Kenai Fjords National Park

Park Information

• Date established: December 2, 1980
• Location: Alaska
• Area: 607,000 acres

Overview

Kenai Fjords National Park is located near the town of Seward in south-central Alaska. Situated at the edge of the Kenai Peninsula along the northern Pacific Ocean, the park features an icy landscape that includes the Harding Icefield and nearly forty glaciers that flow from it. The gigantic ice formations have shaped the land over time. Visitors to the park will find a variety of wildlife, along with lush forests surrounding the glaciers and fjords. Those who visit the park will also witness the effects of climate change, as the glaciers have been shrinking over time. Although the terrain can be difficult, the park is popular for hiking and camping in addition to kayaking river cruises along the fjords. Icy conditions and rough terrain keep the annual visitation numbers at Kenai Fjords relatively low compared to other parks, with 303,598 people visiting the park in 2017.

History

Long before the Kenai Fjords area was established as a national park, people had been living off the land for thousands of years. Archeological exploration of the area, along with oral and written history, has shown an overlapping line of populations that lived there, including Alaska Natives, Europeans, and Native Americans. The people lived off the land’s rich resources, including marine mammals, fish, fur-bearing animals, and minerals. One such group that survived for centuries in the region was the Alutiiq (or Sugpiaq) native people. Although many explorers called the land around the fjords rugged and inhospitable, the Alutiiq people were able to survive there by adapting to the land and its surroundings.

Eventually the Alutiiq people left the Kenai area for various reasons. Some left when a Russian Orthodox mission was established there in 1844, while many others left in the late 1800s for work in nearby towns. From the 1890 census onward, there was no indication of Alutiiq people living on the outer Kenai coast. That does not mean, however, that the native people completely abandoned the land. Many of the Alutiiq continued to use the area around Kenai for subsistence camps, which were set up at strategic times to harvest fish or other resources in order to stockpile food for winter when those items were less abundant.

Subsistence activity in the area tapered off in the 1930s and 1940s, and was almost nonexistent by the 1970s, when steps were taken to protect the land and resources around Kenai. The Kenai Fjords area was established as a national monument in 1978 and later became a national park in 1980. Prior to the park’s creation, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) was signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1971. The ANCSA was intended to resolve issues surrounding land claims by Native Alaskan people. During this process, two native groups, the Port Graham Corporation and the English Bay Corporation, chose land that fell within the boundaries of what would become Kenai Fjords National Park. Ultimately, the English Bay group sold its 32,000 acres to the park, although it did retain rights to any cultural resources of the land. The Port Graham group still owns more than 42,000 acres that fall within the boundaries of the park.

Geology and Ecology

The Kenai Fjords area is one of only six fjord estuary ecosystems on Earth, with the others being located in Chile, Norway, New Zealand, Greenland, and Antarctica. The area around the park was once completely filled with thick, glacial ice. As the ice began to melt away about ten thousand years ago, valleys were formed that filled with seawater. The glaciers continued to melt, moving downhill under the force of gravity, and over time they eroded the bedrock beneath them allowing freshwater to mix with the seawater in the fjords, creating an estuary. This estuary ecosystem is a rich and varied network that is home to organisms large and small, such as phytoplankton, algae, fiddler crabs, sea cucumbers, a variety of fish, orcas, and even humpback whales. The lush landscape around the fjords is also home to a variety of other wildlife, including land mammals such as bears, moose, and goats, and various birds such as puffins, falcons, and bald eagles.

With all of its biological diversity, Kenai Fjords National Park is all about the ice. Some of the key ecological features of the park are a massive ice field known as the Harding Icefield and nearly forty glaciers that have shaped the coastline of the park over time. Nearly 51 percent of Kenai Fjords is covered by ice, and the area’s location means it has favorable conditions for glaciers to form. Glaciers need abundant snowfall, cool summers, and gravitational flow to form. On average, around 60 feet (18 meters) of snow falls on the Harding Icefield every year, and cool, wet summers mean much of the snow generally lasts and does not melt. This allows the snow to accumulate in thick layers, which overtime condense into glacial ice.

The icy landscape that is so crucial to life in Kenai, however, is facing continued threats due to climate change, or a change in weather patterns due to the warming of the planet. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, these changes pose significant risk to the natural and cultural resources in the United States, including at Kenai Fjords. To document the changes, the National Park Service has studied the effects of climate change at national parks throughout the country. Some of the changes discovered at Kenai include the following:

• Mean annual temperatures in Alaska have increased significantly over six decades.
• The melting rate of glaciers has increased, as has their contribution to sea-level rise.
• Exit Glacier, a main attraction at Kenai Fjords, retreated by 1,635 feet (498 meters) and thinned between 262 and 294 feet (79 and 89 meters) between 1950 and 1990.

Kenai Fjords National Park is combatting the effects of climate change by participating in the Climate Friendly Parks program, which is a partnership between the US Environmental Protection Agency and the National Park Service. As part of the program, the park has conducted an emission inventory, set an emission reduction target, and developed an action plan to reach that goal. The park has also committed to educating visitors and the community about climate change and its effects on the environment.

Bibliography

“Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.” Alaska.gov, 18 Dec. 2014. www.commerce.alaska.gov/web/dcra/LocalGovernmentOnline/PlanningLandUse/AlaskaNativeClaimsSettlementActLandClaims.aspx. Accessed 15 Oct. 2018.

Barnes, Susan B. “Kenai Fjords National Park: 10 Tips to Make the Most of Your Visit.” USA Today, 11 Apr. 2018, www.usatoday.com/story/travel/experience/america/national-parks/2018/04/11/kenai-fjords-national-park-visiting-tips/504478002/. Accessed 15 Oct. 2018.

“Kenai Fjords National Park.” National Park Foundation, www.nationalparks.org/explore-parks/kenai-fjords-national-park. Accessed 15 Oct. 2018.

“Kenai Fjords National Park.” Travel Alaska, www.travelalaska.com/Destinations/Parks-and-Public-Lands/Kenai-Fjords-National-Park.aspx. Accessed 15 Oct. 2018.

“Kenai Fjords National Park: People,” National Park Service, 30 Mar. 2018, www.nps.gov/kefj/learn/historyculture/people.htm. Accessed 15 Oct. 2018.

“This Coastal National Park Is a Haven for Wildlife – and Adventure.” National Geographic, www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/national-parks/kenai-fjords-national-park/. Accessed 15 Oct. 2018.

“Where Mountains, Ice, and Oceans Meet.” National Park Service, 20 Apr. 2018, www.nps.gov/kefj/index.htm. Accessed 15 Oct. 2018.