Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

Haines residents wonder if the town could be better capitalizing on its avian population after research from Audubon Alaska and the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) reported that 300,000 birdwatchers visit the state annually, pumping $378 million into local economies.

Haines local Natalie Dawson, who served as executive director of Audubon Alaska and vice president of the National Audubon Society, co-authored the paper, which came out last week, with economist Tobias Schwoerer at UAF. The research was based on 2016 numbers, which they said was indicative of pre-pandemic visitor spending.

Dawson said she was inspired to research the economic impact of birdwatching because of her experience working for various tour and education programs around Haines. “I hear about why people come to visit our area,” she said. “A lot of people mention birding. Even people who are not serious birders tend to talk about how they notice birds.”

Dawson and Schwoerer’s research found that birders tended to be more affluent than other types of tourists: They spent 56% more per person – and stayed, on average, four nights longer in Alaska -- than visitors “who did not engage in birdwatching.”

Birding also appears to be a rare sector of Alaska tourism not dependent on cruise ships. The study found that most birders are “independent travelers” who don’t travel on cruise ships or use prearranged commercial itineraries.

The sector also seems to be growing. Alaska Nature Tours president Dan Egolf recalled learning at a conference of the Alaska Tourism Industry Association that birdwatching is the fastest-growing outdoor activity in the Lower 48.

“It’s part of a larger trend,” Schwoerer said. “People have been going out of the gym and into the woods.” Speaking particularly about rural Alaska communities, he said bird-related tourism is “an opportunity that has not been harnessed. That’s the big conclusion of the paper.”

Local birders and experts in other Southeast communities believe that the implications for Haines are positive. “There is absolutely more room for bird tourism in Southeast,” said Amy Courtney, who runs Icy Strait Birding Tours out of Hoonah.

Esteemed Juneau birder Gus van Vliet agreed. “I doubt the market (for birding tourism) is saturated. I can only assume that more people can come.”

While Haines most likely won’t attract the diehard crowd of birders that flock to Attu each year to tick a few species of primarily-Asian birds – like the Arctic warbler -- off their North American “life lists,” the flyway over the Chilkat Valley does host a rich variety of species, especially in spring and fall.

“We have the highest bird diversity of any place in Southeast Alaska,” Dawson said.

Joe Ordoñez, of Rainbow Glacial Adventures, and local birder Stacie Evans agreed that Haines could do more to promote the flight corridor it sits under -- especially in the first week of May during the eulachon run, which draws birds that feed on the oily fish. “In the spring we could really maximize and promote bird-related tourism,” Ordoñez said.

He pointed to other towns, like Cordova and Wrangell, that are located, like Haines, near mud flats and host spring shorebird festivals to attract tourists. The Cordova Chamber of Commerce estimated that its Copper River Delta Shorebird Festival generated $173,030 in local spending last year.

“We’re already pretty good at capitalizing on our eagle population,” Evans said, referring to the Alaska Bald Eagle Festival, which routinely brings around 300 people to Haines, according to American Bald Eagle Foundation executive director Cheryl McRoberts. “But during the spring we have a pretty spectacular migration, and I don’t see a lot of people coming from out of town to take advantage of that.”