Glacier Bay National Park
Glacier Bay National Park is a 3.3-million-acre protected area located in Alaska, accessible primarily by boat or plane, making it a unique destination for nature enthusiasts. It features a stunning landscape characterized by massive glaciers, diverse ecosystems, and an array of wildlife, including humpback whales, brown bears, and eagles. The park has rich historical significance, having been explored by Captain George Vancouver in the late 18th century and later popularized by naturalist John Muir in the 19th century. Originally designated as a national monument in 1925, it was expanded and officially designated as a national park in 1980, and it is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Glacier Bay faces ongoing challenges, particularly in balancing conservation efforts with public access. The increasing number of visitors, especially from cruise ships, has raised concerns about the impact on local wildlife, particularly the endangered humpback whales. Additionally, the rights of the indigenous Hoonah Tlingit people remain a sensitive issue, as their historical hunting rights within the park have been contested. The ongoing discussions around environmental preservation, indigenous rights, and tourism reflect the complex relationship between nature and culture in this remarkable national park.
Glacier Bay National Park
On the Icy Strait connecting the Pacific Ocean to Alaska’s Inside Passage, west of Juneau, lies Glacier Bay, the signature feature of a 3.3-million-acre national park inaccessible by automobile or tour bus. It is visited by humpback whales and cruise ships—not always in harmony—and is home to brown bears, shrimp, eagles, seals, Sitka spruce, and to glaciers.
History and Exploration
In 1798, Captain George Vancouver anchored the HMS Discovery and sent an exploratory party in longboats through the aptly named Icy Strait. The resulting chart showed the opening to what is now Glacier Bay, but it was completely blocked by mountains of ice. The oral traditions of the Tlingit people and the findings of geologists and anthropologists agree that the ice blockage noted by the explorers had not always been there. As recently as three hundred years ago, the Tlingits or their relatives had lived in the basin of what is now Glacier Bay and were evicted by water and encroaching ice.
John Muir, the naturalist-writer who had popularized Yosemite, visited the by-then-navigable Glacier Bay with Tlingit guides in 1879. Convinced that valleys such as Yosemite had been carved out by glaciation, he was eager to learn about the process in a place where it was still at work. Alerted by Muir’s writings (he made three subsequent visits), other scientists and adventurers visited the site. The largest, most active glacier in the bay was named for Muir himself, and observers delighted in watching it “calve” (break off in icebergs) and listening to the crashing sound that it made.
Muir’s fourth visit was with Edward Henry Harriman as part of the Harriman Expedition of 1899, which spent five days collecting data in Glacier Bay. Had their visit been a year later, the data would have differed markedly, for in September 1899, a massive earthquake struck the area. The Muir Glacier was shattered, and its “calves” filled Glacier Bay, making it once again impassable to steamships. Tourist-adventurers stayed away for at least a decade, though fascination with retreating glaciers and the ecosystems that followed them kept scientific interest in Glacier Bay alive.
National Monument
William S. Cooper, a plant ecologist, began visiting Glacier Bay in 1916, and with the Ecological Society of America he lobbied for federal preservation of the bay and its environs. President Calvin Coolidge responded in 1925, designating the area Glacier Bay National Monument for its spectacular glacial landscape, its emerging forests and plant ecology, its historic interest, and its comparative accessibility. The proclamation set aside the land from development but made no reference to the Tlingits, who continued their traditional fishing and seal-hunting along the shores.
In 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt more than doubled the size of Glacier Bay National Monument, urged by the National Park Service to protect the habitat of such animals as the brown bear. Against their will, homesteaders and fox farmers in Gustavus, Alaska, were included in the larger monument. During World War II, an airfield was constructed in Gustavus. In 1955, after mounting pressure, 14,000 acres (including Gustavus and its now-demilitarized and very useful airport) were de-accessioned from Glacier Bay National Monument. In 1966, a visitors’ lodge opened at Bartlett Cove along with a dock, an administration building, and employee housing, the first time funding had ever been available from the Park Service for such amenities.
In 1980, as part of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, Glacier Bay National Monument became Glacier Bay National Park, and its boundary was extended northwest to the Alsek River and Dry Bay. Eighty percent of the park is designated wilderness. In 1986 the park was named by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as part of the Glacier Bay-Admiralty Island Biosphere Reserve, and in 1992 it was recognized as an UNESCO International World Heritage site, together with Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and the Canadian Kluane National Park as the Kluane/Wrangell–St. Elias/Glacier Bay/Tatshenshini-Alsek World Heritage Site.
Controversy and Future Challenges
Glacier Bay National Park continues to balance the mandate to preserve its beauty and the ecosystems within its borders while making them accessible to their human admirers and students. In 2016, there were more than 2.9 million recreation visits To Glacier Bay National Park by some 520,000 visitors.
Exemplary of the difficulties inherent in this mission is the long-running dispute involving cruise ships and humpback whales. During the 1990s, 90 percent of the annual visitors to the park were entering Glacier Bay by cruise ship, and the height of the cruising season coincided with the annual arrival of the endangered Northern Pacific humpback whales, who feed in the oxygen-rich waters created by melting glaciers. Tourists thrill to see the whales; but whales have been killed by collisions with cruise ships, and are also disoriented by the noise and wakes created by the ships. After a lawsuit, legislation, and negotiation, the park permits only two cruise ships to enter Glacier Bay per day.
A continuing source of controversy is fishing in Glacier Bay. Shrimp fishing, once a major source of income in the region, has been banned since shrimp are a major food for the whales in Glacier Bay. But shrimping aside, commercial fishing is hazardous to whales, which get tangled in fishing nets. Attempts to ban commercial fishing altogether have met with strong political opposition.
Another sensitive issue in Glacier Bay National Park concerns the rights of the indigenous Hoonah Tlinglit people whose ancestors hunted there. Their right to hunt seal within park boundaries was rescinded in 1974, and their rights to other hunting and fishing within the park are in dispute. Increasingly, however, American citizens have become sensitive to the fact that concepts like “wilderness” and “preservation” are culturally connected, and that Tlingit concepts of land preservation are different from those that resulted in the creation of US national parks.
Bibliography
“Explore Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve.” Glacier Bay, www.glacierbay.org. Accessed 25 Oct. 2017.
“Fact Sheet.” National Park Service, 13 June 2017, www.nps.gov/glac/learn/news/fact-sheet.htm. Accessed 25 Oct. 2017.
“Glacier Bay National Park.” Alaska.org, www.alaska.org/destination/glacier-bay-national-park. Accessed 25 Oct. 2017.
“History and Culture.” National Park Service, 27 Sept. 2017, www.nps.gov/glba/learn/historyculture/index.htm. Accessed 25 Oct. 2017.
“Science and Research.” National Park Service, 30 June 2017, www.nps.gov/glba/learn/scienceresearch.htm. Accessed 25 Oct. 2017.
Simpson, Sherry, and Mark Kelley. Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska. Samwha Printing, 2000.
“What’s So Special about Glacier Bay?” National Park Service, 13 Sept. 2017, www.nps.gov/glba/whats-so-special.htm. Accessed 25 Oct. 2017.