Prince William Sound with its 3,000 miles of shoreline is surrounded by the Chugach Mountains to the east, west and north. Fifty-mile long Montague Island and several smaller islands form natural breakwaters between the Sound and the Gulf of Alaska. Between the barrier islands stretch underwater sills separating the Sound's deep waters from the much shallower waters of the Gulf. Deep water renewal occurs during the winter when cold winds from interior Alaska cool the surface waters causing them to sink, while the warmer bottom water rises to the surface bringing rich nutrients which support huge plankton blooms in the spring.

Millions of years of glaciation gradually carved away a coastal plateau creating the sound with its many tributary fiords and passageways, islands and rocky shores. Fewer than 10,000 people live in the three towns-Whittier, Valdez, and Cordova- and two native villages-Chenega and Tatitlek situated on the shores of the Sound. Because the Sound was formed by millions of years of glaciation, its shorelines are heavily indented by deep fiords and many smaller bays. No roads connect these communities.

To see a map showing Alaska and the location of Prince William Sound, go to: http://www.pwssc.gen.ak.us/maps/pws.webmap.html

The geological story of Prince William Sound and Columbia Bay begins off the coast of northern California some sixty million years ago when rain and floods, freezing and thawing eroded the continental landscape. Rivers carried loads of sediments seaward depositing them on the edges of a deep, submarine canyon. Periodic earthquakes dislodged the mud and boulders, sending massive turbidity currents-a slurryof mixed water and sediments-cascading down the canyon walls to spread out in a fan below. Partial subduction of these unconsolidated sediments slowly transformed them into sedimentary rocks. Turbidites from this period occur along the western shore of Columbia Bay.

About 50 million years ago, off the northwest coast of the American continent, the Kula and Farallon ocean plates were spreading apart, magma rose and cooled underwater forming pillow basalts. The pillow basalts and sheeted dikes composing Glacier and Growler Islands were formed in this spreading center. It is here that prospectors would seek copper, gold and silver.

Meanwhile, the Pacific plate pushed the Kula and Farallon plates northward where they encountered the North American plate. The lighter continental plate rode up over the heavier oceanic plates forcing them down into a deep subduction trench. Movement of plates along this subduction trench creates many tiny and a rare few, catastrophic earthquakes. In 1964, the plates about 12 miles beneath Miners Lake in Unakwik Inlet unlocked causing the largest Earthquake recorded in North America. The quake was so strong that it was the first earthquake since the invention of the Richter scale NOT to be recorded. It went off the scale within the first few seconds. Geologists have since calculated that it would have registered 9.2 on the Richter Scale. The earthquake was so powerful it uplifted many areas of Prince William Sound from just a few to 36 feet, while other places sank 8 feet. Growler Island and the Columbia Bay area uplifted about 4 feet. Evidence of this uplift can still be seen along the shorelines.

About 40 million years ago, the heat of the Earth's interior melted the subducted sediments forming pools of magma which periodically rose towards the Earth's surface. These plutons (named for Pluto, Greek Lord of the Underworld) cooled slowly forming granites. Granites at Granite Point and Granite Bay on the west side of Columbia Bay represent this era.

Thrust faulting from subduction in the Aleutian trench over the past 20 million years gradually uplifted the Chugach Range in the Prince William Sound area. This range at first was most probably an uplifted plateau. But the combined physical forces of uplift and glaciation created the highly sculpted Chugach Mountains. The only higher range of coastal mountains is the Andes. Links to other pages on geology:

General

http://www.geophys.washington.edu/tsunami/intro.html

Plate Tectonics: For the basics of plate tectonics see: ftp://gps.mit.edu

Historic Alaskan Earthquakes: A good color map of Alaska showing the Aleutian Trench where the Pacific Plate subducts beneath the North American Plate, major areas of pre- and post 1964 earthquakes, faults and Prince William Sound's position. Table lists the ten major Earthquakes worldwide. http://www.giseis.alaska.edu/Seis/html%5Fdocs/alaska%5Fseismicity%5Fmaps.html

The 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake: http://www.ptialaska.net/%7Ewhammond/1964.htm

Alaskan Seismology: The following site contains hot links to pages on recent and historic earthquake information for Alaska. http://www.giseis.alaska.edu/Seis/html%5Fdocs/alaska%5Fseismicity%5Fmaps.html

Tsunamis: Hot links to pages on tsunamis: http://geology.about.com/education/scilife/geology/msub11.htm

The Alaskan Tsunami Warning Center: Contains information on the physics of tsunamis, tsunami safety rules and photographs, the Great Alaskan Earthquake & Tsunami, links to other tsunami and earthquake pages, and research references. http://www.geophys.washington.edu/tsunami/intro.html

Introduction to Tsunamis: An excellent introduction to tsunamis with diagrams, photographs and tips on what to do in case of a tsunami by the Tsunami Warning Station in Hawaii.http://observe.ivv.nasa.gov/nasa/exhibits/tsunami/tsun_bay.html

Further reading:

Jim Lethcoe, An Observer's Guide to the Geology of Prince William Sound, Alaska. $17.95. 224 pp.

Available from Prince William Sound Books P.O. Box 1313, Valdez, AK 99686. Phone: 907-835-5175.

Geological map of the Chugach National Forest's Prince William Sound Wilderness Study Area. Columbia Bay is to the left (west) of Valdez Arm.

http://agdc.usgs.gov/data/usfs/chugach/images/geology-map.gif

Map of mineralized zones of the Chugach National Forest's Prince William Sound Wilderness Study Area. Columbia Bay is to the left (west) of Valdez Arm.

http://agdc.usgs.gov/data/usfs/chugach/images/minerals-map.gif

Recently, glaciologists examining sediments in the Gulf of Alaska have discovered evidence of glaciation over the past 5 million years. They suspect the area has been glaciated for nearly 15 million years. Few other places on the planet have experienced such a prolonged period of glaciation. In cooler periods, glaciers covered all of the coastal plateau. During warmer periods, they retreated to the mountains.

About 20,000 years ago, the Earth's climate cooled and the last of the great Pleistocene ice age glaciers advanced down from the Chugach Mountains. Glaciers formed in the streambeds of the coastal plateau and carved deep valleys. When the glaciers receded about 12,000 years ago, they had scoured the Earth's crust down to the granite roots of the Chugach range and scoured out deep fjords (glacially carved valleys filled with sea water) creating Prince William Sound and the rugged, glacially sculpted Chugach Mountains.

Prince William Sound, nestled in the coastal arc of Alaska's Chugach Mountain Range, has over 20 glaciers terminating at sea level; numerous others cling to precipitous mountainsides.These glaciers form because warm, low pressure systems sweeping in off the Pacific Ocean in the winter encounter the high mountains, rise, cool and deposit their excess moisture as snow. More snow falls in the long winter than melts during the short summer. In fact, in the higher elevations of the Chugach Mountains it is not uncommon for snow to fall twelve months of the year. The thick, accumulating snow layers compress into ice which gradually flows down to the sea as glaciers.

A Brief Overview of the history of glaciology: Presents an interesting history of glaciology with photographs showing glacial features and links to other pages on glaciers. http://geology.about.com/education/scilife/geology/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.utexas.edu/depts/grg/ustudent/frontiers/fall95/banning/banning.html

The National Snow and Ice Data Center Educational page on glaciers - how they form, move, their components, where they are located, types, etc. The best introduction to glaciers. http://www.nsidc.colorado.edu.

Tidewater glaciers exhibit cyclical behavior. The following diagrams show how an ice-calving glacier, such as Columbia Glacier, 1) pushes down a fjord its terminal moraine, which protects the face of the glacier from the melting effects of saltwater, 2) eventually too much of the glacier is in the melting zone compared to the amount in the accumulation area and the glacier retreats off its protective moraine; 3) when the glacier retreats, its ice-face is exposed to the corrosive effects of salt water and drastic retreat begins with the glacier calving millions of tons of ice daily; 4) when the glacier retreats onto land or into shallow water, the melt rate decreases, the glacier stabilizes and begins to build a new terminal moraine from rock debris carried down the glacier. Over time, the new moraine will protect the face of the glacier again slowing the melting and the glacier will begin to advance slowly bulldozing its moraine down the fjord.

Columbia Glacier, the Sound's largest tidal glacier, entered the drastic retreat phase of its cycle in 1984 discharging huge quantities of icebergs that totally clogged the area behind its former moraine and often filled the outer bay with ice. Columbia's dramatic retreat is one of the most interesting geological events occurring on the planet because a whole new fjord is being released from the ice. Some glaciologists think that this is the first retreat Columbia has made in perhaps 3,000 years. It will be many hundreds if not thousands of years before Columbia Glacier reoccupies the fjord.

In the meantime, we have had the gift of thousands of icebergs, large and small, and of an infinite variety of shapes to watch, to kayak or sail past, to touch on shore. Have you ever touched a glacial ice crystal? When the interstices between the crystals melt, you can move the crystals like pieces in a wooden jigsaw puzzle or pour a small drop of food coloring on the iceberg and watch the colors flow between the crystals into the interior of the berg and then down as melt water flows out the bottom.

For photographers, this is a special opportunity to capture on film a unique, photographic record of the glacier and the surrounding newly deglaciated land. If you return in a year or five or twenty-five, the area will look very different from your baseline photograph as the glacier continues to recede and wild flowers, shrubs and trees colonize the land turning it into a mosaic of meadows, thickets and forests.

Because the old terminal moraine forms a shallow dam across the newly created fiord, large icbergs drafting more than 60 ft hang up on it and hold the remainder of ice in the seven mile long inner bay. Each high tide some of these melting bergs float across the moraine temporarily unplugging the dam allowing a stream of smaller bergs behind them to escape into the outter bay. In November 1995, the glacier's retreat slowed and both the outer and inner bays became ice-free. However, by December the inner bay had refilled with ice and remained ice-filled until early September 1996.

One of Nancy's most exciting experiences in 1996 was to serve as a volunteer assistant to noted glaciologist, Austin Post, as he made some of the first bathymetrical studies of the new fjord. It's deep. Stan Stephens' Cruises provided the transportation across the moraine and into the new fjord. (Stan Stephens deserves credit for the many hours of his personal time as well as for the use of his boats that he has volunteered to research on Columbia Glacier.) On the mid-September day we made it across the moraine and were able to travel all the way to the face of Columbia Glacier. Bits and blocks of ice calved from the glacier's face. The new setting is spectacular. From the semi-enclosed embayment rugged, glacially scoured rock faces rise to the towering, snow-clad peaks of the Chugach Range - one of the most precipitous coastal mountain ranges in the world. The next day, the fjord was again so ice-filled that it was unsafe to cross the moraine for fear of being trapped insideby large blocks of ice jamming the moraine.

Jim and Nancy also had the opportunity to spend a day flying by helicopter with Austin Post as he re-occupied photographic stations on ridges overlooking the glacier. Glaciologists use photographic records to record changes in a glacier's height, crevasse patterns, and other features. If you can afford it, we recommend taking a helicopter flight with ERA Helicopters in Valdez over the glacier to see the crevasses, ice-dammed lakes, and spectacular glacial wonderland.

Columbia Glacier has now retreated over 7 miles from its 1984 moraine and has shrunk from 5 miles across to about 3 miles. Currently, it is in a narrow area between two ridges and overiding an ice covered ridge. The ice is moving quite rapidly over the ridge cascading into the inner fjord and filling it with icebergs. In June of 1999, the terminal advance of the glacier suddenly accelerated from 82 feet/day to 115 feet/day indicating rapid thinning at its terminus, Glaciologists do not know whether the glacier will stabilize here or retreat back beyond the narrows. Presently, the glacier's terminous is in contact with seawater 600 ft deep. Behind the narrows and overridden ridge lies a very large glacier-filled basin that is 2000 feet below sea level. If the glacier manages to back over the ridge then massive amounts of ice will be exposed to the melting effects of saltwater and a gigantic breakup will occur. Since the icefield which feeds the glacier reaches 34 miles back into the Cugach Range to about the vicinity of Valdez, quite an extensive new glacial fiord will form.

One of the exciting parts of living in such a geologically active area is that we never know quite what to expect. If the glacier continues to calve vigorously, then we will have lots of icebergs to sail and kayak through or explore on the beaches at Growler Island. However, if the glacier stabilizes on the ridge and slows its calving rate, we will be able for the first time to safely enter the new fjord and approach the Columbia's terminus. Then we and our guests can be among the first to explore these newly created lands noting glacial land-scape features such as eskers, kettles and kames, stranded lakes and the introduction of plants and animals into the new area.

On our current combined trips to the moraine, we have noted a variety of glacial landscape features and observed that many plants not normally found in coastal Prince William Sound have gained footholds there. We hypothesize that this is because there is no competition, that the plants have been brought in on hiking boots or that their seeds travel well by air or in the digestive tracks of migratory birds. Already migratory birds have discovered the newly created mudflats and are using them for rest-stops, while other birds, such as Arctic terns, black-legged kittiwakes, glaucous-winged gulls, black oyster-catchers, semi-palmated plovers and spotted sandpipers are finding nesting habitats on the moraine. Alaskan Wilderness Sailing and Kayaking hopes you will be able to join us in being the first people to walk on this newly created land and to photograph this ever-changing landscape.

Columbia Glacier's drastic retreat allows us an opportunity to reflect upon the retreat of the great Pleistocene glaciers. Scientists follow the principle that present geological processes represent the best explanation of past processes. When the last of the Pleistocene iceages came to an end, the massive glacier covering Prince William Sound had its terminus resting on the shallow sills that stretch across the passages connecting the Sound to the Gulf of Alaska. When the glacier retreated off these shallow areas, its terminus became exposed to much deeper water. Salt water is highly corrosive and melts ice very quickly. The massive Pleistocene glacier would have retreated back across the depths of Prince William Sound relatively rapidly.

As the glacier retreated, rich ocean waters brought plankton and wayfaring seeds, fish to feed on the plankton, and larger predators to feed on the fish. The planktonic stages of intertidal invertebrates such as clams and limpets, barnacles and snails, crab and sea urchins, settled in the newly created habitats just as they are doing today in Columbia's new inner bay. Harbor seals and sea otters found new feeding areas.

Plants with wind or water borne seeds most likely invaded the land first again just as they are on Columbia's moraines. Migratory birds would find new places to land and ground nesting birds would find places with few predators. This, too, is happening today as Columbia Glacier retreats.

Further reading:

Nancy Lethcoe, An Observer's Guide to the Glaciers of Prince William Sound, Alaska. 150 pp. $15.95.

Available from Prince William Sound Books P.O. Box 1313, Valdez, AK 99686. Phone: 907-835-5175.

Common Plants and Plant Communities of Columbia Bay and Prince William Sound:

Columbia Bay is part of the Chugach National Forest which encompasses most of the Sound. It contains many plant communities including the world's northernmost rainforest, peatland bogs, beach fringe, meadows, shrublands, and alpine tundra. The beach fringe provides important nesting sites, forage areas for many mammals and perches for predators. Three species of insect eating plants occur in the peatland bogs, while the old growth rainforests provide important nesting habitat for marbled and Kitzlitz's murrelets, threatened species. Kitzlitz murrelet lives only in coastal Alaska north of Glacier Bay.

This rich mosaic of habitats supports one of North America's largest populations of black bear. (Brown bear occur elsewhere in the Sound.) In late May and June, black bear feed on sedges along the beach fringe and emerging herbs on the avalanche slopes. In late July and August when the salmon return, bears congregate along the streambanks, but when the blueberries ripen they spend more time meandering along the edges of the forest seeking patches of ripe berries.

The Prince William Sound region hosts a unique assemblage of plants. As the Pleistocene glaciers retreated, plants invaded from the east, west, and north. Although plants found in the Pacific Coast Rainforest dominate, many plants found in the southern parts of the forest do not occur in Prince William Sound, while many plants found in Asia and further north have blended here with the rainforest plants. The lush, moss and lichen draped spruce and hemlock forests are the northernmost extension of the Pacific Coast Rainforest which stretches south in a narrow, coastal band to Coos Bay, Oregon. Plants such as the bright yellow American skunk cabbage, western hemlock, Alaska yellow cedar, and salmonberry reach their northernmost ranges in the Sound. Others like the Aleutian heather reach their northern and easternmost range extensions.

BEACH FRINGE: This area includes lands uplifted by the 1964 Earthquake. Many plants, especially the edible plants, are found in both Asia and Alaska. Some ethnobotanists believe man followed the edible plants across the Bering Land Bridge while others think that migrating tribes may have brought the seeds for their edible plants with them.

Most of the plants living in this community reproduce both by seeds and reproductive roots called stolens or runners. In this way, if the seeds fall into the ocean and are swept out to sea, the plant's roots still produce the new plants, the same way strawberry plants reproduce.

Plants found in this area include: rye grass, sedges, Kamchatka lily, wild flag (Iris), sourdock, beach greens, cymbalaria, Kamchatka rockcress, sea rocket, Pacific silverweed, seaside vetch, coastal fireweed, beach lovage, hemlock parsley, wild celery, drooping wild celery, cow parsnip, oysterleaf, seaside shooting star, sea milkwort, seaside plantain, goosetongue, bedstraw, Arctic daisy, pseudo-arnica and rattlesnake root.

DAMP MEADOWS, STREAM BANKS: These sun-loving plants grace the banks of streams, the forest fringe, better drained soils on open hillsides and well-drained beach meadows. Some are highly poisnous, others gourmet's delights. One should not attempt to eat a plant without knowing for sure first whether it is poisonous or edible.

Common streambank plants are false hellebore, Kamchatka lily, twisted stalk, wild flag, western columbine, monkshood, narcissus-flowered anemone, leather-leaved saxifrage, fringed grass-of-parnassus, Alaska spirea, marsh fivefinger, Sitka burnet, Nootka Lupine, cranesbill, Alaska violet, marsh violet, Jeffery's shooting star, broad-petaled gentian, swertia, Jacob's ladder, Sitka valerian, and tall arnica.

PEATLAND BOGS: As the climate has warmed, dramatic changes have occurred in our peatland bogs. Where formerly snow covered the ground until late-June or even mid-July creating a very short, damp growing season, now the snow is usually gone by mid to late May. The growing season is longer, the water table lower, and the plants more dependent on groundwater than snowmelt and rainwater.

When the bogs were constantly wet from melting snow and rainwater, mosses flourished. Mosses have no vascular systems but they quickly absorb and store vast quantities of water. When water becomes scarce, mosses go dormant waiting for the next rainfall. Gradually, as periods of drought have lengthened and the ground become drier, plants with vascular systems whose roots can absorb water from the ground and transport it through the plant have invaded the peatland bogs turning them into fens. Fens occur where plants rely more on groundwater than rainwater.

In Prince William Sound one can watch the on-going battle between the mosses and vascular plants such as sedges, bog rosemary, bog cranberry and others. After a few rainy days, the mosses are green and flourishing trying to choke out the vascular plants and poisoning them with their acidic wastes. But let the sun come out and the water evaporate or sink deeper underground, and then the mosses turn gray and dormant. Now the flowering plants grow tall and strong spreading their broad leaves over the mosses. By shading the mosses, the flowering plants make it difficult for the mosses to obtain water from mist and dew.

Common bog/fen plants are: Sphagnum mosses, sticky tofieldia, bog frog orchid, white bog orchid, ladies tresses, sweet gale, goldthread, long-leaved sundew, sundew, bog avens, Swedish ground dogwood, bog rosemary, dwarf blueberry, bog cranberry, swamp gentian, deer cabbage, coastal lousewort, butterwort/bog violet, and coastal fleabane.

ALPINE TUNDRA: Alpine tundra areas occur on the mountain and hillsides but also on tops of large boulders and glacially scoured rocks. These areas are drier and sunny. As the climate has warmed slightly, many areas have become too dry for the plants. A careful observer will see where dwarf shrubs on rock tops are now having a difficult time obtaining enough moisture to survive.k

Common alpine tundra plants include willow sp., prickly saxifrage, crowberry, alpine azalea, Aleutian yellow heather, yellow heather, Steller's Cassiopeia, dwarf blueberry, alpine blueberry, deer cabbage, bellflower, bluebell, and pussytoe.

RAINFOREST: Trees in the rainforest require some form of precipitation-rain, fog, dew, snow or mist - daily to thrive. Abiotic factors such as drainage and sunlight determine where trees flourish. Because Sitka spruce require sunlight and very well drained soils, they occur along the shoreline. Mountain hemlocks, which tolerate a wide range of soil conditions, occur along the beach, in peatland bogs, and on hillsides.

THE RAINFOREST itself, is multilayered with the tree tops and branches absorbing most of the sunlight. Numerous lichens and mosses cover their trunks and branches often dangling like pale yellow (alectoria and usnea) and black ribbons (byoria). Canadian ground dogwoods and lingonberry plants creep up the trunks. In the shadows of the trees, taller shrubs and herbs like rusty menziesia, blueberries, and sweet Cicely provide food for wintering Sitka deer. Thick fernleaf and sphagnum mosses cover the dark forest floor forming a deep green background to the delicate flowers of the Listeria orchids, fernleaf goldthreads and single delights.

Common rainforest plants include Sitka spruce, Western hemlock, Mountain hemlock, skunk cabbage, false lily-of-the-valley, twisted stalk, Listeria, fernleaf goldthread, lace flower, Oregon crab apple, Mt. Ash, 5-leafed bramble, enchanter's nightshade, devil's club, sweet cicely, Canadian ground dogwood, olive-leaved wintergreen, single-sided wintergreen, single delight, copper flower, rusty menziesia, lingonberry, Alaskan blueberry, early blueberry, and deer cabbage.

AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Rare plants: Parts of Glacier Island and the mainland around Columbia Bay were prospected by gold rushers beginning in 1898; in a few areas sufficiently promising quartz veins were located to stimulate a few years' work. Fox farmers also settled and utilized Glacier and Growler Islands. Around places of early habitation, introduced species, which are rare in the Sound, occur. If you like playing plant detective, this is a great place to hunt local "rarities."

UPLIFT FROM 1964 EARTHQUAKE: The 1964 Earthquake uplifted the Glacier and Growler Island area about three feet. The old beach lines are still visible above the new. In the newly created beach fringe, a variety of plant communities are developing. Come help us figure out why areas that appear similar have different plants? Why do plants growing on Glacier Island not occur on Growler?

GLACIAL RETREAT: Columbia Glacier's retreat has created miles of glacial moraines. Many glaucous-winged gulls, Arctic terns, black-oyster catchers and other birds nest in these areas, while river otters, bald eagles, and merlins prey upon the eggs and young. In other areas, plants are beginning to invade. Here, opportunistic plants occur perhaps brought here on the shoes of a kayaker or hiker. Come help us record the influx of plants and animals as new habitats and niches are developed. For more information, contact Alaskan Wilderness Sailing and Kayaking.

Further Reading:

COMMON TREES OF ALASKA, R10-MB-378. 16 page brochure with nice line drawings and concise descriptions of trees found in both SE and southcentral Alaska. To obtain a copy, write the Public Information Office, Chugach National Forest, 3301 C St. Suite 300, Anchorage, AK 99503-3998.

WILDFLOWERS OF THE NATIONAL FORESTS IN ALASKA, 10 pages, R10-RG-107. This is colored brochure with photographs and descriptions of 40 common wildflowers. To obtain a copy, write the Public Information Office, Chugach National Forest, 3301 C St. Suite 300, Anchorage, AK 99503-3998.

Map of the Vegetative Cover of the Chugach National Forest's Prince William Sound Wilderness Study Area.

http://agdc.usgs.gov/data/usfs/chugach/images/timtyp-map.gif

The following list is of summer birds. During spring bird migrations many other species pass through, some species in flocks of thousands, others in flocks of hundreds of thousands. The best time for watching the spring bird migrations is the last week of April and the first two weeks of May. Every spring, the Cordova, near the Copper River Delta, holds a wonderful Shorebird Festival where participants can watch the huge spring migration and learn from experts about the birds. For more information, contact the Copper River Delta Institute.

COMMON BIRDS: Many of our birds are water birds. They nest in a wide variety of habitats: cliffs, gravel bars in streams, peatland bogs, hollows in dead trees, rockpiles, burrows, base of tree trunks, or marsh grasses along the edges of lakes. These include Common Loon, Red-throated Loon, Sooty shearwater, Double-crested Cormorant, Pelagic Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Canada Goose, Green-winged Teal, Barrow's Goldeneye, Harlequin Duck, White-winged Scoter, Surf Scoter, Black Scoter, Common Merganser, Red-breasted Merganser, Common Murre, Pigeon Guillemot, Marbled Murrelet, Kitzlitz's Murrelet, Horned Puffin, Tufted Puffin.

The Sound's unpolluted shorelines provide a varied assortment of invertebrates for shorebirds to feed on. Common shorebirds include the black oyster-catcher, semipalmated plover, greater yellowlegs, spotted sandpiper, wandering tattler, common snipe, and least sandpiper. Black oyster-catchers with their brilliant 3 inch long bills, bright orange eyes, and pale pink legs are locally common around Growler Island. Biologists estimate the world population at a mere 10,000 of which about 1000 may live in Prince William Sound occupying gradually sloping rocky spits left by the Pleistocene glaciers. Here, the black oyster-catchers slowly stalk the tides in and out feeding on blue mussels and other invertebrates while nearby their young are hidden in the tall beach grasses from predators like bald eagles, ravens and river otters.

Common gull and gull-like birds include the glaucous-winged gull, mew gull, black-legged kittiwake, and Arctic tern. Skilled birdwatchers also frequently see the black-billed Aleutian tern and the large, Caspian tern. From a distance, it is easy to tell the difference between gulls, on the one hand, and terns or kittiwakes on the other by watching the way they feed. Gulls pluck their food from the surface of the water, while terns and kittiwakes can plunge completely under the water in pursuit of small fish. Catching fish may not mean a good meal, however, as parasitic jaegers often pursue gulls, terns, and kittiwakes making them disgorge their catch.

The upland mosaic of habitats provide nesting, resting and feeding areas for a variety of birds including the rufous hummingbird, belted kingfisher, violet-green swallow, tree swallow, Steller's jay, black-billed magpie, common raven, northwestern crow, bald eagle, chestnut-backed chickadee, brown creeper, dipper, winter wren, varied thrush, hermit thrush, Swainson's thrush, golden-crowned kinglet, orange-crowned warbler, yellow warbler, Wilson's warbler, pine grosbeak, common redpoll, pine siskin, savannah sparrow, dark eyed Junco, golden-crowned sparrow, fox sparrow, Lincoln's sparrow, and song sparrow. Northwestern crows nest in the spruce copses around Growler Island and feed in the adjacent intertidal zones where one can watch them rolling over or shoving rocks aside with their bills as they seek worms and other invertebrates.

The more frequently seen mammals include the northern water shrew, little brown bat, meadow vole, porcupine, black bear, brown bear, short-tailed weasel, mink, wolverine, river otter, Sitka black-tailed deer, and mountain goat.

Brown bears, whose diets require abundant sedges, frequent the eastern side of the Sound and large southern islands. They are rarely seen along the northern and western shorelines where black bears predominate. Late July and August when the salmon return to their natal streams is a good time to watch black bears fishing along the streams. However, once the blueberries ripen, black bears spend more time feeding in the berry patches than at the salmon streams as berries contain more calories for fattening up for the winter than salmon.

Mountain goat are best seen in May and June from Prince William Sound Cruises and Tours' tourboats. At this time, the mountain goats feed close to shoreline along Valdez Narrows. Since the skippers run the same routes every day, they have a very good idea of where the goats are feeding. Later in the summer, the goats move into the high country and are difficult to locate even with binoculars.

River otters den in cavities beneath old growth spruce. Centuries ago, another large tree fell becoming a seed tree for the next generation of Sitka spruce and hemlocks. As the years passed, the saplings grew into large trees with their roots stretching down around the old log. Gradually, the log decayed and was recycled by bacteria and other forest dwellers leaving a hollow space beneath the tree. When these hollow areas are well-concealed and dry, they make good dens for the river otters. From May to July as you kayak along the shores watch for silent river otters slipping into the water, rising up swiftly to inspect you, or quietly running up a bank into the forest. Sometimes you can see them carrying a fish, perhaps a flounder, back to their dens. In late July and August, the pups begin to learn to fish themselves, then you can drift motionlessly watching whole families feeding in shallow waters or resting on an ice berg.

Further reading:

BEAR FACTS, THE ESSENTIALS OF TRAVELING IN BEAR COUNTRY, colored flier with good information. To obtain a copy, write the Public Information Office, Chugach National Forest, 3301 C St. Suite 300, Anchorage, AK 99503-3998.

Books on tracks and scat can add to your enjoyment in interpreting the signs animals leave of their activities.

As the piedmont glacier which covered all of Prince William Sound during the Pleistoscene ice ages retreated drastically about 12,000 years ago, it created Prince William Sound with its deep fiords, islands, and numerous freshwater streams feeding rich estuaries. Ocean currents carried plankton into the Sound. Graudally, the planktonic forms of a varied assortment of intertidal zone invertebrates colonized the new habitat. Fish followed, some feeding on plankton, others on smaller fish. Humpback and minke whales, which feed on plankton, may have been the first whales to explore the new Sound. But as the food supply increased, sea otters, harbor seals, Steller sea lions and Killer whales followed. Today, Prince William Sound provides a home to sea otters, harbor seals, Steller's sea lions (endangered species) Dall porpoise, harbor porpoise, killer whales, minke whales, and humpback whales.

The Sound has two populations of killer or orca whales. Residents pops have a matriarchial structure and feed on fish, whereas transient killer whales feed on both fish and marine mammals. Their social structure remains a mystery. Craig Matkin has written an excellent book on the Sound's killer whales entitled the Killer Whales of Prince William Sound, $12.95. Available from Prince William Sound Books.. Phone: 907-835-5175; P.O. Box 1313, Valdez, AK 99686.

WEB PAGES ON MARINE MAMMALS Sea otters: http://www.magicnet.net/~spirit/seaotters.html

Web Pages on Killer Whale research: http://www.pwssc.gen.ak.us/~dls/kw/

Glaciers are much more reliable than marine mammals. Fortunately, our marine animals are wild, not on contracts - we see them on their own time and schedules. When watching marine mammals, always remember that a picture is not worth the life of an animal. The most authentic wildlife photos are those of undisturbed animals. Animals facing the camera or diving into the water have had their lives upset. When this is repeated several times a day, day after day, it can have a toll on the animals' well-being. Currently, harbor seals, Steller sea lions, and some pods of killer whales are all suffering significant, and disturbing, declines in their population. Steller sea lions are now an endangered species.

Help us to make sure that increased tourism is not a contributing factor to this decline. Bring good binoculars. If your camera does not have a telephoto lens, watch the animals, observe their behavior, take home memories.

In June, harbor seals pup on the icebergs from Columbia Glacier. At this time, because seal pups have no blubber, they are extremely vulnerable to hypothermia. So-called "transient' pods of killer whales hunt among the icebergs and along the shores for harbor seals. During their August molt, harbor seals again spend much of their time on icebergs. Icebergs also provide perching and resting platforms for sea otters, river otters, and birds such as bald eagles, black-legged kittiwakes, Arctic terns, glaucous-winged gulls, and pelagic cormorants.

Because the high Chugach Mountains cool the warm air off the Pacific ocean, they catch large amounts of precipitation. Numerous streams with tumbling waterfalls and shaded ripples flow down the mountainsides to the sea. Since the glaciers retreated, five species of salmon have entered the streams to spawn. Although the majority of salmon return to their birth-streams, some move on to others. In Prince William Sound alone there are over 2000 salmon streams.

As large schools of salmon move through the Sound returning to their natal streams, Steller sea lions and pods of killer whales follow and prey upon them. In the steam fed estuaries, harbor seals feed on the salmon waiting to go upstream. Once the spawning salmon enter the stream, bald eagles, glaucous-winged gulls, black bears, river otter and mink all feed on them. And, of course, man is part of the salmon-based food chain; commercial, sport and native subsistence fishermen catch tons of salmon. The salmon served at Growler Island Camp is caught locally.

What do glaciers have to do with Prince William Sound's native peoples? Scientists who study glaciers believe that glaciers covered the Prince William Sound region for perhaps as much as the past 15 million years, making it one of the most glaciated areas in the world. During the great Pleistocene glaciation (2.5 million years ago to 12,000) when glaciers covered much of northern North America, so much water was locked-up in the glaciers that the sea level was 150 to 300 feet lower than today. All of Prince William Sound was covered by a massive piedmont glacier. The Bering Land Bridge or Berengia connected Alaska to Asia. Many scientists believe that about 15,000 years ago, nomadic people in Siberia started moving across the 100 mile wide bridge. To find out more about these early migrations of the ancestors of all of North and South America's native peoples, visit the National Park's Berengia page at: http://www.nps.gov/akso/beringia/comhist.htm and their Index page at: http://www.nps.gov/akso/beringia/index.htm

(More recently, other scientists have contended that the earliest inhabitants of North America arrived much earlier. In the past year, both Discovery Magazine and Scientific American have carried articles on this point of view.)

The Aleuts and Eskimos formed the second wave of migration moving along the shoreline of Berengia about 14,000 years ago. The Aleuts and Eskimo cultures center about the sea. As the Pleistocene glaciers retreated from Alaska's coastline and the Eskimos and Aleuts improved their skills in building bidarkas (kayaks), they moved southward along Alaska's coastline. About 7,000 years ago, a group called the Chugach or Chugachimuit arrived in Prince William Sound. Although traditionally these people have been called "Eskimos," they now prefer the name "Alutiiq." You can find out more about the Alutiiq people at http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/aleut.html The site contains the best ethnographic bibliography of the Alutiiq people, as well as an excellent introduction on their history and culture up to the modern period.

Today, Growler Island is owned by the Chugach Alaska Corporation. It is a regional native corporation. Chugach Alaska obtained Growler Island from the Chugach National Forest as part of the Alaska Native Land Claims Settlement Act. For more information on this act and its importance to native people, check-out the educational site at:http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/ancsa.html.

Alaska's native corporations are profit-making corporations. Part of the money guests pay to stay at Growler Island Wilderness Camp goes to the Chugach Alaska Corporation and their shareholders.Chugach Alaska Corporation (http://www.chugach-ak.com/) is the fifth largest corporation in Alaska. Prince William Sound Cruises and Tours which operates the tourboats between Whittier, Growler Island Wilderness Camp, and Valdez is owned by the Cook Inlet Regional Corporation. Again, profits from the purchase of a tourboat ticket goes to the Cook Inlet Regional Corporation (CIRI) and its shareholders. CIRI is the largest privately owned corporation in Alaska.

Alaska's native peoples and culture can be viewed at the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage. For more information on the new Alaska Native Heritage Center see: http://www.alaskanative.net/index.cfm?x=1&y=1

Since 1907, most of the lands surrounding Prince William Sound have been managed by the Chugach National Forest, the second largest forest in the United States. But in the last quarter century, this land management pattern has changed significantly. First, in 1959 Alaska became a State with the right to select lands from the Chugach National Forest. On December 18, 1971, President Nixon signed the Alaska Native Settlement Claims Act into law. Both Acts transferred major portions of the Chugach National Forest to the State of Alaska or native corporations: Chugach Alaska Corporation (the regional native corporation) and the native villages of Tatitlek and Chenega. In 1974, Congress passed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), which directed the Chugach National Forest to manage most of the forest lands in Prince William Sound to preserve their wilderness quality.

The official home page for the Chugach National Forest. is http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/chugach

The Chugach National Forest, which surrounds Prince William Sound, has several excellent booklets and brochures that are available at no charge. To obtain copies, write the Public Information Office, Chugach National Forest, 3301 C St. Suite 300, Anchorage, AK 99503-3998.

A FOREST BORN OF ICE, CHUGACH NATIONAL FOREST ALASKA, 40 pages. Leaflet R10-MB-151.This is a general introduction to the forest, including information on trails and camping.

CHUGACH SALMON, AN OBSERVER'S GUIDE TO THE REMARKABLE SALMON OF ALASKA'S CHUGACH NATIONAL FOREST. 28 pages, R10-RG-78. Provides brief descriptions of our 5 species of salmon and their life histories. Has maps and information on where to view salmon on the Kenai Peninsula, Prince William Sound, and Cordova area.

Chugach National Forest Land Management Planning Process and Prince William Sound Wilderness Study Area:

Currently, the forest is revising its land management plan. Since the passage of ANILCA (Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act) in the early 1980s, most of Prince William Sound and the adjacent Chugach mountains have been managed to preserve their wilderness qualities. This includes all of the Columbia Bay area, Glacier Island, Long Bay, Unakwik Inlet and Meares Glacier, as well as the Naked and Knight Island groups. These are all areas we visit on our trips. We support formal inclusion of the Wilderness Study Area into our nation's great Wilderness Preservation System. We have worked with the Valdez State Parks Advisory Board and the Alaska Wilderness Recreation and Tourism Association (AWRTA) to develop an alternative that reflects local interests, promotes diversified recreation and tourism opportunities and protects fisheries and wildlife habitats. For more information on this alternative, check out the AWRTA site at http://www.alaska.net/~awrta. The Chugach National Forest planning team has a 90 day public comment plan scheduled to begin in April 2000. If you would like us to notify you about the public comment period and how to obtain information on the planning process, please send us an e-mail at awss@alaska.net.

For a map of the Prince William Sound Wilderness Study area go to: http://agdc.usgs.gov/data/usfs/chugach/images/wilderness-map.gif

Columbia Bay is in the upper right to the west (left) of Valdez Arm.

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill:

Although the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill occurred about ten miles from Growler Island Wilderness Camp, no oil came ashore in this area. Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) were the scientific advisors for the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. Their site contains links to spill, photos, response, long-term monitoring projects, recovery, and the Sound 10 years later. One of the more interesting topics is the discussion on how difficult it is to tell when a resource has "recovered." http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/spotlight/spotlight.html

Books on the Area

Jim and Nancy Lethcoe, A Cruising Guide to Prince William Sound, $39.95;

Jim and Nancy Lethcoe, A History of Prince William Sound, Alaska. 170 pp. $14.95.

Jim and Nancy Lethcoe, Valdez Gold Rush Trails. 144 pp. $14.95.

Jim Lethcoe, An Observer's Guide to the Geology of Prince William Sound, Alaska. $17.95. 224 pp.

Nancy Lethcoe, An Observer's Guide to the Glaciers of Prince William Sound, Alaska. 150 pp. $15.95.

Craig Matkin, An Observer's Guide to the Killer Whales of Prince William Sound, Alaska. 103 pp. $12.95.

Available from Prince William Sound Books., P.O. Box 1313, Valdez, AK 99686. Phone: 907-835-5175. E-mail: awss@alaska.net

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