Cruising tends to draw skepticism, often associated with giant ships and crowded ports rather than conservation. Yet, the industry can also create lasting ties to a place.
A recent World Travel & Tourism Council report, published on April 10, 2026, found that more than 60% of cruise travelers return to destinations they first discovered by a cruise.
In southeast Alaska, one nonprofit small cruise ship operator has spent decades working to ensure those first encounters do more than inspire awe or a return visit and turn travelers into advocates for conservation.
I interviewed Hunter McIntosh, president and executive director of The Boat Company, and Kate Glover, a senior attorney at Earthjustice, to explore how an environmental law firm working alongside a nonprofit cruise line defends the Tongass National Forest in Alaska.
A Small Alaska Cruise Line That Chose Conservation Over Profit
Nearly 50 years ago, Michael McIntosh, Hunter’s father, and several leaders of large environmental organizations in the United States, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, took a sailing trip to southeast Alaska to witness the effects of logging on the Tongass National Forest.
During that trip, these leaders approached Michael and said, “Hey, Michael, you ought to start up a cruise line so that we can bring all of our major donors up here and show them what’s happening.”
He said yes and founded The Boat Company, as part of the McIntosh Foundation, in 1979.
“We’ve now evolved,” said Hunter in a Zoom interview. “We’ve grown into our own not-for-profit with two vessels operating during an 18-week season. We are bringing 20-25 travelers onboard from the lower 48 states, but also from Europe, to show them the same sceneries that my father saw 50 years ago,” he added.
For Hunter, this history is not just the company’s backstory. It is the reason he has resisted turning The Boat Company into something bigger and more conventional.
He explained that the company’s nonprofit status is why their guests choose his company. While part of the fare is tax-deductible, guests also know that another part of their money helps protect the very place they came to see. He also added that 70% to 75% of clients return, a level of loyalty he views as unusual in the cruise industry.
He described The Boat Company as “very much a legacy” and “a labor of passion,” adding that the reward comes in watching families experience the same bears, whales and wilderness that first moved his father decades ago.
Hunter hopes The Boat Company will grow, but only if it can do so as a nonprofit with its conservation legacy intact.
The Partnership Behind The Fight To Protect The Tongass
The connection between The Boat Company and Earthjustice dates back to the earliest days, when it was still known as the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund and when his father, Michael McIntosh, funded the opening of the organization’s Juneau office through the McIntosh Foundation.
“Earthjustice is a nonprofit law firm that works with other environmental groups, tribes and communities to take on some of the most important issues to protect the environment today,” explained Kate during our Zoom interview.
The Boat Company is not the only partner; it is part of the broader coalition Earthjustice represents in the fight for the Tongass National Forest.
During our interview, Kate described their relationship with the cruise company as a tie that goes beyond donations.
“I think the most important thing is that the tourism industry supports the region’s economy, and it allows people to come up and see this place so that they can understand why we need to protect it,” she said.
“I think that we gain Tongass warriors from people who come up here and visit,” she added.
Why The Tongass Fight Is About More Than Trees
Kate put the climate stakes plainly: “The old-growth Tongass is a carbon powerhouse since it stores 20% of the carbon stored across all U.S. national forests combined. It is a climate life raft for us, and we must keep those trees standing.”
However, the fight over the Tongass National Forest is not just about saving its trees. It is also about jobs, local culture and the future of southeast Alaska.
Local and Indigenous communities rely on the Tongass for food, cultural traditions and everyday life through subsistence hunting, fishing and gathering. At the same time, these intact landscapes protect fisheries, drinking water and healthy watersheds.
But the Tongass fight is also an economic one, and not in the way logging supporters often frame it. “The economy in southeast Alaska is largely based around tourism and commercial fishing. It is not a logging economy,” Kate explained. For example, she mentioned that a quarter of the salmon on the entire U.S. West Coast are from the streams of the Tongass.
The 2025 Southeast Alaska by the Numbers report also confirmed what Kate explained. In 2024, the tourism industry supported 8,589 jobs, while the seafood industry supported 3,109, together accounting for about a quarter of the region’s labor force. Timber, by contrast, accounted for just 274 jobs, which is roughly 0.6% of the total workforce.
Hunter made a similar point. He said what happens in the Tongass ripples far beyond one industry. “At the end of the day, what happens to the Tongass impacts every group one way or the other,” he said.
The Tongass is not simply a beautiful backdrop, but a working infrastructure for ecosystems, livelihoods andcommunities. “What we are all doing is keeping the Tongass alive,” Hunter noted.
Why Not All Tourism Helps In The Same Way
Large-ship cruising and mission-driven small cruise tourism should not be treated as the same thing. Both Kate and Hunter experience the difference in their impact firsthand.
Kate said southeast Alaska has seen a major increase in large-cruise tourism and that this growth has created tensions in the communities. Locals are trying to balance economic benefits with quality of life and access to places they also use.
Hunter’s take was more blunt as he described it as “a definite dislike” in local communities toward those larger vessels, even though people also understand the money they bring in.
The difference is not in size, but in purpose. Both models bring people to Alaska, but what do they leave behind? More pressure on ports and communities, or deeper understanding and long-term support for the place itself? Do they treat wilderness as a backdrop, or as something worth defending once the trip is over?
What Comes Next?
The fight is far from over. “We have worked so hard over the last two decades to defend the Roadless Rule,” said Kate. However, we are at another turning point.
The U.S. Forest Service plans to revise the Tongass National Forest plan and roll back the 2001 Roadless Rule, which will reopen currently protected areas to road building and timber harvest. So, Earthjustice, together with The Boat Company and other coalition members, is preparing for the next round.
Hunter said readers who care about the Tongass should not underestimate the importance of public pressure. “Our voices do carry if our voices are heard,” he said.
He urged supporters to stay involved, watch for opportunities to submit comments and contact elected officials when protections are threatened.
“Don’t be afraid to call your senator’s office, call your congressman’s office and say, I do not agree with the removal of the Roadless Rule.”
