate.

CEVICHE PREPARATION

Carefully run your fingers across the fish fillets and with tweezers,

remove any pin bones that you find. Slice the fish across the grain and

then cut into cubes. Place the cubed fish in a bowl and refrigerate.

Cut the top and bottom from the grapefruit, then slice away the peel

and the pith until the flesh is exposed. Holding the grapefruit in the

palm of your hand, slice between each membrane to release the seg-

ments into the bowl. After all of the segments are released, squeeze the

remaining juice from the grapefruit into the bowl. Add the minced shal-

lots to the grapefruit segments. Thinly slice one Serrano chile and add

it to the grapefruit segments, then refrigerate.

In a small bowl, combine the lime juice, minced garlic, agave syrup and

the minced Serrano chile. Stir well and refrigerate.

When you are ready to serve the ceviche, combine the fish with the

grapefruit segments and gently mix it together with your hands. Just

prior to serving, give the lime juice mixture a stir, then pour over the

ceviche. Mix gently with your hands and pour onto a chilled serving

platter. Allow 2 to 3 minutes for the fish to “cook” in the lime juice.

Garnish with the pickled fennel, fresh mint leaves and lemon balm and

serve immediately.

PICKLED FENNEL INGREDIENTS

1 to 2 medium fennel bulbs,

trimmed of fronds and sliced thinly

1 cup white wine vinegar

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 clove garlic, smashed

1 tablespoon grapefruit zest

CEVICHE INGREDIENTS

2-3 fillets of rockfish, cleaned,

deboned and cut into small cubes

2 Serrano chiles

(one minced, one thinly sliced)

1 garlic clove, minced

1 red grapefruit

Several leaves of lemon balm

or mint (or a combination of both)

2 teaspoons agave syrup

2 limes, juiced

2 small shallots, minced

• • • • •

"My appreciation for the Boat Company, what it

stands for and the way it shares that with others...

...it grows with each trip."

JUDY B. | MIST COVE 2014

• • • • •

| 42 | theboatcompany.orgtheboatcompany.org | 43 |

FROM THE GALLEY

Rockfish andRed Grapefruit Ceviche

with Quick Pickled Fennel

Page 23: Observer - The Boat Company...Read The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben. No, really read it. Aside from

• • • • •

"As a teenager in America’s largest wilderness, he [McIntosh]

spent time with trees that were 1,000-1,500 years old.

He had always had favourite trees as a child, and now a

passion for them set in. ‘To this day,’ he told me, ‘I’m more

affected by the way we treat trees than the way we treat people.’"

MARTIN GOODMAN

• • • • •

theboatcompany.org | 45 |

On Wednesday March 21st, Congressional leadership reached a deal on the FY2018 omnibus

spending package that DOES NOT INCLUDE Senator Lisa Murkowski’s long-sought Tongass

“death” riders!

These last few months, the environmental community has been watching and engaging

lawmakers on Senator Murkowski’s two ‘Tongass Death Blow’ riders, which she has been

working to attach to the spending bill over the last few weeks. The riders would have

created an exclusion for the Tongass and the Chugach National Forests from the Roadless

Rule and would have thrown out the 2016 Tongass Land Management Plan (TLMP)

Amendment, the plan that guides how the Forest Service manages the resources within the

Tongass. The omnibus measure was passed by the House earlier today and now moves to

the Senate, where it is also expected to pass.

That the riders are not included in the omnibus spending package at a time when Republicans

control the House, Senate, and White House, and when Senator Murkowski herself both

chairs the powerful Senate Committee on Natural Resources and sits on the Appropriations

Committee, is a minor miracle that sends a powerful message about the extent to which the

citizens of this great nation, and Boat Company Clients will show up for the Tongass when

our wild places, way of life, and progressive vision for a future beyond logging is threatened.

THANK YOU for every email you’ve written, every call you made or letter you’ve sent. These

actions made a difference!

And while we are taking the time to celebrate this achievement, we must remember this

fight is not over! It is the same fight Michael McIntosh started over 40 years ago, and the

current generation of The Boat Company passionately continues today.

The Roadless Rule and TLMP Amendment riders are two tools in Senator Murkowski’s

perpetual assault on the Tongass that we know she will use again, and soon. Senator

Murkowski is going to attach them to must-pass legislation over and over again in the year

to come, and we will need everyone on board and ready to show up to defend our forest

from her attacks when they do, just like you have done over the last few months.

While much of the fight for the Tongass continues, today this is a cause for celebration for

people everywhere who love and care about Southeast Alaska, our vibrant forests, and our

very wildest places.

| 44 | theboatcompany.org

All Decisions on The TongassLead to Washington DC

Page 24: Observer - The Boat Company...Read The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben. No, really read it. Aside from

| 46 | theboatcompany.org theboatcompany.org | 47 |

“This was our secondtrip on the Mist Cove.

We loved this trip as much,If not more, than the last.

”JIM + HARRIETT | MIST COVE 2015

Page 25: Observer - The Boat Company...Read The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben. No, really read it. Aside from

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360.697.4242 or 877.647.8268

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