Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve – A Climate Story, by Chelsea Kuiper
Happy Summer! For this edition of the Montana Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate Student Corner I wanted to share a climate story about Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, a hugely place in my life where I was able to see, feel, and experience the impacts of climate change.
Happy Summer! For this edition of the Montana Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate Student Corner I wanted to share a climate story about Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, a hugely place in my life where I was able to see, feel, and experience the impacts of climate change.
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Lamplugh Glacier, located in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve (in the Huna Tlingit language: Sit Eeti Gheyi, or “The Bay in Place of the Glacier”), has undergone dramatic change in the last decade, in part due to climate change.
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Kayakers paddling in-front of the mudflats of Lamplugh Glacier. The face of Lamplugh once met the waters of Glacier Bay, calving extensive swaths of ice into the bay. However, since 2010, these sizeable mudflats have formed along the face of the glacier as it continues to retreat.
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Glacier Bay and Climate Change
Several years ago, before my current graduate studies in public health at the University of Montana, I was a park ranger at Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in Alaska. At 3.3 million acres, you could nearly fit the state of Connecticut into the greater region of Glacier Bay. In this immense National Park, a vast diversity of stories encompasses it. There is a rich ecological story of its plants and animals, as Glacier Bay is the second largest protected wilderness area on the planet. There is also the human story of the park, which began with the Huna Tlingit people and their ancestors, who have inhabited this landscape and maintained strong ties to it since a time before memory or time immemorial. Perhaps the park's most famous story is its glaciers, which begin in the mountains and flow to the sea's edge. Many appear as sheer walls of ice abutting the 65-mile-long fjord that is Glacier Bay. As an interpretive park ranger, my job was to illuminate these rich narratives for visitors through ranger talks and programs.
Although I have long been aware of climate change, my experience working near glaciers as a park ranger in Alaska was one of the pivotal moments for me that cemented an interest in climate work. Observing palpable environmental changes in Southeast Alaska in real time, including glacial retreat, illuminated how rapidly some of the planet's landscapes are transforming and deteriorating in the wake of climate change. The face of Lamplugh Glacier (see the first page) was once flush with the bay's waters. However, since 2010, sizeable mudflats have formed in front of the glacier as it continues to retreat.
Glacier Bay has long been a landscape defined by dynamic change. Less than 300 years ago, a single, massive glacier filled what is now the waters of Glacier Bay. Historically, the park's glaciers advanced and retreated in natural cycles over long periods. However, as carbon dioxide levels have dramatically increased in the atmosphere over time in connection with the burning of fossil fuels, Alaska's glaciers have experienced the effects of a warming Earth. While the state has over 100,000 glaciers, 95 percent of those are currently thinning, becoming stagnant, or in the process of active retreat.
Rising air temperatures and glacial melt adversely influence Alaska's land and ocean habitats. Glacier Bay reported on its official website last March that an intense heatwave from 2014-2016 in the Pacific Northwest contributed to a sharp decline in the Alaska Humpback Whale population. Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels contribute to additional absorption of CO2 in the ocean, leading to increased acidity and harmful impacts on marine species. Changes in sea ice levels have led to coastal erosion that has threatened some coastal arctic communities and forced them to relocate. Melting permafrost in Northern Alaska landscapes leads to the release of stored greenhouse gases.
Responding to climate change requires individual and collective action so that the future stories we tell of places like Glacier Bay are not ones of loss and deterioration but adaptation and resilience. Among the many ways to preserve national parks is to consider supporting organizations that aim to protect the natural and cultural resources they contain. For more information, visit:
Several years ago, before my current graduate studies in public health at the University of Montana, I was a park ranger at Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in Alaska. At 3.3 million acres, you could nearly fit the state of Connecticut into the greater region of Glacier Bay. In this immense National Park, a vast diversity of stories encompasses it. There is a rich ecological story of its plants and animals, as Glacier Bay is the second largest protected wilderness area on the planet. There is also the human story of the park, which began with the Huna Tlingit people and their ancestors, who have inhabited this landscape and maintained strong ties to it since a time before memory or time immemorial. Perhaps the park's most famous story is its glaciers, which begin in the mountains and flow to the sea's edge. Many appear as sheer walls of ice abutting the 65-mile-long fjord that is Glacier Bay. As an interpretive park ranger, my job was to illuminate these rich narratives for visitors through ranger talks and programs.
Although I have long been aware of climate change, my experience working near glaciers as a park ranger in Alaska was one of the pivotal moments for me that cemented an interest in climate work. Observing palpable environmental changes in Southeast Alaska in real time, including glacial retreat, illuminated how rapidly some of the planet's landscapes are transforming and deteriorating in the wake of climate change. The face of Lamplugh Glacier (see the first page) was once flush with the bay's waters. However, since 2010, sizeable mudflats have formed in front of the glacier as it continues to retreat.
Glacier Bay has long been a landscape defined by dynamic change. Less than 300 years ago, a single, massive glacier filled what is now the waters of Glacier Bay. Historically, the park's glaciers advanced and retreated in natural cycles over long periods. However, as carbon dioxide levels have dramatically increased in the atmosphere over time in connection with the burning of fossil fuels, Alaska's glaciers have experienced the effects of a warming Earth. While the state has over 100,000 glaciers, 95 percent of those are currently thinning, becoming stagnant, or in the process of active retreat.
Rising air temperatures and glacial melt adversely influence Alaska's land and ocean habitats. Glacier Bay reported on its official website last March that an intense heatwave from 2014-2016 in the Pacific Northwest contributed to a sharp decline in the Alaska Humpback Whale population. Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels contribute to additional absorption of CO2 in the ocean, leading to increased acidity and harmful impacts on marine species. Changes in sea ice levels have led to coastal erosion that has threatened some coastal arctic communities and forced them to relocate. Melting permafrost in Northern Alaska landscapes leads to the release of stored greenhouse gases.
Responding to climate change requires individual and collective action so that the future stories we tell of places like Glacier Bay are not ones of loss and deterioration but adaptation and resilience. Among the many ways to preserve national parks is to consider supporting organizations that aim to protect the natural and cultural resources they contain. For more information, visit:
- National Parks Foundation: https://www.nationalparks.org/our-work/programs/programs-protect
- National Parks Conservation Association: https://www.npca.org