Alaska Park Science Anchorage, Alaska Connections to Natural and Cultural Resource Studies in Alaska’S National Parks

National Park Service U.S. Department of Interior

Alaska Support Office Alaska Park Science Anchorage, Alaska Connections to Natural and Cultural Resource Studies in Alaska’s National Parks

Summer 2003 Table of Contents Return to Glacier Bay ______5 The Wales/Deering Subsistence Producer Analysis Project ______13 Chukchi Cape Krusenstern Bear Human Interactions at Glacier Bay Sea National Monument National Park and Preserve: Conflict Risk Assessment ______21 Deering Wales Red Light District Ethnohistory Bering Land Bridge in Seward, Alaska ______27 National Preserve Unlocking the Secrets of K A Lake Clark Sockeye Salmon ______33 Norton Sound A S Pioneer Arctic Archeologist L J. Louis Giddings______39 A Science News ______44-51 Glacier Bay Alaska Park Science Lake Clark National Park National Park and Preserve http://www.nps.gov/akso/AKScience2003spring.pdf and Preserve Editor: Monica Shah Seward Copy Editor: Thetus Smith Kenai Fjords National Park Project Lead: Robert Winfree, Regional Science Advisor, email: [email protected] Park Science Journal Board: Ted Birkedal, Team Leader for Cultural Resources Bristol Bay Alex Carter, Team Manager for Biological Resources Team Gulf of Alaska Joy Geiselman, Deputy Chief, Biological Science Office USGS Alaska Science Center John Quinley, Assistant Regional Director for Communications Jane Tranel, Public Affairs Specialist Ralph Tingey, Associate Regional Director for Resources and Education Robert Winfree, Regional Science Advisor and Chair of Journal Board Funded By: The Natural Resources Challenge Initiative Printed with soy based ink Produced By: Parks Featured in this Issue

Sharing Alaska’s Natural and Cultural Heritage

Cover photograph © Randall Davis 2 About the Authors

Herbert Anungazuk is an anthropologist for the Alaska Support Office, National Park Service.

James L. Bodkin is a research wildlife biologist for the Alaska Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey.

Don Callaway is a cultural anthropologist for the Alaska Support Office, National Park Service.

Terry D. DeBruyn is a wildlife biologist for the Alaska Support Office, National Park Service.

Tania Lewis is a wildlife biologist for Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve.

Rachel Mason is a cultural anthropologist for the Alaska Support Office, National Park Service.

Steven Partridge is a wildlife biologist for the Alaska Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey.

Becky Saleeby is an archeologist for the Alaska Support Office, National Park Service.

Tom Smith is a wildlife biologist for the Alaska Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey.

Carol Ann Woody is a biologist for the Alaska Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey. A radiotagged sockeye salmon ready to reveal the Rusty Yerxa is a writer-editor for Glacier Bay final location of its spawning National Park and Preserve. destination. Because salmon stop eating on their spawning migration, scientists can insert a battery-sized (AA) tag in their empty stomachs.

Photograph courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey See story page 33 3 4 Return to Glacier Bay

By James L. Bodkin recolonizing Glacier Bay. This provides the Pacific Ocean, the sound of sea otters opportunity to describe the marine commu- foraging could no longer be heard. This was Introduction nity, as it exists before sea otters exert their the result ofa commercial fur harvest that A sound unheard for centuries is once influence, and to document how the commu- began about 1750 and ended in 1900 with again resonating above the turbid waters of nity changes as sea otters become established. the near extinction ofthe species(Kenyon Glacier Bay. The sound is one ofrock ham- Because Glacier Bay is large, it will take many 1969). The first efforts to conserve sea otters mering against clam in rapid-fire succession years for sea otters to reoccupy all habitats occurred in 1911. At that time sea otters and it signals the return ofthe sea otterin the bay. The opportunity to compare received their first protection under the (Enhydra lutris) to its former habitats in similar habitats in Glacier Bay, both with International Fur Treaty, and likely num- Southeast Alaska. The sound also signals the and without sea otters, and before and after bered just several hundred animals scat- beginning ofa process that will, with little sea otter colonization, provides an experi- tered in 11 populations between central doubt, result in profound and persistent mentally powerful design. This can then California and Russia, with most individuals changes in the marine communities of allow researchers to assign cause based on occurring in the Aleutian Islands. No sea Glacier Bay. Some ofthese changes areobserved change (Figure 1). In addition, the otter populations persisted between Prince predictable, while others will be unantici- protected waters ofGlacier Bay provide a William Sound in Alaska and the Big Sur Figure 1: Sea otters are in the first stages pated. Without understanding the range of laboratory that is, and will likely remain, coast ofCalifornia. During the twentieth of recolonizing Glacier Bay. The red circles effects ofsea otters, management ofmany relatively unaffected by human activities century, extant sea otter populations represent subtidal clam sites. marine resources may be severely impaired such as contamination, fishing, logging, and exhibited a general pattern ofrecovery, with for decades to come. Fortunately, because mining, which could potentially confound growth rates from about 5% to 13% per sea otters are easily observed and their prey the interpretation ofecological study. It year and displaying concurrent patterns easily studied, methods and approaches to was under consideration ofthese attributes ofrange expansion (Bodkin et al. 1999). studying sea otters and their ecology are that we began our work nearly ten years ago The next efforts to conserve and aid in perhaps better developed than for any other to understand the effects of sea otters on the recovery ofsea otter populations began marine mammal (Riedman and Estes 1990). the structure and function of near-shore in 1965 and consisted oftranslocations For several reasons Glacier Bay National marine communities in Glacier Bay. from Amchitka Island and Prince William Park and Preserve provides an excellent Sound in Alaska to Oregon, Washington, laboratory for studying the effects of sea The Decline and Recovery British Columbia, and Southeast Alaska

Kelp Forest photo courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey foremost, sea otters are in the early stages of along nearly the entire shore ofthe North 1969, 412 sea otters arrived at several loca-

5 Return to Glacier Bay Photo courtesyofU.S.GeologicalSurvey Where sea otters are present, they effectively limit the abundance of sea urchins by actively consuming individuals larger than about one inch in diameter. As a result of this predation on urchins, which limits urchin size, abundance, and mobility, urchins do not have a large grazing effect and Figure 4: Urchin barren. consequently kelp forests flourish. 1974, Simenstad et al. 1978, Kvitek and Oliver 1988, Kvitek et al. 1992). Probably tions in Southeast Alaska, including areas the best example ofsea otter effects comes adjacent to Glacier Bay National Park and from the description of sea otters as eco- Preserve in Cross Sound. Although surveys logical “keystone” species in kelp forest ofsea otter populations in Southeast Alaska communities ofthe coastal North Pacific were infrequent, results through at least Ocean (Estes and Duggins 1995). Within 1988 indicated that the population was these shallow rocky habitats occur several increasing about 20% annually with simul- species ofsea urchin(Stronglycentrotus sp.), taneous expansion ofrange(Pitcher 1989). marine herbivores that actively graze on Figure 2: Since 1993, sea otter populations have increased dramatically. By 1988 sea otters were common in Cross algae. This includes the brown algae that

Photo courtesyofU.S.GeologicalSurvey Sound and immigration into Icy Straits was often forms the conspicuous and produc- evident. In 1993 the first sea otters were tive kelp-forests that exist along many observed in Glacier Bay, although annual coastlines. Where sea otters are present, surveys indicate permanent residence was they effectively limit the abundance of sea not established until 1998. Since that time, urchins by actively consuming individuals population growth in Glacier Bay has been larger than about one inch in diameter. phenomenal. It is almost certainly exceed- As a result ofthis predation on urchins, ing the reproductive potential ofthewhich limits urchin size, abundance, and species, and thus likely representing contri- mobility, urchins do not have a large butions from both births and immigration grazing effect and consequently kelp forests from outside the bay. (Figure 2). flourish. In turn, kelp forests provide habitat, refuge, and forage for a complex A “Keystone” Species community ofinvertebrates, fishes, birds, Our understanding ofthe role sea otters and mammals. A high biomass ofkelps and will play in modifying the Glacier Bay a diverse assemblage ofanimals reliant on marine ecosystem will benefit from previ- the kelp forest characterize the kelp forest

Figure 3: A diverse assemblage of animals reliant on the kelp forest characterize the kelp ous studies ofthe effects ofsea otter forag- community. (Figure 3). forest community. ing in other locales (Estes and Palmisano Alternatively, when sea otters are

6 absent, urchin populations respond to over time (see above). The second consists reduced predation by increased abundance ofdescribing the diet ofrecolonizing sea and average size. As this happens, the otters; identifying species, number and level ofgrazing by urchins increases, size ofprey; and describing the diet as which can eventually eliminate the forest it changes. The third component ofour and much ofthe associated animal com- program consists ofestimating the density, munity that is supported by the kelp forest. sizes, and composition ofspecies occurring This urchin-dominated community is in intertidal and subtidal habitats, before commonly referred to as an “urchin and after sea otter recolonization. The third barren.” It is characterized by large and part focuses initially on those species that numerous sea urchins, little algae or sea otters consume directly. canopy-forming kelp forests, and the reduction or absence ofkelp-associated The Diet of Glacier Bay Sea Otters fauna. (Figure 4). Additionally, in the To date we have observed the results of absence ofsea otter predation, some ofmore than 3,000 sea otter foraging dives in the other preferred prey species, such as Glacier Bay (Bodkin et al. 2001, 2003). The abalone (Haliotis sp.), crab (e.g., Cancer sp.), primary data that we collect while observ- and mussels (Mytilus sp.), can also increase ing feeding sea otters includes: success or in abundance and average size (Lowry failure, and species, number and sizes of prey and Pearse 1973, Garshelis et al. 1986, consumed. (Figure 5). Sea otters successful- VanBlaricom 1988). ly recover one or more prey on about Although habitats suitable for support- 85% oftheir foraging dives in Glacier Bay. ing kelp forests exist in Glacier Bay, much Although the number ofprey types con- ofthe shallow water habitats in Glacier Bay sumed by sea otters exceeds 150 species are soft-sediment, such as mud, sand, (Estes and Bodkin 2001), the bulk oftheir gravel and cobble that will not provide diet can be classified into the general taxo- optimum substrate for kelp forests. We can nomic groups ofbivalve mollusks (clams expect the transformation of some urchin and mussels), echinoderms (sea urchins

barrens into kelp forests. In order to deter- Photograph courtesyofU.S.GeologicalSurvey mine what kinds ofdirect and indirect effects can be anticipated as sea otters occupy and forage in these soft-sediment marine communities, the U.S. Geological Survey’s Alaska Science Center, in cooperation with Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, initiated a program consisting of three integrated avenues ofresearch. The first consists of documenting the distribution and abundance ofsea otters in andFigure 5: Researcher observing sea otter Figure 6: Sea otter diet composition (A), number of prey (B) and mean size of prey in mm (C) around Glacier Bay and how that changes foraging dives. in Glacier Bay, Alaska, 1993-2002

7 Return to Glacier Bay

and stars), and crustaceans (crabs). Glacier Bay as a direct result ofsea otter Although the diet we observed in Glacier foraging. Bay varies within the area occupied by sea Between 1998 and 2002 we sampled 13 otters, it consists largely ofinvertebrates subtidal clam beds in Glacier Bay before that reside in, or on, unconsolidated sub- sea otters occupied those sites. For compar- strates such as mud, sand, gravel and cob- ison, in nearby Port Althorp where sea ble. Over all areas, bivalve clams (species of otters have been foraging for more than 20 Mya, Saxidomus, Protothaca and Serripes) years, we sampled an additional 5 sites. We constitute 43% ofthe observed diet,selected the sites based on the presence and urchins (S. droebachiensis) 18%, horse high abundance ofclam siphons in Glacier mussels (Modiolus modiolus) 18%, and Bay and based on sea otter for aging and crabs (species of Cancer, Telmessus, fresh clam shell fragments in Port Althorp. Chionoecetes and Paralithoides) 5%. (Figure We used a diver-operated suction dredge to 6). Relatively rare species include octopus excavate 50 cm by 50 cm quadrats to depths (Octopus dofleini), snails (Fusitriton orego- ofabout 25 cm at each site to determine nensis and Neptunea sp.), the fat innkeeper species composition and sizes ofsubtidal worm (Echiurus sp.), the basket star clams. (Figure 8). (Gorgonocephalus caryi), and the sea Average densities ofall clams were about cucumber (Cucumaria fallax). six times greater in our Glacier Bay sites (59 per quadrat) than at our Port Althorp Effects of Sea Otters sites (10 per quadrat). Densities ofthe on Clam Populations butter clam (Saxidomus gigantea), a large Because sea otters have not resided in and preferred sea otter prey, were more large numbers for a long period at our than 10 times higher in Glacier Bay than at Figure 7: Dramatic declines in the size of butter clams have been observed. study sites in Glacier Bay, we were unable to Port Althorp. Probably ofequal or greater

Photograph courtesyofRandallDavis©2003 compare our measures ofprey populations importance is that the average clam was before and after sea otter recolonization. much larger in Glacier Bay than in Port As an approximation ofchanges we might expect in Glacier Bay, we have compared clam populations before sea otters arrived in Glacier Bay to a nearby and similar area in Port Althorp, where sea otters have … long-time residents of the been present for about 20 years. (Figure 7). community of Elfin Cove in Port Although we have sampled crabs, mussels, Althorp observed dramatic declines urchins and other otter prey in Glacier Bay, in the abundance and sizes of the following example from our subtidal clam data serves as an example oftheclams concurrent with the arrival of types ofdata obtained. In addition, through sea otters about 20 years ago. comparison with nearby Port Althorp, we can approximate what we might expect in

8 Cascading Effects of Recolonization What will be the indirect effect of The experimental and logistic situation sea otters removing most of the clam offered in Glacier Bay has provided the biomass on resident octopus opportunity to pursue and acquire many of the numerous data sets that will be required populations? What will the direct to document and understand the direct effects of otter predation on octopus effects of sea otter foraging. In some cases, be? Reduced octopus densities may particularly relative to the effects of urchin be a result, and what might be the removal, we will likely capture both the effect of reduced octopus densities on direct effect of reduced urchin densities and sizes, plus the cascading effect of increased the marine communities in general? algal production. However, it is also likely that other effects will be more difficult to understand, ifat all. Two examples may serve to illustrate the potential breadth of in Glacier Bay, numbering into the tens of effects induced by sea otter foraging. thousands. Much ofwhat these sea ducks One regards a species that is both com- forage for are bivalve mollusks, including petitor and prey for the sea otter, the octo- many ofthose that sea otters will consume pus. Octopuses are likely near the top ofthe and eventually reduce in densities and aver- food web in Glacier Bay. We have observed age size. It is difficult to predict what the “gardens” ofemptied clams and other cumulative effects of reduced prey densities Figure 8: Schematic drawing showing excavation of quadrats utilizing the suction dredge. mollusks numbering into the hundreds that and sizes will be on sea ducks. On one hand, evidence the residence ofone or more large fewer clams and mussels would likely octopuses. What will be the indirect effect support fewer sea ducks. On the other Althorp: butter clams between 70 mm and for intertidal clams, urchins, crabs, and on resident octopus populations ofsea hand, it is possible that sea otter predation 90 mm long (~3 in) were most common mussels as well. These preliminary contrasts, otters removing most ofthe clam biomass? will result in an increase in the abundance in Glacier Bay, compared to Port Althorp, while not unequivocal, suggest that the sea What will the direct effects of otter preda- ofsmaller clams that could benefit sea where the majority ofclams were 10 mm to otter effect of reducing densities and sizes tion on octopuses be? Reduced octopus ducks. Part ofour challenge in preparing 30 mm (~1 in). These differences in density ofpreferred prey will likely also occur in densities may be a result. What might be the for the recovery of sea otter populations is

and sizes resulted in estimates that placed Glacier Bay. Our ability to anticipate and effect of reduced octopus densities on the Photograph courtesyofU.S.GeologicalSurvey the total butter clam biomass ofthe Glacier understand both the direct and cascading marine communities in general? Bay sites about 75 times that ofPort Althorp. effects of this predation will improve Another example concerns several Additionally, long-time residents ofthe management decisions regarding marine species ofsea ducks that spend the winter community ofElfin Cove in Port Althorp resources in Glacier Bay. While predicting in Glacier Bay in large numbers and who observed dramatic declines in the abun- ecosystem level responses to a disturbance compete for many of the same prey. Sea dance and sizes ofclams concurrent with such as that imposed by recolonizing sea ducks, including goldeneye (Bucephala sp.), the arrival ofsea otters about 20 years ago. otters affords a broad suite of challenges, it harlequins (Histrionicus histrionicus), scot- The pattern ofhigher densities and larger also offers opportunities to advance our ers (Melanitta sp.) and the long-tail duck average sizes, ofsubtidal clams in Glacier Bay understanding ofhow these complex sys- (Clangula hyemalis), are among the most compared to Port Althorp, was consistent tems function. abundant species ofbird during the winter

Commercial, recreational, and subsistence harvest of species in Glacier Bay such as crab, urchin, and clams compete directly with sea otters, resulting in less of those prey species.

anticipating the types ofdirect and indirect ly important marine resources will unques- and subsistence harvest ofspecies such the return ofsea otters may be regarded effects that sea otters will induce. tionably be altered in terms ofabundance as crab, urchin, and clams clams compete as undesirable. Alternatively, the marine and size over the coming years in Glacier directly with sea otters, resulting in less ecosystems ofGlacier Bay will once again Implications to Humans Bay, as sea otters continue to recolonize ofthose prey species that sea otters contain a top-level carnivore that was part Economically, ecologically, and cultural- former habitat. Commercial, recreational, and humans both seek. In this context, ofthe evolutionary history ofthis marine

10 ecosystem. As a result, the sound ofthethere is a trace ofpride that we can collec-Acknowledgments particular, M. Moss, M. Kralovec, and hammering rock against clam, can signify a tively take from the return of the sea otter, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, T. Lee ofGlacier Bay and B. Ballachey, step toward, rather than away from, an that will help us strive toward the restora- National Park Service; the Alaska Science H. Coletti, J. DeGroot, J. de la Bruere, ecosystem that contains more ofthe com- tion, rather than continued degradation, of Center, U.S. Geological Survey; and their G. Esslinger, K. Kloecker, D. Monson, ponents and functions of a complete all ecosystems. respective staff have supported our work E. Knudsen, and J. Taggart ofUSGS have ecosystem. And in this context, perhaps in Glacier Bay and Southeast Alaska. In contributed significantly to this work.

REFERENCES Garshelis, D.L., J.A. Garshelis, and A.T. Kimker. 1986. Pitcher, K.W. 1989. Bodkin, J.L., B.E. Ballachey, M.A. Cronin Sea otter time budgets and prey relationships in Alaska. Studies of Southeastern Alaska sea otter populations: and K.T. Scribner. 1999. Journal of Wildlife Management 50:637-647. Distribution, abundance, structure, range expansion, Population demographics and genetic diversity in and potential conflicts with shellfisheries. Final Report remnant and re-established populations of sea otters. Jameson, R.J., K.W. Kenyon, A.M. Johnson, and Part I. Conservation Biology 13(6):1278-1385. H.M. Wight. 1982. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Cooperative Contract History and status of translocated sea otter No. 14-16-0009-954. Anchorage, AK: Alaska Bodkin, J.L., K.A. Kloecker, G.G. Esslinger, D.H. Monson, populations in North America. Department of Fish and Game. and J.D. DeGroot. 2001. Wildlife Society Bulletin 10:100-107. Sea Otter Studies in Glacier Bay National Park and Riedman, M.L. and J. A. Estes. 1990. Preserve. Annual Report 2000. Kenyon, K.W. 1969. The sea otter (Enhydra lutris): behavior, ecology and Anchorage, AK: USGS Alaska Science Center. The sea otter in the eastern Pacific Ocean. natural history. North America Fauna, No. 68. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Biological Report 90(14). Bodkin, J.L., K.A. Kloecker, G.G. Esslinger, D.H. Monson, H.A. Coletti, and J. Doherty. 2003. Kvitek, R.G., J.S. Oliver, A.R. DeGange, and Simenstad, C.A., J.A. Estes, and K.W. Kenyon. 1978. Sea Otter Studies in Glacier Bay National Park and B.S. Anderson. 1992. Aleuts, sea otters, and alternate stable state Preserve. Annual Report 2002. Changes in Alaskan soft-bottom prey communities communities. Anchorage, AK: USGS Alaska Science Center. along a gradient in sea otter predation. Science 200:403-411. Ecology 73:413-428. Estes, J.A. and J.F. Palmisano. 1974. VanBlaricom, G.R. 1988. Sea otters: their role in structuring nearshore Kvitek, R.G. and J.S. Oliver. 1988. Effects of foraging by sea otters on mussel-dominated communities. Sea otter foraging habits and effects on prey intertidal communities. Science 185:1058-1060. populations and communities in soft-bottom In The Community Ecology of Sea Otters, edited by environments. G.R. VanBlaricom and J.A. Estes. Pages 48-91. Estes, J.A. and D.O. Duggins. 1995. In The Community Ecology of Sea Otters, edited by Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Sea otters and kelp forests in Alaska: generality and G.R. VanBlaricom and J.A. Estes. Pages 22-47. variation in a community ecology paradigm. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Ecological Monographs 65:75-100.

Lowry, L.F. and J.S. Pearse. 1973. Estes, J.A. and J.L. Bodkin. 2001. Abalones and sea urchins in an area Marine otters. In Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals, inhabited by sea otters. edited by W.F. Perrin, B. Wursig and Marine Biology 23: 213-219. H.G.M. Thewissen. San Diego: Academic Press.

11 12 The Wales/Deering Subsistence Producer Analysis Project

By Don Callaway

In 1994 the National Park Service entered Paraphrasing Section 803 of Title VIII, we tion, and for customary trade, barter, or into a cooperative agreement with the can define subsistence use as the customary sharing for personal or family consumption. Alaska Department ofFish and Game and traditional use in Alaska of fish, wildlife, (ADF&G) subsistence division to conduct and other renewable resources for direct per- The communities ofWales and Deering, social and cultural research in the communi- sonal or family consumption, for the making the subject ofthis research, are affiliated ties ofWales and Deering. This article draws and selling of handicraft articles from the with the Bering Land Bridge National extensively from the original text found in non-edible by-products of fish and wildlife Preserve (BELA). The establishment ofthe the report The Production and Distribution taken for direct personal or family consump- preserve includes protecting the viability of Wild Food in Wales and Deering, Alaska, (Technical Paper #259) authored by James S. C H U Magdanz, Charles J. Utermohle and Robert K C H I J. Wolfe. The full text of the final report S E can be found on the ADF&G website— A

http://www.state.ak.us/adfg/subsist/down- BERING LAND BRIDGE NATIONAL PRESERVE load/TP259.pdf. K OT T ZE I B UE A S R O U T N Regulatory Context and the S D G Wales Deering I N R Intent of this Research Project B E S E W The establishment ofnew national parks A R D Left: Residents of Wales, in 1916, stand in P E N I N S front of a meat cache at Cape Prince of and preserves in Alaska under the Alaska U L A Wales. Numerous other caches in the National Interest Lands Conserva-tion Act ALASKA I N G S E A background attest to Wales’ population B E R before the 1918 influenza epidemic. (ANILCA) nearly doubled the park acreage

Photograph from the Robert Steiner Collection, 91-164-64, in the United States. For those parks estab- Archives and Manuscripts, Alaska and Polar Regions Department, University of Alaska Fairbanks lished or enlarged by ANILCA, subsistence N O R T O N S O U N D 50 0 50 100 uses by local residents are permitted in miles accordance with the provisions ofTitle VIII.

Figure 1. Northwest Alaska, including the study communities of Wales and Deering.

13 The Wales/Deering Subsistence Producer Analysis Project

continuity between generations. The single ly populated area bisected by the Arctic most respected and reinforced role for Circle (Figure 1). Temperatures range from young men in the community is to be a suc- the minus 50s ºF [-50ºC] in winter with cessful hunter who distributes the fruits of nearly no sunlight, to the high 70s ºF [25ºC] that success widely within the community. in summers that are characterized by little The documentation ofthese social rela- darkness. Permanent year-round settle- tionships, a major intent ofthe researchment in one location is a relatively recent design, has several useful outcomes. phenomenon in the region. The current Information gained from the project is used locality ofWales (Figure 3), though, has in the regulatory process. Positive regulato- a long history ofoccupation due to its ry findings ensure continued access to exceptional access to marine mammals these wildlife resources for the communi- and its strategic location for trade with ties in question. In addition, the findings of Siberia. Wales, with 500 inhabitants at its this project have substantial importance in peak, was one ofthe largest traditional answering a number ofsignificant questions settlements in northwest Alaska before Figure 2. Sources of personal income, 1994. in the scientific literature and in interpret- the 1918 influenza epidemic. In contrast, ing the cultural values, ideals and behaviors Deering (Figure 4) was not occupied con- ofsubsistence resources in addition to associated with their harvest provide ofthese Iñupiaq communities. tinuously during the nineteenth century. As protecting habitat for fish and wildlife. more than food. Participation in family many as 400 people may have been living Two clear purposes ofthe park wereand community subsistence activities, The Setting: in the Deering area prior to 1850, but this involved in the development ofthe Wales/ whether it be clamming, processing fish Participating Communities population lived in over a dozen small Deering analysis. First, information from at a fish camp, or seal hunting with a The communities ofWales and Deering seasonal settlements. Currently each com- each household in both communities details father or brother, provide the most basic are located in Northwest Alaska— a sparse- munity has about 150 people, more than 90 the amount ofharvest for every species of memories and values in an individual’s natural resources used by that household. life. These activities define and establish This information details the community’s a sense offamily and community. They dependence on wildlife resources and in teach how a resource can be identified, addition helps park managers gauge the methods ofharvest, efficient and non- impact ofhuman harvest on resourcepop- wasteful processing of the resource, and ulations. Critical to managing any natural preparation ofthe resource into a variety resource is biological data on the size ofaoffood items. wildlife population and cultural information The sharing and distribution ofresour- on the amount ofhuman harvest. ces establishes and promotes the most Second, while the nutrition and economic basic ethical values in Native and rural aspects ofwildlife harvests seem the critical culture — generosity, respect for the knowl- issue, in fact, it is the social relations in the edge and guidance ofelders, self-esteem harvest, processing, and sharing ofthose for the successful harvest of a resource, and resources that are ofparamount concern family and public appreciation in the distri- to the rural Native Alaskans ofthe region. bution ofthe harvest. No other set ofactiv- Subsistence resources, and the activities ities provides a similar moral foundation for Figure 3. Wales, 1998

14 percent ofIñupiaq descent. Significant Findings: Both communities have low per capita The Long Term Continuity of Kin- income. In 1994 both communities had a per based Production Groups capita income (from all sources) of about Since the nineteenth century indigenous $7,000 which was about a third ofthe per groups in northwest Alaska have experi- capita income ($23,417) for the state during enced tremendous dislocations— the advent that year (Figure 2). Both communities are ofcommercial whaling, which introduced heavily dependent on the harvest ofwildlife diseases and social restructuring oftradi- resources with per capita harvests ofabout tional relationships; starvation due to the 700 pounds. By comparison the average crash ofthe caribou herds in the late nine- U.S. per capita consumption ofmeat, fish teenth century; and missionary impacts on and poultry is about 220 pounds. Although indigenous beliefs especially after the terri- the per capita harvest for both communities ble epidemics ofthe early twentieth centu- is about the same, the composition ofthose ry, which brought a devastating mortality to harvests varies substantially due to differ- nearly a third ofthe population. However, ences in ecological setting. Wales is much many ofthe underlying beliefs, values and more dependent on marine mammals, Figure 5. Estimated harvest in 14 northwest Alaska communities. Deering’s and Wales’ practices that are linked to subsistence especially walrus, while Deering, located in harvest of pounds per person per year were similar to other northwest communities. activities have persisted. a sheltered bay inside Kotzebue Sound, Research Design governments. The household survey form The surveys demonstrated continuity harvests about equal amounts ofseal, fish In both communities about 84% of asked questions about the harvests ofwild between the organization ofcontemporary and caribou (Figure 5). In summary, we find available households were interviewed foods (by species) by the respondent’s households and those documented by two indigenous communities with very (42 in Wales, 37 in Deering). Before the household during the previous year. The ethnohistorians during the mid-nineteenth low incomes that are heavily dependent on research began, approval for the research survey also obtained information on the century. Although contemporary house- traditional resources. was obtained from the respective local age, sex, employment and income ofeach holds in 1994 were somewhat smaller and permanent resident ofthe respondent’s less complex, they essentially mirrored the household. In addition to the standard har- subsistence networks described for “local vest inquiries, interviewers asked each families” in the 1850s. In essence the key household to identify the people who har- elements ofsharing, respect for elders, vested, processed or distributed 12 cate- ethical treatment of“animals” and support gories ofsubsistence resources for the for those in need have been sustained for at respondent’s household, and whether or not least 150 years. these individuals lived in his or her house- In the larger American culture, families hold. Detailed genealogical data was also support themselves predominantly on the obtained from participating households and entered into “Legacy” software. wages produced by the parents ofsmall Surveys required 15 minutes to two hours nuclear families. This research demonstrates to complete. The data was analyzed using that households in northwest Alaska the Statistical Package for the Social rarely function as independent entities. The Sciences (SPSS) and Excel programs. The organization ofthe harvest, processing and analysis employed a variety ofstatistical distribution ofwildlife resources on which Figure 4. Deering, 1998 techniques, including hierarchical clustering. these communities base their survival rely

15 The Wales/Deering Subsistence Producer Analysis Project

WALES D on extensive sharing between households the relatively high cost ofmaintaining the WALES A in the community. In almost all cases, these equipment and supplying the crew for X X E households that share wildlife resources marine mammal hunting meant that crews S X D are linked through kinship. Most often were more likely to be organized around M these kinship linkages are between parents higher income households in Wales. D and children, grandparents and grandchil- By contrast, in Deering, the majority of X X S X dren, siblings (ofeither sex) or betweenthe harvest (62%) came from land mam-

M aunts/uncles and nephews/nieces. Thus an mals and fish. Subsistence activities in M elderly parent may have his/her wildlife Deering were less costly because land nutritional needs met by children living mammals could be pursued by a single man WALES B WALES K in other households. These reciprocating with a snowmachine and sled; an entire E S M households linked by kinship are called crew was not needed. kinship networks. Generally and consonant with indige- S D X X M Eight production and distribution net- nous value systems, the flow of wild foods

X D works were identified in Wales and six within the networks tended to be from the M X in Deering (Figure 6). Networks ranged in active single and active elder households

WALES C WALES H size from 2 to 41 people, occupying 2 to 11 to the inactive and developing households.

M D households. On average, networks harvest- While highly productive single-person ed 12,723 pounds ofwild foods (735households were important to network pounds per person). About 90% ofinter- harvests, active elder households were WALES I X D WALES L household sharing in Wales occurred with- more likely to make contributions in every E X X in networks and about 75% ofthe inter- economic sector: wild food harvest, earned D E household sharing in Deering occurred income, and unearned income. within networks. Ofthe six different types Six households in Wales and three M UNASSIGNED ofkin relationships, household heads households in Deering, either did not related by parent-child relationships were cooperate with any other households or X X X M X M most likely to be found in the same network. did not harvest any wild foods, and thus Household Household Household Instances of Direction of Networks organized around one elder were not included in any networks. All Size Kinship Structure Social Type Production Production parent household were more productive ofthese were short-term households S Active Single Household 2 Source HH (heads of all ages) (Producing) than networks organized around two elder occupied by teachers or other non-local 3 1 2 3-4 Single Single Conjugal D Developing Household Person Persons Persons Individual Parent Pair (heads 20-39 yrs old) 4-5 sibling households. government employees. M Mature Household (heads 40-59 yrs old) 6-7 It is noteworthy that in Wales, 79% of E Elder Household 8-9 wildlife harvests came from marine mam- Resource Management Conflicts 5-6 7 or More Nuclear Stem Joint (heads 60 yrs +) Respondent Persons Persons Family Family Family X Inactive 10+ (Receiving) mals, principally walrus. Walrus are hunted Resulting from Kin-based by crews ofmen in locally made skin boats Production Groups Figure 6. Wild food production and distribution networks in Wales, 1994. Each grouping or with commercially manufactured boats. One key feature of these results with (Wales A, B, etc.) represents a kinship network. Each polygon (rectangle, triangle, etc.) repre- Perhaps because ofthis crew structure, respect to National Park Service manage- sents a household. The solid lines represent instances of harvesting, processing, and distri- relationships within networks were stronger ment ofnatural resources is the cultural bution of wild foods between households. The thicker the line, the more instances of production. The dotted lines link one man, who each summer harvests a considerable amount and boundaries between networks more conflict in expectations as to who provides of salmon and distributes most of these fish throughout the entire community. distinct in Wales than in Deering. In addition, for a family and what should be the entity

Rita Olanna, her son Percy, and her sister Pauline, skin a bearded seal at their extended family hunting camp near Brevig Mission. They live in three different households, but cooperate extensively in the production of wild food. All but one of the food productions networks in nearby Wales and Deering were based on extended family relationships. connected with management regulations. comes into direct conflict with western Western game management practices come game management practice. out ofa tradition ofmanaging the impacts The NPS and other agencies, in some ofsport hunting. Buttressed by the cultural instances related to decreasing animal pop- expectation that individuals provide for ulations, have modified some of their regu- their nuclear families, most game manage- latory practices to allow for community bag ment in Alaska focuses on limiting the limits or designated hunters. Community amount ofa resource (e.g., caribou) that bag limits set a ceiling on the total commu- one hunter can take in a day (or a given time nity harvest ofa resource (e.g., caribou), period). This is called the individual bag but limit no particular hunter within that limit. In contrast, a single male Iñupiaq community. “Designated” hunters are indi- Sharing of food is integral to Native and rural Alaskan communities. Here, whale blubber has been processed and prepared. hunter may harvest a number ofcaribou and viduals selected by non-active or elderly distribute them to multiple households, households to harvest animals for their use. related to him by kinship, within the Thus the active hunter uses the designating community. Thus traditional practice, household’s bag limit and may harvest ani- in caribou harvesting observed in Deering per year). In times ofresource shortages, where a single hunter receives status and mals for a variety of households without families in 1994 (when the caribou bag limit the use ofindividual bag limits hobbles the community approval for harvesting many exceeding his own individual limit. was 15 per day) would have been illegal in most productive hunters. (Figure 7). animals and distributing them widely, Without these provisions, the specialization 1977 (when the caribou bag limit was one On occasion the NPS, the Federal

17 The Wales/Deering Subsistence Producer Analysis Project

DEERING D zation ofthe hunt in Iñupiaq communities. children or grandchildren — such freedom DEERING A However, recently on state lands, urban is all but impossible for adults in an eco-

HH 19 hunters have used the courts to force the nomically independent nuclear family. In E HH 22 HH 40 M HH 20 Alaska Board ofGame to reorganize themost areas ofrural Alaska, dependence on X X hunt to favor individual rights on a state- a cash economy is risky, especially for men

HH 21 HH 32 HH 34 HH 10 wide basis, instead ofextended families and who work in construction, for jobs tend to M S D M communities on a local basis. be temporary. Jobs in the schools and Realistic game management requires health clinics are more permanent, but even HH 33 HH 8 X D HH 2 HH 27 local compliance. The results ofthis research those jobs are subject to changes in public D M clearly indicate the dynamics ofcontempo- funding priorities that are out of local con- HH 6 HH 35 rary subsistence practices for indigenous trol. Given distance from markets, limited DEERING B S X communities in the area and underscore skills in a small labor pool and a variety of HH 16 HH 45 M HH 23 S the necessity offlexibility in western game other factors, it is extremely difficult to HH 41 HH 37 M D E management practices. Extended-family operate a private business. networks were not simply accommodated There is no guarantee that current levels DEERING G by indigenous management; they were ofpublic spending — upon which most HH 17 HH 9 DEERING F X X part ofindigenous management. These jobs depend — will continue. In the daily networks facilitate communication among business ofsubsistence living, people who HH 43 E HH 30 HH 38 HH 48 members, encourage responsible harvests are part ofa local family network seem X D S and use offish and wildlife, and discipline better prepared to survive the uncertainties HH 42 HH 29 X D HH 14 members who fail to comply with group oflife in Alaska. A household without DEERING H M norms. employment can depend on other house- In essence much ofwestern game man- holds for food, equipment, and supplies. HH 11 HH 24 HH 15 E M E agement in Alaska highlights an equity When hunting is poor, every household in a UNASSIGNED issue. Euro-American regulations regarding network benefits from the success ofeven a

HH 50 HH 28 individual bag limits reflect who has single hunter in the network. Wild foods HH 26 X X HH 31 HH 18 HH 25 D political and legislative power within the play an essential role in maintaining the state. Non-indigenous Alaskans hold dif- physical and emotional health ofthousands LEGEND ferent beliefs about whether individuals or ofAlaskans. This is a tremendous responsi- Each pie chart represents a single Source HH Respondent HH S Active Single Household (Consuming) household and a potential harvest of (Harvesting) (heads of all ages) families and communities should be the bility for the agencies that participate in the 3,802 pounds of caribou and moose caribou distribution D Developing Household (the maximum reported by any one (heads 20-39 yrs old) basis for allocation. management ofthose resources. household). Shaded portions repre- moose distribution M Mature Household HH ID HH ID sent the amount of caribou and (heads 40-59 yrs old) S D moose actually harvested by each E Elder Household household. Lines between households (heads 60 yrs +) Factors That Sustain Regulatory Conflicts Associated show distribution of moose or caribou. Moose Caribou No Harvest X Inactive Household Local Family Networks with the Use of Modern Figure 7. Harvest and distribution of large terrestrial mammals, Deering 1994. Two households In these Iñupiaq communities, local Technology in Subsistence Activities were particularly important in the distribution of meat to other households. Household 21 family networks have survived when so In 1850, the six to eight local families in and 28 reported harvesting one-third of Deering’s total caribou harvest and distributed that much else has changed. A strong local the study communities probably would harvest to eight other households in four networks. family network provides its adult members have spent much ofthe year living in sepa- Subsistence Board and the Alaska Board of community bag limits and designated with a high degree ofindividual freedom: to rate, small, local family-based settlements Game have attempted, through the use of hunters, to preserve the traditional organi- work or not work, to hunt or to fish, to raise spread across each “society’s” territories. In

18 Photograph courtesyofJohnRobson©2003 month basis. Parents were faced with the to mitigating these potential conflicts is choice between occupying traditional sea- sustained dialogue between both parties sonal camps and losing their children or liv- with a foundation of empirical evidence, as ing with their children in permanent settle- represented by this study, to facilitate the ments established by the government discussion. and/or religious institutions. The factor that made this latter choice more palatable was The Long Term Impact of the use ofincreasingly efficient western Subsistence Activities on Wildlife technology in their subsistence pursuits. Populations In 1994 there was less need to disperse. In some quarters there is the perception With modern transportation, families could that growth in Alaska Native populations fish, hunt, and gather throughout their threaten to outstrip Alaska’s fish and wildlife. traditional territories, yet return to their The data from this project do not support permanent homes in a matter ofhours.this conjecture, neither from a harvesting or Children could attend school and every a population growth perspective. For exam- family member could appreciate the bene- ple, analysis from this project when cou- fits of local services, such as electricity and pled with time series data from Kivalina, a Participation in family and community subsistence activities provide the most basic memories and values in an individual’s life. running water, which were not available in nearby community, suggests that total sub- seasonal camps. Despite this, the nineteenth sistence harvests have not increased in 1994 Wales and Deering represented per- ments. Thus the advent ofcommercial century settlement pattern was still in evi- recent decades. While the population of manent, localized-year-around settlements. whaling and “trading posts” provided dence seasonally, when some family mem- Kivalina has doubled during the latter half The permanent settlements are a product considerable incentive for some form of bers moved to temporary hunting and ofthe twentieth century, per capita harvest ofa number ofsocial, economic and permanent settlement. fishing camps. This contemporary settle- ofwild foods have declined by half, result- historical factors. Permanent settlements The numerous epidemics which caused ment pattern presents some difficulty and ing in a stable level ofsubsistence demand. were often localized around stores that precipitous declines in human populations requires sensitivity on the part ofwestern The factors in Kivalina’s declining per capi- provided western technology and a stable accompanied by the crash ofthe caribou land managers, particularly the NPS. The ta harvests — the replacement ofhungry source offoodstuffs. Fragile elders and the herd were also localizing forces. The most use ofsnowmachines during the winter dog teams by mechanical transportation, infirm, who formerly may have faced con- important contemporary reason for the months presents little impact to the increased availability ofimported foods and siderable difficulty keeping up (especially creation ofpermanent settlements, howev- environment; however, spring and summer a variety ofother technological changes— during periods ofscarce resources), found er, is the demand ofoutside institutions that use ofall terrain vehicles may impact park are present in Wales, Deering and through- increased security in permanent settle- require children attend school on a nine aesthetic and resource values. The key out much ofrural Alaska.

REFERENCES Magdanz, James S., Charles J. Utermohle, and Robert J. Wolfe. 2002. The Production and Distribution of Wild Food in Wales and Deering, Alaska. Technical Paper 259. Juneau, Alaska: Division of Subsistence, Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

19 20 Bear-Human Interactions at Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve: Conflict Risk Assessment

National ParkServicephotograph By Tom Smith, Terry D. DeBruyn, Archipelago for at least the last 35,000 years specimens in the region, Hasselborg met up Tania Lewis, Rusty Yerxa, (Heaton et al. 1996). The oldest evidence of with a Tlingit hunting party. While talking and Steven Partridge humans in this region dates approximately with them, he boasted that he was not 10,000 years before present (BP). Native afraid of bears — a bravado deemed reck- Many bear-human conflicts have peoples throughout Southeast Alaska, less and dangerous by the Tlingits. An occurred in Alaska parks and refuges, primarily the Tlingit and Haida, integrated elderly Tlingit man, Albert Jackson, sharply resulting in area closures, property damage, the bear into their myth, legend, and art, warned Hasselborg that ifhe kept boasting, human injury, and loss oflife. Human as well as depended upon them as sources he would anger a bear that would attack activity in bear country has also had offood, medicine, tools, and clothing. him. The next day, several miles up the negative and substantial consequences for Tlingits preferred brown bear blankets for Bartlett River, Hasselborg saw a large bears: disruption oftheir natural activity children’s bedding not only for their grizzly bear, fired four shots into it, and then patterns, displacement from important warmth, but because the hides were pursued the wounded animal. The bear hid habitats, injury, and death. It is unfortunate believed to protect against illness. Tlingit on a ledge, ambushed Hasselborg, and near- for both people and bears when conflicts social and ceremonial life emphasizes the ly killed him. Severely injured, Hasselborg occur. Fortunately, however, solutions exist close relationship between humans and was barely able to make his way back to the for reducing, and in some instances elimi- bears, and traditional Tlingit bear hunters hunting party campsite. Upon his arrival, nating, bear-human conflict. This article believed that adherence to certain behaviors Hasselborg was told by Jackson that he presents ongoing work at Glacier Bay was necessary to ensure the success ofthe deserved what happened (Howe 1996). National Park and Preserve by U.S. hunt (Figure 1). Nearly a century has passed since Figure 1. To the Tlingit and Haida, the grizzly was a Geological Survey (USGS) and National Native people and bears undoubtedly Hasselborg disregarded the Tlingit hunter’s Spirit Messenger, a source of power. The Park Service scientists who are committed experienced conflict in Glacier Bay proper, advice. The area has since become a national grizzly was portrayed in ceremonial dances to finding solutions for the bear-human although specific occurrences are now park, and bears are no longer hunted and symbolically worn on clothing. Tribes honored the bear with names such as Elder conflicts that periodically occurs there. lost to time. The earliest written record of within its boundaries. People have discov- Brother and Old Man with the Claws. bear-human conflict in what is now the ered the unparalleled beauty ofGlacier People and Bears at Glacier Bay: A park occurred in August 1912 when fron- Bay National Park and Preserve, many Figure 2. Left: From the safety of deep water, a History of Coexistence and Conflict tiersman Allen Hasselborg nearly lost his exploring its pristine shorelines by sea kayaker observes a brown bear fishing for Paleontological investigations reveal that life to a grizzly along the Bartlett River kayak (Figure 2). As backcountry use sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) on both American black (Ursus americanus) (Howe 1996). Tasked by C. Hart Merriam, increases in popularity, so do the reports the Alsek River near the Park/Canadian border. and brown/grizzly (U. arctos) bears have then director ofthe Smithsonian Museum’s ofskirmishes between bears and people Photograph courtesy of John Hyde © 2003 continuously inhabited the Alexander mammal collections, to collect bear (Figures 3). Conflicts between bears and

21 Bear-Human Interactions at Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve: Conflict Risk Assessment Photograph courtesyofKentFredriksson©2003 other invertebrate species). Consequently, the potential for bear-human interaction at Glacier Bay’s campsites is likely higher than for other areas of the backcountry. It is also more likely that human activity in these areas will displace bears from important forage resources, or interfere with their movement. The majority of bear-human interactions occurring at Glacier Bay are resolved without incident. Figure 4. Like the proverbial moth to flame, Nonetheless, there have been two human visitors’ fascination with bears occasionally fatalities, two maulings, and thousands of brings the two unreasonably close together. dollars ofproperty damage. Although no Even when bears receive no food reward, one has been injured in the park since 1980, seemingly benign close encounters habituate them to people. Bears unafraid of people, bear-human conflict is still of great concern like the ones shown here at Geographic to park managers. Harbor on the Katmai coast, are more likely Notably, a sharp decline in bear-human to get into trouble. conflicts occurred at Glacier Bay in the Figure 3. Trends in bear-human incidents at Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, 1959-2002. early 1990s as a direct result ofa new policy bear around people, or about how people that required campers to store all food in will behave around bears. We can, however, bear-resistant food containers. This illus- estimate the potential for bear-human people in North America increased through in Alaska resulted in 52 documented fatali- trates the impact well-informed manage- encounters — understanding that the best the twentieth century (Herrero 2002). ties, hundreds ofinjuries, and extensive ment decisions can have in reducing bear- way to avoid bear-human conflict is to During that time, bear-human conflicts property damage (Smith unpublished, human conflict (Figure 3). Consequently, avoid bears, by staying away from places Middaugh 1987). the National Park Service solicited the aid they frequent. Today, sea kayaking is the predominant ofbear biologists to find ways to reduce, or recreational activity in Glacier Bay’s extensive even eliminate, bear-human conflict as well Devising a Research Approach Notably, a sharp decline in marine backcountry. Kayakers frequently as the disturbance ofbears by campers. By We decided to first construct an accurate bear-human conflicts occurred at stay several nights in the backcountry, devising, applying, and evaluating a predic- history ofbear activity and conflict at camping within the narrow ribbon ofter- tive model for bear-human interactions it Glacier Bay before attempting to devise Glacier Bay in the early 1990s as a rain bordered by ocean and steep-walled may be possible to reduce bear displace- research that would provide insight direct result of a new policy that mountains. Both brown and black bears ment from important habitats, as well as regarding bear-human conflict. Glacier required campers to store all food inhabit and seasonally occupy these same minimize bear-human conflict through Bay National Park staff have carefully in bear-resistant food containers. areas. Beaches not only provide bears with education and directives. documented instances ofbear-human con- unrestricted movement corridors, but also The more times people and bears inter- flict (approximately 300 incidents between This illustrates the impact well- important foraging opportunities. Seaside act, the more likely displacement and 1960-2002), bear sightings (>3700 sightings informed management decisions can habitats are among the earliest to provide bear-human conflicts will occur (Figure 4). from 1932-2002), and backcountry camp- bears with new plant growth and access to We cannot predict when a bear encounter site use (>8000 records from 1996-2000). have in reducing bear-human conflict. intertidal areas that host a variety ofmarine will escalate to a conflict without knowing Next, we created a computer database forage items (e.g., mussels, barnacles, and something about the past behavior ofthe into which these records were entered

22 (Figure 5). This database of‘bear sightings randomly distributed across the terrain, but and incidents’ presents the distribution of rather that the temporal-spatial pattern of sightings and incidents that have occurred bear whereabouts is largely a function of Subdivide Park into Assessment Sub-Regions in the bay and enables users to query for seasonal forage characteristics. specific information through the use of Ifthis assumption is correct, an assess- Work Performed Rank Campsites by Use Level key words. We also used geographic infor- ment ofbear habitat quality at campsites Using GIS in within each Sub-Region mation system (GIS) software to perform should provide a relative index ofthe the Office spatial analyses ofcamper and bear useamount ofseasonal bear activity at those ofthe bay. This information, in turn, was sites. It follows then that if campers avoid Select Highest Use Campsites for Assessment used to create a temporal-spatial profile areas seasonally important to bears, the ofbear and human activity and conflict in number ofbear-human encounters will the backcountry. decline. The chance ofan encounter esca- lating to conflict is also affected by campsite To assess the potential for bear-human Delineate Survey Areas interaction at campsites, this research built characteristics that reduce the ability of upon the work ofHerrero et al.(1986) and bears and people to detect each other early MacHutchon and Wellwood (2002). The enough to avoid conflicts and by terrain Conduct Survey Area Assessment assumption underlying these previous features that reduce options for bears and (includes sites with varying levels of use) research efforts was that bears are not people to avoid each other. For example, Assess Individual Campsites for: Work Performed Bear Sign in the Field Bear Forage Travel Concerns Sensory Concerns

Determine Individual Campsites: Bear Habitat Potential Bear Displacement Potential Bear-Human Interaction Potential

Work Performed at Glacier Bay NP, Site Assessment Data Input

the Alaska Science Center Data Analysis and Model Validation

and by Contract Statistical Research Report of Findings Consultation

Figure 5. A computerized database contains Glacier Bay’s bear sightings and Figure 6. Steps in the campsite risk assessment process, Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska. incidents information.

23 Bear-Human Interactions at Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve: Conflict Risk Assessment National ParkServicephotograph very brushy sites reduce visibility and Many coastal habitats in Glacier Bay, increase the chance of surprise encounters. particularly the upper reaches of the Also, steep cliffs may restrict bear move- glacial fjords, appear to be marginal ments such that bears are funneled into campsites, thus increasing the odds of habitat for bears. Dominated by barren bear-human encounters. rock, sheer cliffs, alder scrub (Alnus We incorporated this information into a spp.), and dryas (Dryas spp.), these areas research plan that enabled us to estimate offer inferior foraging opportunities bear habitat quality and bear encounter and and difficult travel conditions for bears. conflict probabilities at the most frequently used campsites in the bay. Because Glacier Nonetheless, bear sign was found in Bay is comprised largely of steep-walled all of these places. fjords, level areas that produce high quality bear forage are relatively rare and are important to bears. The presence of camping activity may displace bears from these areas; hence a rating of displacement Preliminary Research Findings potential was deemed an important aspect The Glacier Bay bear sightings and of this work. An overview of the steps in incidents database was completed in 2001. the campsite risk assessment process is Campsite evaluations were completed in presented in Figure 6. August 2002. Campsite data were analyzed during the winter of 2002-2003 and find- Status of Research ings are to be released in 2003. Our analysis During the summers of 2001-2002, we of 70 years of bear sightings and bear- evaluated 162 campsites, traveling to human conflict from the database has campsites by kayak. We estimated bear revealed a number of interesting facts. habitat quality, bear displacement potential, and bear-human conflict potential at Bear Conflicts Database Findings each site. Additionally, all bear sign (e.g., We found that in more that 98% of all tracks, scats, digs, rubs, marked trees and reported encounters, bears did not injure trails) observed at each site was recorded people. Although black bear sightings and entered into the geographic informa- (2100) outnumbered brown bear sightings tion system (Figure 7). In the future, we (1300) nearly 2 to 1, both black and brown will determine if the level of bear sign bears were almost equally involved in con- observed during our evaluations and the flicts with people (56% vs. 44%). Eighty-five number of sightings in the historic data- percent of bear conflicts occurred between base correspond. Subjective ratings for 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., and human foods were a bear habitat quality will also be compared factor in conflict nearly half the time (42%). to the level of bear sign and sightings in We also found that single campers were Figure 7. Bear ‘mark-trail’ in Reid Inlet, Glacier Bay. the database. more often involved in bear conflicts than

24 Photograph courtesyofKentFredriksson©2003 camps with 2 or more people, and red habitat for bears. Dominated by barren pepper spray was successful in deterring rock, sheer cliffs, alder scrub (Alnus spp.), bears in 5 of 8 instances reported. Our assess- and dryas (Dryas spp.), these areas offer ment of information supplied by those inferior foraging opportunities and difficult involved in bear conflicts suggests that travel conditions for bears. Nonetheless, people were responsible for precipitating bear sign was found in all of these places. conflicts twice as often as were the bears. Bears using these areas likely travel con- stantly in search of food, suggesting that Preliminary Campsite camper use of higher quality foraging areas Assessment Findings here may have a pronounced negative effect Bears are ubiquitous at Glacier Bay. on bears. Backcountry users should realize that bears might appear anywhere at anytime, includ- Implications ing islands. Indeed the saying, “Bears are The Glacier Bay bear sightings and inci- where they find you,” is particularly true dents database is a tool that can aid park at Glacier Bay. The West Arm of Glacier managers in the management and analysis Bay has more abundant and diverse bear of bear information. Efforts are underway habitat than the East Arm. Consequently, to implement a version of the database in information from this system will help the special efforts of Allison Banks, Nat more bear sign are present on West Arm the National Park Service’s Regional Office identify future research needs. Additional Drumheller, Bill Eichenlaub, Nikki beaches. The greater number of bear in Anchorage. When completed, the data- information may be accessed at: Koehler, Mary Beth Moss, Randy Ramey, sightings and bear-human conflicts on the base will enable park managers to track http://www.absc.usgs.gov/research/ and Rosemarie Salazar of Glacier Bay West Arm than on the East Arm support bear-human interactions at all Alaska brownbears/glacierbay/glba.htm . National Park and Preserve. We also thank this finding. Many coastal habitats in National Park units. In addition to placing Steve Herrero and Grant MacHutchon for Glacier Bay, particularly the upper reaches bear-human interactions that occur into a Acknowledgments valuable insight they provided regarding of the glacial fjords, appear to be marginal regionwide perspective, we anticipate that The authors gratefully acknowledge research design.

REFERENCES Herrero, S., W. McCrory, and B. Pelchat. 1986. MacHutchon, A.G., and D.W. Wellwood. 2002. Heaton, T.H., S.L. Talbot, and G.F. Shields. 1996. Using grizzly bear habitat evaluations to locate trails Assessing the risk of bear-human interaction at river An Ice Age Refugium for Large Mammals in the and campsites in Kananaskis Provincial Park. campsites. Ursus 13:000-000. Alexander Archipelago, Southeast Alaska. International Conference on Bear Research and Quaternary Research 46:186-192. Management 6:187-193. Middaugh, J. 1987. Human injury from bear attacks in Alaska, 1900-1985. Herrero, S. 2002. Howe, J.R. 1996. Alaska Medicine 29(4): 121-126. Bear attacks: their causes and avoidance. Bear man of Admiralty Island: A Biography of Revised edition. Globe Piquot Press. Allen E. Hasselborg. Smith, T. S. Unpublished research data. Guilford, Connecticut. USA. University of Alaska Press. Fairbanks, Alaska. USA. USGS Alaska Science Center, Anchorage, Alaska.

25 26 Red Light District Ethnohistory in Seward, Alaska

By Rachel Mason talking about the whole community. Line houses; the prostitutes did not have Local historians have documented much time to provide much companionship to In 2002, a team of National Park Service of Seward’s early history. Mary Barry’s three their customers. historians, architects, archeologists, and cul- volume history gives detailed year-by-year Then, at other times when transient male tural anthropologists began a compliance accounts through 1993. John Paulsteiner, workers swarmed the community, residents study for a new visitor center in Seward Barry’s father, wrote a somewhat different tolerated and indeed supported prostitution. associated with Kenai Fjords National book called Seward, Alaska: The Sinful From 1914 to 1954, a row of small houses National ParkServicephotograph Park. The proposed site of the new visitor Town on Resurrection Bay, published in along Alley B was the city’s recognized red center was in the same area of Seward as 1975. Focusing on bootlegging, prostitu- light district. Although prostitutes typically the Line, a red light district that closed in tion, and other illegal activities, the book move from town to town, many of the 1954. The ethnohistorical section of the study shares personal vignettes of the characters Seward ladies stayed for the rest of their involved interviewing local residents about that populated the town. lives, buying property and businesses, and their memories of the Line. The enthusiastic The interviews for this ethnohistory sometimes marrying local men. responses both to requests for interviews were conducted with several people who While most of the adventurers who came and to public lectures was amazing. The were children during the days of the Line. to Seward were men, female travelers arrived community’s appetite for hearing and talk- While some were delighted to help piece as well. Working on the Line was only one of ing about the Line seemed insatiable. together the history of the Line, others the moneymaking opportunities an ambi- Both while the Line was open and long were more hesitant. One woman was quite tious, independent woman might find. afterward, people in Seward thought the reluctant to contribute to a study that might Respectable single women worked as nurses prostitutes who worked there provided a ridicule or romanticize the prostitutes. She and teachers. Other women established necessary commercial service to transient had known several of them personally and small businesses, such as laundries. A likely Line of trees in Seward where the Line once was. men. Respectable women supported the emphasized that they were just ordinary business venture for a prospective madam Line, in an effort to confine vice to a single people trying to make a living. was to buy real estate. The records of lot part of town. The Line women usually did Seward, founded in 1903, has seen sales on the Line show a rapid turnover of Left: 1927 Sanborn map showing the properties on the Line. not socialize with respectable women or several employment and population booms ownership among people whose names we

National Park Service photograph even appear in public except at certain during its 100 years. A large number of mil- recognize as those of prostitutes or madams. times. Despite the prostitutes’ isolation, itary personnel were stationed there during though, one of the main conclusions drawn World War II, most of them young, single Opening the Line from researching their history is that one men. During those busy days, soldiers on Many towns in the Alaska Territory, as can not talk about the Seward Line without leave stood in line for admission into the elsewhere in the American West, had

27 Red Light District Ethnohistory in Seward, Alaska Photo courtesySewardCommunityLibrary

Panoramic view of Seward in about 1915. The Line is the small row of houses on the far right.

special red light districts. Often, the usually two girls resided in each house. Women of the Line Lee McAnerny, then a teenager, to help prostitutes’ quarters were a line of little Undoubtedly the number of prostitutes Below are descriptions of some of the write letters to Stella’s young daughter in houses, or cribs, along a road or alley. increased or decreased depending on the memorable women from the Seward Line: New York. Lee and stepfather Sol Urie also The Seward Line consisted of a row of demand for services. Lydia Griffiths, a madam, bought several prepared Stella’s income tax returns, which houses along Alley B between Second In 1914, Seward became the official lots on the Line soon after it was established showed her income to be one of the highest and Third Avenues, and between Railroad terminus of the Alaska Railroad. Days in 1914. She married Al Peel, who had been in the Territory. on the south and Washington on the before President Wilson signed the Alaska the town marshal (Capra 1996:11). Lydia Dutch Emma, whose real name was north. Its location near the dock made it Railroad Bill, a member of the Seward appears in the 1920 census as a 53-year- Marie Hadley, was probably the best convenient for seafaring customers. While City Council requested that the city provide old woman, and, curiously, as a 52-year- known prostitute and madam. She owned numerous immoral and illegal activities a restricted district to accommodate old in 1930. The latter seems more correct, several houses on the Line, one of which were thought to take place on the Line, “denizens of the underworld” (Seward as Lydia died in 1947 at age 68. The was moved to Second Street and is still its central function was prostitution. The Gateway, March 7, 1914). The Council Peel-Griffiths house, spared in the 1964 standing. In the mid-1940s, Dutch Emma houses averaged perhaps 16 by 20 feet. enacted an ordinance making keeping a earthquake, remained standing until it was bought the Mile Seven Roadhouse and ran While archeologists have identified as bawdyhouse a misdemeanor, with a burned as a fire department training exercise. it with her husband or boyfriend Hooligan many as 26 houses along Alley B, not punishment of five days in jail or a $25 fine The house’s interior was ornately decorat- Slim Gunners. She died in 1950 at age 69 all were occupied at the same time. — similar to the punishment for raising a ed with red velvet brocade furniture. and is buried as Marie Hadley in the Some interviewees remembered only five false fire alarm (Bateman 2002). Collected Stella Brown, a well-known prostitute Seward cemetery. or six women working on the Line at each month, the fines were a regular source in the 1930s, was from a prominent East Helen Williams, also known as Irene one time; however, most agreed that of revenue for the city. Coast Jewish family. Stella sometimes asked Nussbaum, was an important madam in

28 A man who had been a young GI bellowed, “Who’s next?” — and he took off operators who owned their houses. If they Photo courtesyResurrectionBayHistoricalSociety in Seward during World War II running. Elnora remained in Seward after worked for madams, they turned over a the Line closed, but was arrested by the portion of the money they made. There is remembered being terrified by Francie Vice Squad in 1957. little mention of pimping in the accounts when he went over to the Line to meet of the Line. Also, there was no evidence a friend. He was sitting in one of the Lives of the Line Women of turf battles between the woman-owned chairs outside Francie’s house when she Most of the prostitutes were white. businesses. Several people remembered one black Some of the best clues about the lives of came out and bellowed, “Who’s next?” woman on the Line, but no Alaska Natives the Line women come from the seemingly — and he took off running. or Asians. Residents did recall that the mundane details our oral history informants prostitutes in Seward seemed unusually old, dredged from their memories. A woman far above what they imagined were the remembered bicycling through the Line as normal peak years for prostitutes. Perhaps a girl, and hearing boys her age tittering the 1940s. She employed Emilio the Greek, because of the ladies’ advanced age, none about seeing a naked woman in one of who was really Italian, as her chauffeur. He of the people we interviewed remembered the houses. Mary Barry, for a brief period, would wear a leather bow tie and spats and seeing pregnant women or women with walked Dutch Emma’s dog. She remem- drive her around in a fancy maroon Buick. small babies on the Line. bered that Dutch Emma had a garden, and Lydia Griffiths and Al Peel, date unknown.

In 1956 Irene bought a laundry (Barry Prostitutes on the Seward Line did not used to give vegetables to Barry’s family. National ParkServicephotograph 1993:235), later renting it to a young couple, find it necessary to dress very provocatively When Lee McAnerny was a teenager, Duane and Sanna LeVan. to vend their wares, supporting the local she worked at her stepfather’s bakery and Carol Erwin was one of the last ladies on idea that prostitution was a practical way remembered talking with some of the the Line. Her autobiography, The Orderly to satisfy a natural urge, and not one that women from the Line. She was impressed Disorderly House (1960) talks of the bawdy- needed to be sold. One woman said that the by their stylish clothes, bought in New houses she operated in Texas and elsewhere prostitutes dressed well, in fact much better York, and by the fact that the ladies had the before coming to Alaska, where her adven- than the average woman in Seward. latest fashion magazines and sometimes tures briefly included Seward. A talented In the early days, women who worked gave her make-up tips. Often the women artist, she usually painted landscapes. In the on the Line were practical entrepreneurs. ordered fancy pastries to be delivered to the Rachel Mason giving public lecture about 1940s, the Seward Women’s Club sponsored They were not drug addicts, had not suf- Line, and Lee’s brothers usually made the the Line in Seward in May 2002. one of her art shows, marking an unusual fered traumatic childhoods, and were not deliveries, although they were much younger Photo courtesyofDuaneandSannaLeVan rapprochement between respectable women especially impoverished. Other than for than her. and Line ladies (Erwin 1960:210). prostitution, they did not often run afoul One man said he had paid $20 for the Elnora or Francie Jones was an African- of the law. No one remembered any local coveted paper route in Seward’s red light American woman who worked on the Line women who joined the Line; all the women district. A woman who, as a young, embar- and also ran a barbecue restaurant called came from somewhere else. rassed public health nurse, said she had the Elnora’s. A man who had been a young GI According to one person, the women’s task of making house calls to prostitutes to in Seward during World War II remem- fees were $2 or $5, depending on the check them for venereal diseases. Beverly bered being terrified by Francie when he services performed. Another thought they Dunham remembered that the ladies from went over to the Line to meet a friend. He charged $5 in summer and $3 in winter. the Line would come to the store where was sitting in one of the chairs outside The main status distinction was based on she worked and buy records to play during Francie’s house when she came out and whether the women were independent their rendezvous. The most requested song Irene Nussbaum, early to mid 1950s.

29 Red Light District Ethnohistory in Seward, Alaska National ParkServicephotograph ment in the Seward Gateway for a 320-page He thought that was “pretty damned good” illustrated Book of Sexual Knowledge touted (Mobley 1994:22). it as a comprehensive work useful to doctors, Periodically, ministers and churches lawyers, Sunday school teachers, and any- tried to close down the Line or made other one else who needed to know about sex efforts in the name of morality, though not matters. It was delivered in a plain wrapper all did. One of the ministers, in fact, was for only $1.00. occasionally found down on the Line with The 1930 census data for Seward show some of the other businessmen, because a total population of 504, of whom 150 the Line was the only place to buy a drink were female. Again, few adult women were after one o’clock in the morning. unmarried. While married women were The Line was not physically walled off generally listed as housekeepers or home- from the city, but most of the time the owners, single women’s occupations includ- upstanding residents preferred to ignore it. ed teacher, waitress, store clerk or manager, A citywide cleanup in the spring of 1950 laundress, tailor, cook, and servant. sent Boy Scouts to gather up debris in the In a 1985 interview, the late Virginia alleys between First and Second Avenues, Darling told of the prostitutes’ self-imposed and between Third and Fourth Avenues. isolation from respectable society. When Conspicuously, they did not clean in the Virginia was a small baby, her mother came alley between Second and Third, where the to Seward from Seattle on a boat. Virginia’s Line was located (Seward Seaport Record mother was terribly seasick, and a nice 1950, May 2). woman helped her with her baby. The nice Dutch Emma’s house in 2002. It had been moved from the Line to Second Street. woman turned out to be Lydia Griffiths, The Closure of the Line who owned several houses on the Line. Mystery shrouds the closure of the Line After that, Virginia’s mother said hello to in the 1950s. The only reference definitely was “Embraceable You,” a popular song in unaware of the joke or too gracious to iden- Miss Griffiths when she saw her at the dating its closure came in the Seward the early 1950s. tify herself to her guest. In fact, since she beauty shop. Later the beauty operator Seaport Record on March 19, 1954. In a Beverly Dunham also told a story about owned so much real estate in Seward she delivered a message from Miss Griffiths that front-page article, the mayor denied flatly Dutch Emma. Beverly’s brother-in-law was an appropriate person to show houses. she appreciated the greeting but she pre- that he had ever told Police Chief Don was a practical joker. When her mother was However, at the time a respectable woman ferred not to be acknowledged in public. Balmat to “re-open” the Line. Mr. Balmat in town looking for some property, her did not want to be seen in a car with women While the prostitutes themselves were had resigned as police chief after an alter- brother-in-law fixed it so that Dutch Emma like her, regardless of how much money or segregated from society, the community cation on the Line: one of his officers had showed her around town in a big black land they had. accepted the institution of prostitution as a caused a disturbance by trying to help a car, complete with driver. They even went necessary part of life. Herman Leirer, now naked prostitute retrieve her clothes from together to one ofthe bakeries to have Seward’s Moral and Social Climate deceased, used to run a dairy. In a 1994 the house where another prostitute and a coffee and donuts. When her mother arrived We get some sense of the moral climate report, Leirer said that after the Line closed, bartender were celebrating their wedding home, the brother-in-law informed her that in Seward from the newspapers of the time. there was no more control over prostitution. night. Subsequently, Balmat placed charges her afternoon companion was a prostitute. Even in the early days of the city, there was The prostitutes were good citizens, he said. against the city for legalizing the Line — a She was mortified and refused to leave the a practical, unabashed attitude toward sex, In all the years that he delivered milk to futile effort, since the city had no record of house for weeks. Dutch Emma was either at least in some circles. A 1914 advertise- them, he was only swindled out of $8.25. officially endorsing prostitution. Sometime

30 in 1954, however, the city stopped even Line. Also, men and women have different And, I doubt that if there’s any, or very many, not appear as hardened as later prostitutes. informally allowing prostitutes to operate. memories: men remember the prostitutes old businesses that go back into the early days For all the sin it describes, Paulsteiner’s The women of the Line left town, took up with hearts of gold; women remember the that the girls of the Lines of the various cities book tells of Seward in an innocent day. other businesses, or became freelancers. part of town where they were not supposed weren’t connected to financially. They were Even the bad guys seemed somehow There’s not much left of the Line in to go. where you went to get money when the banks harmless. The fates of bootleggers and Seward today. Long ago, the little houses The story of the Line is part of the story or the rest of them didn’t want to loan money, prostitutes are intertwined with the fates of burned down, were destroyed in the 1964 of Seward. The prostitutes were separated or didn’t want to loan the amount that you the upstanding citizens of the town. earthquake, or fell to urban renewal. Now, from the community, but their segregation wanted. A big share of the old madams all Seward residents who remember the a north-south line of trees marks where appeared voluntary. They were not sup- dabbled in real estate. They were just part of Line disagree on details, such as the exact Alley B was (Mobley 1994:22). posed to mingle with the “good” people the community... number of prostitutes, their stage names except during certain hours. They were a or real names. What emerges from their Changing Memories buffer between the real outsiders —the In the good old days, the prostitutes did memories, though, is a strong sense of Many of those who remember the Line military, the railroad men — and the core not steal, at least not from locals. They community that included both the Line were children when the prostitutes were community. As Willard Dunham said, brawled with each other, but did not injure and the people around it. Through unspo- there, and did not fully realize what was any Seward residents. There were no pimps, ken understandings and city ordinances, occurring. Some of the young wives made Well, in the first place, they were part of only good-hearted madams. They may have Seward’s citizens not only tolerated but it their business not to know about the the community...And they were in business. been addicted to alcohol or drugs, but did actively embraced the women of the Line.

REFERENCES Barry, Mary. 1986. Dunham, Beverly and Willard. 2003. Paulsteiner, John. 1975. Seward, Alaska: A History of the Gateway City. Interview with Rachel Mason, 3/26/03. Seward, Alaska: The Sinful Town on Resurrection Bay. Volume I: Prehistory to 1914. Anchorage: MJP Barry. Seward: John Paulsteiner. LeVan, Duane and Sanna. 2003. 1993 Interview with Rachel Mason, 5/2003. Seward Gateway. 1914. Seward, Alaska: A History of the Gateway City. March 7 - City Council Holds Session Volume II: 1914-1923 The Railroad Construction Years. Erwin, Carol, and Floyd Miller. 1960. May 1 - Sexual Knowledge Illustrated (advertisement). Anchorage: MJP Barry. The Orderly Disorderly House. New York: Bantam Books. 1995 Seward Seaport Record. 1950. Seward, Alaska: A History of the Gateway City. McAnerny, Lee. 2003. May 2 - Cleanup of City Scheduled to Begin Saturday. Volume III: 1924-1993. Growth, Tragedy, Recovery, Interview with Rachel Mason, 2/19/02. Adaptation. Anchorage: MJP Barry. Seward Seaport Record. 1954. Mobley, Charles M. 1994. March 19 - City Mayor Denies “Re-Open” Order. Bateman, Annaliese Jacobs. 2002. Preliminary National Register of Historic Places Regulated Vice: A History of Seward’s Red Light Eligibility Evaluation for Historic Properties in the Yarborough, Michael. 1998. District, 1914-1954. Report prepared for the Vicinity of the Proposed Seward Marine Center, Archeology at the Alaska Sealife Center: A Summary Seward Visitor Center Compliance Project, Seward, Alaska. of Research in Seward, Alaska from 1995-1997. National Park Service, Alaska Support Office. Anchorage: Cultural Resource Consultants. Patrick, Andrew. 1999. Capra, Doug. 1996. A Shipyard, a Homestead, and Sin: A Historic U.S. Bureau of Census. 1930. Something to Be Remembered: Stories Compliance Assessment of Seward’s Block 2. Census of population. from Seward History. Report prepared by the National Park Service Alaska A Yankee-Sourdough Publication. Seward, Alaska Support Office, December 1999. 31 32 Photograph courtesyofCarolAnnWoody Unlocking the Secrets of Lake Clark Sockeye Salmon

By Carol Ann Woody complete their life cycle by spawning, then Humans are among the many species rely- dying in habitats of their birth. ing on salmon for sustenance. Sockeye salmon are a cornerstone Sockeye salmon transport millions of One of the world’s largest and most species in many Alaska watersheds. Each tons of nutrients from the rich marine productive sockeye salmon systems is the summer, adults lay eggs in rocky nests environment to Alaska’s nutrient poor Kvichak River watershed (Figure 4). Lake called “redds,” and they die soon after. In freshwaters. The annual nutrient influx Clark National Park and Preserve is part of spring, their fry emerge from gravels and links aquatic and terrestrial environments this watershed and was established, in part, then rear in a nearby freshwater lake for through species that feed on them such to protect freshwater habitats important to one year or more before migrating as as gulls, eagles and brown bears. Nutrients sustained sockeye salmon production. Most smolt to the sea. During this smolt phase, from spawned-out salmon carcasses of Kvichak salmon production is attributed an olfactory map of their route is imprinted increase production at all levels of the food to fish originating in Lake Iliamna, even Figure1. Sockeye salmon complete their life- cycle by homing from the ocean to on their memories. Sockeye salmon spend chain and play a crucial role in sustaining though one study indicated up to half or freshwater natal habitats where they lay one to four years in the ocean feeding productivity of Alaska’s ecosystems, includ- more of the return may sometimes originate their eggs in rocky nests and die soon after. and growing. Then, some innate cue sends ing the perpetuation of future salmon runs. in Lake Clark. them back in a mass migration to their Salmon have been shown to play a key role Sockeye salmon originating in the Figure 2. Left: After salmon die, nutrients natal lake systems, which they find using in the distribution and abundance of more Kvichak watershed have been a primary released from their carcasses increase the olfactory map made years before. They than 40 species of fish, birds, and mammals. protein resource for Native Alaskans for productivity at all levels of the food chain.

Photograph courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey Photograph courtesyofU.S.GeologicalSurvey

The outlet of Lake Clark, Kvichak watershed.

33 Unlocking the Secrets of Lake Clark Sockeye Salmon Photograph courtesyofKentFredriksson return exhibited a cyclic abundance pattern of three high years in five during 1900- 1930s, then a fairly predictable one to two high years in five during the mid-1930s to mid-1990s. Since 1996, returns to the Kvichak have become unpredictable and consistently lower than historical levels. Return per spawner (R/S), or the number of fish returning for each fish that spawns have also been low, indicating the breeding population is not replacing itself. Continued declines in sockeye returns to the Kvichak watershed resulted in the region being declared an economic disaster area for multiple years. The commercial and sport fishing industries are struggling to remain economically viable. Native Alaskan subsistence users are fishing longer yet Figure 3. Research indicates from 30-90% of catching fewer fish; some have had to move a coastal brown bear’s body can be traced traditional subsistence fishing sites for lack to marine derived nutrients brought into freshwaters by salmon. of fish. Subsistence fishers are concerned that their main protein resource will con- thousands of years and remain an integral tinue to decline. In addition, they will have part of their diet and culture. Salmon to replace it with inferior, expensive sources Figure 4. Location of Lake Clark relative to Bristol Bay and the Kvichak drainage. preservation techniques such as salting, just as the dominant employer, the com- drying and smoking fish allowed early mercial fishing industry, is in severe decline. are currently unquantified, but production biological information, led to a cooperative peoples to stockpile food and survive the Ecological repercussions from the at all levels of the food chain is likely dimin- research program in Lake Clark National long winters. Today, sockeye salmon com- salmon decline to the Kvichak watershed ished. Once comprising over 50% of the Park and Preserve. Five primary objectives

prise up to 75% of local subsistence Photograph courtesyofCarolAnnWoody salmon caught in the multi-million dollar were defined with input from tribal coun- users’ diets and are an incredibly rich food Bristol Bay fishery, in 2002 Kvichak sockeye cils, academics, federal and state managers, resource, high in lecithin and Omega 3 fatty salmon made up 0% of the catch. For the and local residents. The overall goal is to acids. last three years, sockeye originating in the provide better scientific information to Sockeye salmon have been commercially Kvichak watershed have continued to managers to aid in the conservation and fished in Bristol Bay since 1883. This multi- decline, and a minimum escapement goal perpetuation of sockeye salmon originating million dollar ($60-$400 million) industry is (the number of fish not harvested) of two in Kvichak. the economic backbone of the region. The million has not been attained, although sockeye salmon from the Kvichak water- neighboring sockeye salmon systems are Research Objectives shed are the dominant producer, although increasing in abundance. Objective 1: Estimate annual abun- Figure 5. June Tracey of Nondalton puts up the number of fish returning is highly vari- fish for the winter, following techniques Concern for sockeye populations in dance and monitor trends in the num- able (0.23 to 55 million fish). The Kvichak developed by her ancestors. the Kvichak watershed, and a lack of basic ber of sockeye salmon returning to the

34 Newhalen River and Lake Clark National abundance will help place the more recent Park and Preserve. trends into a larger perspective. Scientists Kvichak River Lake Clark Sockeye salmon migrate close to river- can reconstruct long-term changes in banks (Figure 6c) where water flows are salmon abundance, over thousands of years, Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Column 6 Column 7 Harvest Kvichak Lake Clark Lake Clark reduced due to friction; fish save energy from lake sediment core analysis. Every year, Run Catch Year Rate escapement escapement contribu- needed for spawning by swimming near salmon carcasses release marine derived tion to (millions) (millions) catch/run (millions) (millions) shore. This means one can estimate the nutrients into their freshwater environ- (percent) Kvichak escapement number of returning sockeye salmon by ments, forming a layer of a marine derived (in percent) counting from towers (Figure 6a) placed on isotope on the lake bottom. Changes in the riverbanks, 24 hours a day, 10 minutes per abundance of nitrogen isotopes as you 1978 7.94 3.79 48% 4.15 hour. The hourly counts are multiplied by move down the core (back in time) reflect 1979 24.63 13.41 54% 11.22 six and summed to estimate escapement. In changes in the numbers of returning fish. 1980 35.16 18.16 52% 17 1.5 8.80% addition, researchers also monitor the age Lake Clark sediment cores were collected 1981 6.98 5.23 75% 1.75 0.23 13.10% and size of the escapement for long-term last winter (Figure 7) and are being analyzed population studies (Figure 6b). to evaluate fluctuations in salmon returns 1982 2.94 1.8 61% 1.14 0.15 13.20% Escapements into the Kvichak have relative to climate and fishing. 1983 20.09 16.52 82% 3.57 0.7 19.60% been monitored since the 1950s, while 1984 22.78 12.29 54% 10.49 3.09 29.50% escapements to the Newhalen River and Objective 3: Identify and map sockeye 1985 13.33 6.12 46% 7.21 Lake Clark National Park and Preserve spawning habitats in Lake Clark. have been monitored sporadically since Because Lake Clark is most turbid when 1986 1.95 0.77 39% 1.18 the 1980s (Table 1). Researchers resumed sockeye salmon return to spawn, historic 1987 9.56 3.49 37% 6.07 escapement estimates into the Newhalen aerial surveys were ineffective in identifying 1988 6.75 2.69 40% 4.06 River in 2000. Counts from the last three spawning habitats. The solution to identify- 1989 19.83 11.51 58% 8.32 years indicate Newhalen River and Lake ing glacial spawning habitats proved to be 1990 17.43 10.46 60% 6.97 Clark escapements are depressed but rela- radio telemetry. In 2000 and 2001, 332 tively stable at about 200,000 fish, compared sockeye salmon were captured at the outlet 1991 8.05 3.83 48% 4.22 to the Kvichak escapement, which continues of Lake Clark and tagged with a small radio 1992 10.4 5.67 55% 4.73 to decline (Table 1). This indicates sockeye tag. Every ten days fish were tracked by air 1993 9.26 5.24 57% 4.02 salmon populations originating in Lake or boat and their movements mapped. Of 1994 22.18 13.84 62% 8.34 Iliamna are experiencing a more severe the sockeye salmon tagged, 282 were suc- decline than Lake Clark sockeye salmon cessfully tracked to 35 distinct spawning 1995 27.55 17.51 64% 10.04 populations. Continued monitoring is habitats, of which 18 were newly identified. 1996 3.46 2.01 58% 1.45 essential to reveal long-term trends between 1997 1.68 0.18 11% 1.5 the two lakes of the Kvichak watershed. 1998 3.37 1.07 32% 2.3 1999 12.59 3.39 27% 9.2 Objective 2: Examine historic salmon Table 1: Total Kvichak River returns, commercial catch, percent harvest and 2000 2.85 1.02 36% 1.83 0.17 9.30% abundance by looking at annual layers of escapement estimated by the Alaska a marine isotope ( 15N) left in lake sedi- Department of Fish and Game. Escapement 2001 1.42 0.32 23% 1.1 0.22 20.00% ments from sockeye salmon carcasses. estimates for Lake Clark are made from towers in the upper Newhalen River. 2002 0.7 0 0% 0.7 0.2 28.60% A study of long-term changes in salmon

35 Unlocking the Secrets of Lake Clark Sockeye Salmon htgahcuts fUS ihadWllf evc htgahcuts fUS ihadWllf evc Photo courtesyofU.S. Fish&WildlifeService Photograph courtesyofU.S.FishandWildlife Service Photograph courtesyofU.S.Fishand WildlifeService Of the radio tagged fish, more spawned salmon relative to Lake Iliamna and other tions of Lake Clark and Lake Iliamna. in glacial (~66%) compared to clear water Bristol Bay populations. The study found a significant genetic (~34%) habitats. This was surprising because Sockeye salmon that return to a given break, or divergence, occurring at the outlet glacial water can suffocate developing watershed, such as the Kvichak, are not a of Lake Clark. Salmon sampled below the embryos and therefore is not considered homogenous group of fish. Because they outlet grouped with Lake Iliamna samples, important habitat. However, the recent data follow an olfactory map that leads them while Lake Clark samples grouped together. indicates many of the glacial spawning sites back to the habitats of their birth (e.g. A reduced number of genes were observed are associated with clear water tributaries beaches, streams, rivers), through time, in most Lake Clark populations compared (Figure 8). Embryos likely survive by being populations may diverge from each other to Lake Iliamna, suggesting bottlenecks, bathed in clear upwelling from these tribu- in genetic traits. Scientists can detect such or periods of low population abundance. taries or some spring source. Most spawn- divergence using molecular genetic markers Possible causes of these bottlenecks ing (>50%) took place along beaches of called microsatellites. In order to understand include reductions in effective population Lake Clark and Little Lake Clark, and most the genetic population structure of Lake size associated with recent poor returns tagged fish spawned in habitats associated Clark sockeye salmon, and relate it to other or from few fish originally colonizing with privately owned lands (51-76%). Bristol Bay populations, fin tissue was Lake Clark. Further studies are now being Figure 6(a). Biologists count fish from Objective 4: Determine genetic popu- collected and analyzed from 1,442 sockeye conducted to better understand when the towers as they migrate near shore. lation structure of Lake Clark sockeye salmon representing 15 spawning popula- bottlenecks occurred. Compared with other Bristol Bay popu- Photograph courtesyofU.S.GeologicalSurvey lations, Lake Clark fish are different geneti- cally and therefore identifiable, which is a valuable conservation aid to managers. For example, if returns to Kvichak continue to decline, managers of the mixed stock fishery in Bristol Bay may want to limit harvesting of fish originating in Kvichak. Rapid analysis of microsatellite markers will help determine when and where Lake Clark fish move through Bristol Bay. Fishing can then be regulated to allow more Figure 6(b). Age and size samples collected Kvichak fish to return to spawning grounds. from the subsistence harvest and seine sam- More precise identification tools for ples allow monitoring of reproductive success. lake-originating stocks will allow for more precise conservation decisions and measures. Genetic tools are useful in distinguishing between populations; however, important genetic differences between populations are not all revealed through genetic analysis. Adaptive traits, or the suite of traits that Figure 6(c). Sockeye salmon migrating close Figure 7. Dr. Patricia Heiser and Andrea Krumhardt, geologists from the University of Alaska, natural selection favors in different habitats, to the river bank. display a Lake Clark sediment core collected and hauled through a hole in the lake ice. have not yet been linked to easily analyzed

36 genes. This means scientists cannot detect monitoring, data entry and report prepara- some important differences between popu- tion. Eight students have participated in the lations through genetic analysis. For exam- program to date. ple, fish spawning in different natal habitats The National Park Service has initiated a often exhibit differences in important life Biotechnician Training Program, which history traits — time of spawning, age complements the USGS internship by pro- and size at spawning, number and size viding a wide diversity of fisheries science of eggs, etc. — though, we do not know course offerings. Students continue to gain which genes code for these traits. Genetic valuable hands on training from the ongoing research in Lake Clark also focuses on research program. Students that excel in the identifying important adaptive differences Biotechnician program receive preferential between populations by estimating spawn treatment for summer employment in the timing and measuring age and size at USGS Fisheries Internship Program. maturity. Analysis of this component of the study will be completed this year and will Conclusions complement the microsatellite analysis. The cooperative sockeye salmon research program in Lake Clark has provided both Objective 5. Establish a community- the National Park Service and state fishery based research program. managers with valuable scientific informa- Tribal leaders in villages near the tion with which to conserve sockeye salmon proposed study revealed that they wanted for future generations. Research to better better education and job opportunities for understand factors contributing to the cur- Figure 8. Sockeye salmon spawning habitats identified through radio telemetry and visual people in their communities. Beginning in rent decline in the Kvichak is ongoing. observation. Habitats are depicted relative to land ownership in Lake Clark, 2000 and 2001. 2000, a Fisheries Internship Program aimed Rebuilding of the Kvichak watershed sockeye at youth ages 17-20 was initiated and geared salmon populations and conservation of and the Federal Office of Subsistence Bay mixed-stock sockeye salmon genetic toward training, employing, and recruiting their genetic diversity will help ensure pop- Management. Dan Young conducted the analysis is conducted by Jim Seeb of the young people to the field of fisheries science. ulation productivity, resiliency and perpet- telemetry research as part of his thesis Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Interns from local villages receive intensive uation into the future. at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Bruce Finney of the University of Alaska safety and job training. They assist with all Kristina Ramstad conducted the Lake Fairbanks is currently analyzing the lake aspects of the research program including Acknowledgments Clark-Iliamna genetic analysis as part of cores for Lake Clark. The people of escapement counts, radio tagging and This program was funded through her dissertation research at the University Nondalton, Newhalen and Port Alsworth tracking, genetic sampling, age and size grants from the National Park Service of Montana, Missoula. The ongoing Bristol generously assisted with project logistics.

REFERENCES Poe, P.H. and D.E. Rogers. 1984. Woody, C.A. and R. Hilborn. 1984 Newhalen River Adult Salmon Lake Clark Sockeye Salmon Assessment, Annual Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Enumeration Program. Progress Reports, 2000-2002. FIS 00-42. Commercial Fisheries Division, University of Washington, Fishery Research Institute. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 333 Raspberry Road, Anchorage, Alaska. Final Report - Contract 14007-00011. Stone and Federal Office of Subsistence Management. Webster Engineering Corp. FRI-UW-8415.

37 38 Pioneer Arctic Archeologist J. Louis Giddings Courtesy ofHaffenreffer MuseumofAnthropology(49-19) By Becky Saleeby when the Cape Krusenstern archeological to the far north. district, composed of hundreds of sites on One of his early scientific interests was in J. Louis Giddings dedicated his profes- 114 beach ridges, was designated as a the field of dendrochronology — the dating sional life to understanding the people National Historic Landmark. Two other of wood samples based on growth rings. and the prehistory of Northwest Alaska. sites Giddings excavated, the Iyatayet site The variations in the tree rings occur in a During almost three decades of prolific on Norton Bay and the Onion Portage site living tree as a response to local environ- scientific fieldwork (1936-1964), he made on the Kobuk River, were also designated mental conditions as the tree grows. discoveries that greatly changed prevailing National Historic Landmarks. Beyond Giddings’ work with tree rings initially views on the antiquity and complexity of Giddings’ contributions on the national pertained to the study of past climates; Arctic cultures. As a result of his work, scale are those on a more personal level. The however, archeology also benefitted from notably on the Kobuk River, Norton Bay, bonds of cooperation and mutual respect the cross-dating of logs or wood samples. the Choris Peninsula, and Cape Krusen- he forged with his Iñupiat crew and friends When a tree is newly cut, its rings can

The Nakarak family washing artifacts on the stern, he authored several books and a long are still remembered today by elders— be dated to a modern calendar. This infor- beach at Iyatayet, Norton Bay. Photograph list of journal papers about these cultures. Almond and Ruth Downey, Nelson Greist mation can then be correlated to similar by J.L. Giddings. His legacy is far greater than the sum of and Wilson Tickett. In his book, Ancient patterns of rings in wood, long dead, found these scientific studies, however, and is Men of the Arctic, he credits their knowl- within prehistoric sites. Giddings learned Left: J. Louis Giddings and Almond Downey at the Battle Rock site, Cape Krusenstern. nowhere more evident than in the vast edge of the land and its people as essential these techniques from the father of den- Photograph by Douglas Anderson. expanse of Cape Krusenstern National to his success throughout his years of drochronology, A. E. Douglass, at the Courtesy of Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology (61-DA-149) Monument, designated in 1978 primarily Alaskan fieldwork. University of Arizona and successfully to protect and interpret its incredible Born in Caldwell,Texas in 1909, Giddings applied them in the Arctic. archeological resources. It was there some heeded the call to the northland early In order to have adequate comparative 20 years earlier that Giddings, with the in life. He completed his undergraduate material for his studies, Giddings began assistance of his Iñupiaq boatman, Almond degree at the University of Alaska Fairbanks collecting wood samples from placer gold Downey, discovered a long sequence of (UAF) in 1932 and ventured farther north operations around Fairbanks in 1936 and ancient beach ridges. Preserved on the in 1934 to spend a winter in Kotzebue, continued this research when he returned ridges was evidence of Arctic prehistory which would later be the staging point to UAF to teach in 1938. At that time, prior from about 6,000 years ago up through for many of his expeditions. Although his to the application of radiocarbon dating, recent times. graduate education and later teaching it was difficult to accurately date artifacts National recognition of the scientific positions took him away from Alaska, his collected from sites. Radiocarbon dating, significance of the area first came in 1973, research interests always brought him back based on the half-life of carbon from

39 Pioneer Arctic Archeologist J. Louis Giddings

His map of the region showed a blank River. His map of the region showed a space of some 50 miles between the blank space of some 50 miles between the Koyukuk and his destination on the Kobuk. Koyukuk and his destination on the Setting off with a 40-pound pack, a compass, Kobuk. Setting off with a 40-pound and a rifle to shoot birds and small game for pack, a compass, and a rifle to shoot food, he proceeded on foot across the birds and small game for food, he pro- uncharted territory (Giddings 1977: 294). Six days later he arrived on the gravelly bank ceeded on foot across the uncharted of the Kobuk, and with great ingenuity, territory. Six days later he arrived on considering he had no axe or hatchet, con- the gravelly bank of the Kobuk, and structed a makeshift raft to float the river. with great ingenuity, considering he His first encounter with civilization had no axe or hatchet, constructed a came at fish camp of people from Shungnak. Mrs. Daisy Tickett was a young girl when makeshift raft to float the river. Louis Giddings appeared at the camp of her parents, Susie and Henry Stocking, in 1940. In a taped interview with NPS organic materials preserved within sites, personnel, Mrs. Tickett remembers that did not become the standard means of day over 60 years ago. archeological dating until the 1950s. In the 1930s, Giddings’ research must have The arrival of Mr. Giddings..., I always appeared “state of the art” to his colleagues thought it may have been July or August, but at the university, so it is not surprising that he arrived at the time we were in in 1939 UAF anthropology professor summer camp...His raft was remarkable in Froelich Rainey invited Giddings to partic- always seem more dramatic to me than Arctic cultures and striking because of that it was very short and small and seems ipate in an archeological project at Point the opening of Tut-ankh-amen’s tomb.” its elaborate burial goods. The following like it was constructed to sit on it by placing Hope. Until then, St. Lawrence Island, with (Giddings 1977:102). After working late at summer Larsen and Rainey continued several pieces of wood. It was in the after- artifacts similar to those from Siberia, had the nearby Jabbertown site, the site first their work at the Ipiutak site (which noon when we see a stranger in view on a been the focus of much of the archeology in appeared to them in the low, red, midnight became a National Historic Landmark in raft. The stranger stopped in front of us and northern Alaska. Giddings was introduced sun, as a series of shallow, rectangular 1961), while Giddings turned his attention got off. So that was Louis Giddings who to field archeology that summer, and the depressions on low beach ridges south of toward the Kobuk River. arrived. (Ramoth and Ridington 2001) experience proved to be a turning point in Ipiutak Lagoon (Giddings 1977: 113). Some Today a trip from Anchorage to one his career. 575 depressions, identified as semi-subter- of the Kobuk River villages is a few hours The people of the Kobuk River were of It was during the 1939 field season that ranean house pits, were eventually mapped, flight by jet to Kotzebue and then a brief particular interest to Giddings because they, Giddings, Rainey, and Danish archeologist making it one of the largest known trip by small plane to Kiana, Shungnak, or as Iñupiaq-speaking Eskimos, occupied Helge Larsen discovered the enigmatic prehistoric settlements in the Alaska Arctic. Ambler. Giddings’ first trip to the Kobuk a forested environment usually associated Ipiutak culture. In Giddings’ words, “The Flourishing in northwestern Alaska around area in 1940, in contrast, took many days with the Interior Athapaskan people. He discovery of the original Ipiutak site at the beginning of the Christian era, the of slogging over the tundra and a great deal believed that studying their prehistoric sites Point Hope, one hundred miles northwest Ipiutak culture was vastly different in more stamina. His journey began with a might shed light on possible inland origins of the Cape Krusenstern beaches, will artifact types from previously known flight to Allakaket, a village on the Koyukuk for the Ipiutak culture (Giddings 1977: 292).

40 The first year on the Kobuk, Giddings Culture of the Kobuk River (1952), he new culture, the Denbigh Flint complex. discovery did not only represent a local collected wood samples, recorded ethno- describes the results of archeological Giddings recognized the small, beautifully culture, but was later recognized as a graphic accounts, and conducted limited fieldwork, highlighting similarities of chipped stone tools as ancestral to later variation of the Arctic Small Tool tradition, site excavation. He returned the following artifacts between the inland Iñupiat of the expressions of Eskimo culture in Alaska. a prehistoric way of life found along the year with a graduate student and hired eight Kobuk and their Athapaskan neighbors, His discovery of the Norton culture, the entire coastline of North America from the local men from Shungnak and Kiana to the Koyukon; while Kobuk River People middle layer, at Iyatayet was also significant Bering Sea to the northernmost tip of excavate the house pits at several sites, (1961) is an ethnographic account. as it marked the first appearance of pottery Greenland (Dumond 1987). including Onion Portage. The great age and Always searching for more evidence to and large permanent winter villages in the Meanwhile, Giddings was carving out significance of Onion Portage, however, answer his questions about the origins of Arctic. The upper level, named Nukleet, a niche for himself on the academic front would not be known until he returned to the Eskimo cultures in Alaska, Giddings was dated to the last millennium. in the 1950s. After receiving his Ph.D. the site two decades later. conducted fieldwork in Norton Bay during The date of the Denbigh Flint complex from the University of Pennsylvania in One man on his crew was a young the summers of 1948 through 1952. Along was not known until his final trip to Iyayet 1951, he moved on to Brown University in Nelson Greist, now a patriarch in the the edge of a small bay near Iyatayet Creek, in 1952, when he collected radiocarbon Providence, Rhode Island, where he was Kobuk River village of Ambler, who recalls Giddings and his crew discovered a site samples from the site and dated the bottom appointed professor of anthropology as the early days. that had three separate periods of human layers at approximately 5,000 years before well as director of the Haffenreffer occupation. At the bottom they found a present (Giddings 1964: 248). Giddings’ Museum of Anthropology in 1956. Those

He saw how raw I was. Louie let a young Courtesy ofHaffenreffer MuseumofAnthropology(64-238) man interpret and told me that I would not be excavating but I was to start from the bottom, doing dishes and watch the tents, equipment etc. and I would be with him, that was in 1940...When we met again the next summer his impression of me changed quite a bit. He already put on the top of the list. Yeah my friend Louie was a very good man. When I start to be with him he take time to teach me how to excavate, very much like on the job training and I got to the point of teaching other workers that did know how, when he was satisfied that I can do it. (Ramoth and Ridington 2001)

Giddings returned in 1942 to traverse almost the entire Kobuk River on snow- shoes with a dog team for the U.S. Army Engineers. After a four-year stint in the military during World War II, he returned to the Kobuk in 1947 and eventually published the results of his fieldwork in two books. In The Arctic Woodland Excavation crew at Onion Portage in 1964. Photograph by J.L. Giddings.

41 Pioneer Arctic Archeologist J. Louis Giddings National ParkServicephotograph National ParkServicephotograph National ParkServicephotograph

Nelson Greist, Ambler, Alaska. Wilson Tickett, Shungnak, Alaska. Ruth and Almond Downey, Kotzebue, Alaska.

duties did not prevent him from returning terraces, they found a horizontal succes- 11, 12 Giddings come. Later on we went vertical succession of Arctic cultures, in the to Kotzebue during that summer. There, sion of cultures — Birnirk, Western Thule, to Sealing Point, and there were bunch of way that the Cape Krusenstern beaches had he hired Almond Downey, a resident of Ipiutak, Old Whaling, Denbigh — with the us there. There was some young men that provided a horizontal one. Noatak, to be his boatman, and the crew most recent at the modern shoreline and follow us like Murphy, brother of Almond, The site, along with the field camp set off for the Buckland River. En route the most ancient, some 3 miles (4.8 km) Bobby Lee and Julian Tauqsaiq to stay with where the excavators lived, was a bustling they were waylaid by gale-force winds, inland. Ancient people abandoned each us...they would be gone all day looking for place in 1964. It included the entire and they were forced to stop on the Choris successive beach ridge as changing ocean old things and me and the kids would be Giddings family (wife Bets and three Peninsula. This event proved fortuitous conditions caused a new beach ridge to be home all day too. We stay over there for all children), Almond Downey and his family, because it led Giddings to the discovery of formed in front of it. Eventually, Almond’s summer, June, July and August. (Ramoth and graduate students, and a local excavation large oval-shaped house pits on one of the wife, Ruth, and their young children Ridington 2001) crew. Wilson Tickett of Shungnak remem- many narrow beach ridges. After testing, joined the crew, along with Giddings’ bers that summer: he attributed the house pits to the Choris student, Douglas Anderson, and Giddings’ In 1964, his last year of fieldwork and culture, intermediate in terms of artifact own family. the last year of his life, Giddings returned to When he was here for the last time that and house types to the Denbigh and Almond and Ruth Downey, who now Onion Portage on the Kobuk River for a summer, that’s when I work for him...I can’t Norton cultures (Giddings 1977: 201). live in Kotzebue, were interviewed about large-scale excavation. Three years earlier, recall how many feet deep we excavated, I Downey became an essential member their fieldwork with Giddings. Ruth Downey during a break from work on the coast, found out that each level of dirt do tell the of the summer crew for the next several recalls: he had discovered that the site was well tale of when people live there. Some are a foot years, and in 1958 he guided Giddings stratified, with layers of human occupation or more apart that indicate the time when to Sealing Point on Cape Krusenstern. When the ice break we come down from evident beneath the upper house pits. He people lived there. It is very interesting to Under the frozen sod covering old beach Noatak. Then maybe in June 10 or 12. 10, hoped that Onion Portage would provide a know that generations can be determined

42 this way...One time he said it indicated cabin was done he ask for cache. I hustle 1700), thus fulfilling Giddings’ vision of Anderson, in 1986. Perhaps even more that people lived here before Christ, by for material to build it...he told me he will the unique scientific potential of Onion important is Giddings’ spirit of scientific carbon dating the burned pieces of wood retire pretty soon. We had become good friends. Portage. Like his mentor, Anderson inquiry and dedication, which lives on from fire here at Onion Portage. (Ramoth According to what he says we would live here depended on the expertise of the local today through the work of his team of and Ridington 2001) in the same place when he retires. (Ramoth people for his excavation crews, crediting archeologists, their students, and students’ and Ridington 2001) Tommy Lee, Nelson Greist, Shield Downey, students, still actively involved in Arctic Also joining in the excitement that sum- Arthur Douglas, Arthur Gray, Shield research. The legacy of Giddings’ work on mer of 1964 was Giddings’ old friend, In December of 1964, Louis Giddings Downey, Jr., Willie Goodwin, Oscar Greist, Cape Krusenstern and the Kobuk River has Nelson Greist, who was hired to build a died unexpectedly while recuperating in Don Williams and John Blower with pro- been handed down to numerous National cabin on the bluff, with a commanding view the hospital after an automobile accident. viding much of the on-site archeological Park Service archeologists. His other legacy of the Kobuk River, above the Onion His mentorship of so many, however, interpretations (Anderson 1988). — the spirit of cooperation he shared with Portage site, for the Giddings family. allowed the fieldwork at Onion Portage Two of Giddings’ books were published his Iñupiat fieldworkers and friends — is to continue. Douglas Anderson, Giddings’ posthumously: Ancient Men of the Arctic, a one that all Alaskan archeologists would When Louie found out I was here (Ambler) assistant, and his crews were eventually wonderful narrative filled with stories be wise to emulate. Only through such part- he come up from Onion Portage to see me. He able to identify eight different cultures at about fieldwork and archeological theories nerships can we hope to achieve a lasting told me and made plans to have a log cabin the site, ranging from the Akmak complex of the day, was published in 1967 (reprinted sense of stewardship for the sites so impor- built there and I am to build it for him...I (over 8,500 years old) through the Arctic in 1977); and Beach Ridge Archeology of tant in understanding the history and pre- complete the cabin in one month. After the Woodland Eskimo culture (A.D. 1000- Cape Krusenstern, co-authored by Douglas history of our state.

REFERENCES Anderson, Douglas D. 1988. 1961 Gregg, David W. 2002. Onion Portage: the Archaeology of a Stratified Site Kobuk River People. University of Alaska Studies Who, What, When, Where — Forty-five Years of Arctic from the Kobuk River, Northwest Alaska. of Northern Peoples. Number One. Archaeology at the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska, College, Alaska: University of Alaska. Anthropology and Brown University. Vol. 22 No. 1-2. University of Alaska Press, Fairbanks. Paper presented at the Alaska Anthropological 1964 Association 29th Annual Meeting, Anchorage. Dumond, Don E. 1987. The Archeology of Cape Denbigh. The Eskimos and the Aleuts. Providence, Rhode Island: Brown University Press. McClenahan, P. L. 1993. An Overview and Assessment of Archeological Thames and Hudson, Inc., New York. 1977 Resources, Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Ancient Men of the Arctic. Alaska. Giddings, J. Louis. 1942. New York: Alfred A Knopf. Dendrochronology in Northern Alaska. Anchorage, Alaska: National Park Service. University of Arizona Bulletin, Laboratory of the Giddings, J.L. and Douglas D. Anderson. 1986. Ramoth, Jonas and Amber Ridington. 2001. Tree-Ring Research Bulletin, No. 1, Vol. XII, No. 4. Beach Ridge Archeology of Cape Krusenstern. Transcripts of Interviews with Almond and Ruth Published jointed by University of Arizona and National Park Service, Publications in Archeology, Downey, Nelson Greist, and Daisy and Wilson Tickett. University of Alaska. No. 20. On file at National Park Service, Alaska Support Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior. 1952 Office, Anchorage. The Arctic Woodland Culture of the Kobuk River. Museum Monographs. The University Museum, Philadelphia.

43 Science News

NPS Fire Management and cultural history. The Alaska Interagency tives, the interagency fire plan demanded Photograph courtesyofKarenWard Creates Unique Wildland Fire Management Plan was born constant communication and long-term from these unique factors. In the late 1970s, partnerships between six agencies. The Partnership land and fire management professionals Alaska Bureau of Land Management— NPS Fire and Aviation at the National realized that not all fires could be put out Alaska Fire Service, US Forest Service, and Interagency Fire Center collects, compiles, because of Alaska’s immense size as well State of Alaska Division of Forestry work posts online (http://www.nps.gov/fire), and as the cost. In some cases, the effort to together as the three “fire suppression” publishes a booklet, People, Parks and extinguish the fire was more harmful to the agencies. Personnel from U.S. Fish and Fire...Better Together on success stories of environment than the fire itself. Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs the National Fire Plan. This year the Alaska Objectives of the wildland fire plan and the National Park Service are called upon submission highlighted the uniqueness of were to: 1) protect human life and specific when needed to assist in fire suppression. Alaska: which resides in its sub-arctic and resources and 2) allow fire to fulfill its natu- The National Park Service also sets fire There are an estimated 60 wolves that arctic ecosystems, expansive geography ral ecological role. Along with these objec- suppression priorities for the suppression spend at least some of their time within agencies and conducts hazard fuel mitiga- the boundaries of Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. tion, prescribed burns, fire prevention, and education. In 2001 NPS Eastern Area Fire Wolves On-Line Management reflected the interagency The recently published 2002 study ideals of partnerships through effective titled: Ecology and Demography of Wolves in communication and forged a new partner- Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, ship with NPS Cultural Resources. The Alaska by John Burch is available online. partnership was formed to protect The study provides a synopsis of research Alaska’s cultural resources from wildland and work on the wolves of Yukon-Charley fire by giving the suppression agencies (YUCH) over the last decade. fire suppression priorities for cultural In 1994 the Fortymile Planning Team resources. Visit http://www.nps.gov/fire/ was formed and plans for wolf reductions success/2002/akro.htm to read the com- in conjunction with curtailed harvest by Fire at Taylor's Cabin on the Yukon River plete story and view a map and photos. humans of Fortymile caribou were made.

44 During the winters of 1995-96 and 1996-97 Charley, but only the five packs inhabiting and were roughly stable at 22,000-23,000 40,000 animals. a privately funded wolf trapping effort was the Charley River drainage had the potential through 1995. Following the Fortymile The study can be found at the following initiated. This private wolf trapping incen- to have been sterilized and relocated. Planning Team’s 1994 plan of reduced wolf site: http://www.nps.gov/yuch/Expanded/ tive program paid $400 for the hide of any Members of those five packs were not steril- population and harvest by humans, from key_resources/2002_wolf_report/ wolf trapped within a specified area. At the ized or relocated no matter where or how far 1995 through 2001 the herd grew to nearly 2002wolfreport.htm . time, local fur buyers were paying an they ranged outside the preserve boundary. Photograph courtesyofKennanWard average of about $200 for wolf hides. Most The FCH has long been a subject of of these trapped wolves were outside of the interest to biologists. In 1920 biologist calving range, but included packs within Olaus Murie estimated the herd to number some of the Fortymile Caribou Herd’s 568,000 caribou, ranging from Whitehorse, (FCH) summer and winter ranges. Yukon Territory to the White Mountains From November 1997 through April north of Fairbanks. In the 1930s, the popu- 2001, 15 packs were reduced to sterilized lation dropped to an estimated 10,000 to pairs by Alaska Department of Fish and 20,000 caribou. The cause of that dramatic Game and maintained that way for five decline is unknown, but suspicions include years. In the five year period, 41 wolves overharvest and food limitations due to were sterilized and 120 were relocated; range depletion and fires. however, no wolves living primarily within During the 1940s and 1950s the herd the preserve boundaries were sterilized or increased again to perhaps as many as relocated. The wolf reduction effort effec- 60,000. From an estimated 50,000 animals tively reduced the wolf population by 80% in 1963, the herd size dropped dramatically throughout much of the calving grounds of to 6500 animals in 1973 and stopped cross- the FCH. Five packs of wolves were exclud- ing the Steese Highway. The cause of this ed from the sterilization and relocation decline was attributed to a combination of program because the Planning Team decid- overharvest by people, bad weather condi- ed that they lived primarily within the pre- tions and heavy predation by wolves and Although rarely seen, these beautiful animals range throughout Yukon-Charley Rivers serve. Ten to 12 packs of wolves have some bears. Starting in 1976 the herd began National Preserve and are a part of a large, continuous wolf population that range or most of their home range within Yukon- to increase slowly to over 22,000 by 1990 throughout most of Alaska and Canada.

45 Science News National ParkServicephotograph Alaska connection to whaling field for New Bedford ships in the New Bedford Whaling Bering Strait, Chukchi Sea, and Arctic Ocean. Numerous ships sailed from New National Historical Park Bedford to these new areas, often hiring in Massachusetts local men as guides, general help, or for other positions aboard the whaling ships. Herman Melville enthusiasts dropped At the completion of the whaling season in anchor in New Bedford, Massachusetts on the fall, the weather did not allow some January, 2003 to recite the novel Moby Dick men to return home. Many men, including in the 7th Annual Moby Dick Marathon. Anungazuk’s namesake, told stories of far The marathon has been held annually since away places — San Francisco, Honolulu, or its creation in 1997, commemorating New other ports-of-call. Bedford’s most famous former resident, Anungazuk was interested in learning Herman Melville, who wrote the classic about ancestors who may have been aboard in 1851. People of all walks of life, profes- whaling vessels during the time that sions, and languages participated in the Herbert Anungazuk reading his Iñupiaq translation. 25 hour event. Not everyone is merely an whaling was actively pursued in northern enthusiast, or classics fan — Melville’s great the Alaska Regional Office, was tasked chapter 48, The First Lowering, since the seas. The logs of whaling ships may contain grandson has attended every reading with translating sections of the novel into launching of a boat in chase of a whale is information formerly unknown to the since its onset. The marathon reading is Iñupiaq, in order to have an Alaska Native always a period of high expectation for the descendants of men who accompanied the brainchild of Irwin Marks, a volunteer language represented at future marathons. Iñupiaq people. the whaling vessels. The book, Whales, Ice, octogenarian of New Bedford. The translation was hampered by the fact Whaling is an activity that interests man, and Men, by John R. Bockstoce contributed The 2003 reading was in English, that Melville’s English and the English of woman, and child alike, especially in north- to this effort since it describes the history Iñupiaq, Portuguese, German, Japanese, today are so dissimilar. Translating into ern latitudes because of the continuance of of the ships that plied northern waters and Danish. The novel has been translated Iñupiaq became even more difficult. indigenous whaling. It is an activity that is in quest of whales. The Kendall Institute and printed into all the languages represent- Finally, after realizing that Moby Dick is indelibly etched into a whole community. Library in New Bedford has immense ed at the reading this year with the exception about whaling and that Iñupiaq whaling When the time to whale comes, those who volumes of information about whaling his- of Iñupiaq. After a partnership was formed is whaling in truth form, Anungazuk was are masters of the hunt do so with quietude tory. It even has sailing logs of ships that in 1999 between the Alaska Regional Office able to paste Iñupiaq ways over the and respect. They honor the mammal that may have dropped anchor in Wales, and the New Bedford park, Herbert ways of Melville. At this year’s marathon, is seen as the ultimate of species, which Anungazuk’s community. Anungazuk, a cultural anthropologist for Anungazuk read from the final pages of provides for their community’s sustenance. “So”, “So”! The excitement arose quickly Whale, whale; an amulet or an icon, not of as one of the crewmen announces a whale worship, but of respect. Whale, whale; sighting. “So”! Again, yet almost a whisper. ancient stories, ancient beliefs. To s i g h t a All of the crewmen moved quickly and Whaling is an activity interests man, woman, and child alike, especially in whale is a stunning experience, and it must quietly near their assigned locations so that northern latitudes because of the continuance of indigenous whaling. It is an have been just as much so for Captain Roys an orderly launching of the omiak can be whose expressed purpose in his whaling done. They are not tense, but they antici- activity that is indelibly etched into a whole community. When the time to whale endeavors was monetary gain. pate a successful harvest because they have comes, those who are masters of the hunt do so with quietude and respect. In July 1848, Captain Thomas Roys of gone through the proper rituals, the proper the whaling bark Superior, located a new ceremony until what must be done is

46 Photograph courtesyofUniversityAlaskaFairbanks,SamuelCallCollection,#A66-10

Two commercial whalers at Barrow, Alaska, late 19th century.

47 Science News National ParkServicephotographs ingrained in them.What must be done and ing the museum’s archival, book, and object followed is orderly because the way it collections; interpretive and on-line resources Very few people will ever be able to visit all 39 of America’s volcano-related must be done has been shown, generation about whaling; and interpretive products parks and monuments, but this book is an excellent source of ideas and for generation. The thought has always specific to the collections — oral histories remained that from the ancient generation and education program materials. Visit inspiration for exploring more of them. to the new, the youngest crew member may the site at: http://www.artfxgroup.com/ one day lead the hunt. nbwm/flashmain.html . Photograph courtesyofJohnRobson©2002 Portraits of a Port New Book On The Portraits of Ports interactive website Volcanoes Available is a distance learning endeavor developed After distinguished academic and gov- by the New Bedford Whaling Museum and ernment careers, Bob and Barbara Decker the Artfx Group (a website design company have established productive second in Ottawa, Canada). It is designed to pro- careers as authors of popular guide books vide a rich environment in which to explore to America’s national parks. They have the stories, voices, and objects pertaining to managed to travel extensively for research American whaling. The site represents the on books yet to be published. The Deckers stories of whaling worldwide: it places have identified 39 volcano-related national the historical sites of whaling in a current parks and national monuments in the context through artifacts, museums, objects United States, and offer Volcanoes in and places. The Affiliated Areas of the America’s National Parks to introduce National Park Service’s Alaska Region readers to most of them. worked on this project in conjunction with This attractive, soft-cover book (ISBN the Iñupiat Heritage Center in Barrow, 9622176771) begins with a concise 48-page Alaska. The site includes three sections: introduction to modern volcanology, with conservation and collections data describ- Iñupiaq whalers on the pack ice with their umiak (skin boat). lucid explanations of eruptive processes,

48 ainlPr evc htgahNationalParkServicephotograph National ParkServicephotograph National ParkServicephotograph sections: parks with active volcanoes, parks with dormant volcanoes, and parks built on or around extinct volcanoes or their roots. The parks and monuments described include not only those that are well-known, such as Mount St. Helens, Hawaii Volcanoes, and Yellowstone, but also lesser-visited parks in Oregon and

New Mexico, as well as four remote but Katmai National Park beautiful parks in Alaska: Aniakchak, Katmai, Lake Clark, and Wrangell-St. Elias. Geologists will enjoy the “Volcano Facts” summaries for each park, which provide typical rock types and dates for the latest eruptive activity. An up-to-date reading about each park is given, as well as valuable government web sites at which visitor information is available for most parks. Very few people will ever be able to visit all 39 of America’s volcano- An aerial view of Aniakchak Caldera, Alaska Peninsula. related parks and monuments, but this book is an excellent source of ideas and volcanic features, and why volcanoes form and human history of each park, with inspiration for exploring more of them. where they do. The descriptions of individ- explanations of how individual volcanic Reviewer: John P. Lockwood, Geohazards ual parks that follow are brief, but they give features of scenic interest formed. The Consultants International. Major volcanic eruptions at Katmai National essential information about the geologic park descriptions are organized into three Park have deposited ash throughout the area.

49 Science News

Ecoregions Map Available The map will be useful in scientific and management applications, as well. “When “Sandy (his wife) and I are very A great gift idea for anyone intrigued we’re designing inventory and monitoring excited about the move to with Alaska’s vast landscapes: a new map projects, or looking at where phenomena Anchorage. We’ve lived throughout has been published that for the first time such as the spread of spruce bark beetle, or the habitat for a goose population, this syn- the Lower 48 states and have brings together a wide variety of up-to- date environmental data about Alaska and thesis of information is very valuable,” worked and traveled internationally. neighboring portions of Canada and Spencer explained. Our visit to Alaska last year made Russia. The “Ecoregions of Alaska” map The map is available for $7.00 from the it clear to us that Alaska would shows major ecosystems based on climate U.S. Geological Survey’s Earth Science and terrain, with details about vegetation, Information Center in Anchorage. Visit their be in our future, and this is exactly rivers, glaciers and natural wildfires. website at http://mapping.usgs.gov/esic/ the opportunity that we were The mapping effort, led by National esic_index.html for ordering information. hoping for.” Park Service ecologist Page Spencer and U.S. Forest Service ecologist Gregory Nowacki, brought together scientists and existing data from several land managing The “Ecoregions of Alaska” map is and science agencies. Earlier maps tended Robert Winfree to use data gathered by one or two agencies available for $7.00 from the U.S. and have become outdated as more Geological Survey’s Earth Science detailed information became available Information Center. Part of the map New Science Advisor School. Regional Director Rob Arnberger from satellites and computer mapping. The for the National Park said, “His experience, broad operational latest result is a 36-by-54 inch, full-color is shown here. Earlier maps tended knowledge of the NPS programs and map showing 32 ecoregions, descriptive to use data gathered by one or two Service in Alaska mission, and extensive network of context and photographs for each of the eco- agencies and have become outdated Robert Winfree is the new Alaska tacts, will be significant assets in regions on the front, and comprehensive as more detailed information Region Science Advisor for the National the position.” tables and charts of vegetation, geology Park Service. Bob has a Ph.D. in Wildlife Winfree noted that “Sandy (his wife) and climate on the back. became available from satellites and and I are very excited about the move to and Fisheries Science and managed research “It shows the incredible variety in computer mapping. laboratories for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Anchorage. We’ve lived throughout the Alaska and what makes these areas Service and the National Biological Survey Lower 48 states and have worked and unique,” Spencer said. “When you look at before joining the National Park Service traveled internationally. Our visit to Alaska on this map, you see that we really in 1995. At Grand Canyon National Park, Alaska last year made it clear to us that have the ecological spread of a whole con- he provided leadership and oversight for Alaska would be in our future, and this tinent. For people who like to explore, you a multi-disciplinary research program is exactly the opportunity that we were can also map the places you’ve been to, and of nearly 100 research studies a year. Bob hoping for. There will be a lot to see, the places you want to visit next...It also also recently completed the federal discuss, and absorb in the coming months. provides a common language and spatial Executive Potential Program through the We look forward to many great experi- framework across agencies and political U.S. Department of Agriculture Graduate ences here.” boundaries,” she said.

50 1. Beaufort Coastal Plain 2. Brooks Foothills 3. Brooks Range 4. Kotzebue Sound Lowlands 66º N 5. Seward Peninsula 6. Bering Sea Islands 7. Nulato Hills 8. Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta 9. Ahklum Mountains 10. Bristol bay Lowlands 11. Kuskokwim Mountains 64º N 12. Yukon River Lowlands 13. Kobuk Ridges and Valleys 14. Ray Mountains 15. Tanana-Kuskokwim Lowlands 16. Yukon-Tanana Uplands 17. Yukon-Old Crow Basin 18. Davidson Mountains 62º N 19. North Ogilvic Mountains 20. Lime Hills 21. Cook Inlet Basin 22. Alaska Range 23. Copper River Basin 24. Wrangell Mountains

25. Kluane Ranges 60º N 26. Aleutian Islands 27. Alaska Peninsula 28. Kodiak Island 29. Gulf of Alaska Coast 30. Chugach-St. Elias Mountains 31. Northern Coast Mountains

32. Alexander Archipelago 58º N

56º N

54º N

52º N

51 Alaska Park Science National ParkServicephotograph National Park Service Alaska Support Office 2525 Gambell Street Anchorage, Alaska 99503-2892 Photograph courtesyofU.S.GeologicalSurvey

Kristy Balluta and Janell Kukaruk, USGS Fisheries Interns, select a sockeye salmon to radiotag.

Top-Right: Dan Young, a biologist with the National Park Service, holds up a beach spawning fish from Kijik Lake in the Lake Clark watershed. Beach spawning fish tend to be older, longer, and deeper bodied compared to fish spawning in nearby shallow streams.