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Salmon In the Trees Cuff Bracelet

Returned from the sea,
All your existence spread here.
The forest is you!

This piece and series is inspired by the book Salmon in the Trees by Amy Gulick. Salmon are perhaps the strongest link between land and sea. The more we understand about the temperate rainforests of Southeast Alaska the more we realize how important the salmon are to the forest’s health.

As the huge runs of salmon return to their natal streams they literally become one with the land in a great life-giving death around which myriad other lives are formed. Like blood pulsing through veins, salmon infuse a wealth of nutrients into the farthest reaches of the forests-into more than 4500 spawning streams in the Tongass National Forest. There, bears, eagles and countless other creatures feed on and feed the salmon. In some streams bears alone move over half of the salmon into the nearby forest. Studies show that up to seventy percent of the nitrogen in streamside foliage is of ocean origin–brought by salmon, delivered by bears, drawn into the roots of plants.

–Joan Tenenbaum, 2011.