Climate change is already affecting the way Southeast Alaska\u2019s Native communities harvest and gather traditional foods, according to a recent Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station study.<\/p>\n
The study paired both social and physical sciences, analyzing how climate change and glacial uplift are impacting the land, and how those changes affect the people that live there. Its ultimate goal is to help people figure out ways to adapt to the changing environment.<\/p>\n
Social scientist Linda Kruger, hydrologist Adelaide \u201cDi\u201d Johnson, and a team of student interns this spring and summer studied tidelands and interviewed community members in Yakutat, Hoonah, Angoon, Kake, Klawock, and the Organized Village of Kasaan.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo many of the plants and animals that they depend on are changing in their patterns, timing, quality, and quantity,\u201d Kruger said.<\/p>\n
The researchers did in-depth surveys from low tideline to just inside the tree line around the different communities, identifying plants, animals, and slope and ground material \u2014 sand, rock, soil, etc. Student interns helped by having conversations with 10 families in their community about what kinds of plants and animals they harvest, and what they\u2019ve seen change, Kruger said.<\/p>\n
The team is now analyzing its results, something they hope to finish by early next year.<\/p>\n
This research pairs well with a study Kruger did a few years ago with Jim Powell, a research fellow at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. In that study, one of the most common things elders and community members said is that the world has become unpredictable.<\/p>\n
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A TOPSY-TURVY WORLD<\/p>\n
The timing of fruits like blueberries and salmonberries, or when fish appear in the community\u2019s streams \u2014 \u201cnow everything is topsy-turvy as far as timing goes,\u201d Kruger said. \u201cIt makes it really hard to plan. We heard stories about people who were having a hard time drying fish because it was so wet, and it didn\u2019t used to be that time of year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other times, people have had to buy food at the grocery store when they normally would have harvested something wild.<\/p>\n
\u201cTraditional foods just aren\u2019t there to support the ceremonies and the gatherings like they used to be,\u201d Kruger said, mentioning herring. Native Southeast Alaskans talk of a time herring runs were so prolific that, figuratively speaking, a person could walk on the backs of herring across the water. Herring have also largely disappeared from places like Juneau, where they were once harvested and abundant.<\/p>\n
Another thing many people mentioned is that some frogs that used to be common seem to have disappeared. This is especially worrisome because frogs are \u201csentinel species.\u201d Changes to their behavior or health can indicate larger-scale changes are coming.<\/p>\n
The third thing people have noticed is something clearly managed by people \u2014 the dramatic increase in sea otters, which has a corresponding effect on shellfish.<\/p>\n
Sea otters were abundant in Southeast Alaska until the Russians nearly wiped them out while hunting them for furs. They were reintroduced, and have been protected since.<\/p>\n
Rural residents also have strong concerns about cruise ship and other kinds of pollution, acidifying oceans, and new kinds of toxins showing up in shellfish.<\/p>\n
In addition to the toxin that causes paralytic shellfish poisoning \u2014 PSP \u2014 increased blooms of pseudo-nitzschia, an alga that can produce the biotoxin domoic acid, which in turn can cause ASP, or amnesic shellfish poisoning, this summer closed fisheries south of Alaska, and showed up more in Southeast Alaska than normal.<\/p>\n
Individual communities also have community-specific concerns, Kruger said. Yakutat residents worry about contamination left over from World War II. Kasaan is concerned about pollution from an old mine.<\/p>\n
Community interns Quinn Newlun of Yakutat, Alaska Skaflestad of Hoonah, Randy Roberts of Hoonah, Natasha Kookesh of Angoon, Simon Friday of Kake, Madison Scamahorn of Kasaan, and Mitchell England of Klawock spoke with families in their communities, focusing on what they gather, and how that\u2019s changed.<\/p>\n
Sierra Ezrr\u00e9 of Juneau, a member of the Eagle Wolf clan, is helping out with scientific data collection. This summer, she traveled to Yakutat to help.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d wake up super early in the morning so we could get there when it was low tide, and we\u2019d measure out three segments\u2026 and identify species\u2026 along those segments,\u201d she said. \u201cThe real science and whatnot has been cool to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
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PHYSICAL CHANGES<\/p>\n
Some of what Ezrr\u00e9 was measuring, under the guidance of hydrologist Adelaide Johnson, will help scientists understand how the land is physically changing. Southeast Alaska is undergoing a process known as isostatic rebound \u2014 for millennia, the heavy weight of tons of ice pressed down on the land until the glaciers retreated. Now freed of that weight, the land is springing upwards. Northern Southeast Alaska is springing upward more than southern Southeast Alaska, so the north may end up undergoing more change, particularly in bays, Johnson said. In the south, water will inundate the coast more.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe big message here is that the shape as well as the slope really matters. If you\u2019ve got\u2026 a low gradient bay and the water is coming in, it\u2019s going to move much further in\u2026 or if the sea level is\u2026 retreat(ing) because of the rebound of the land, it\u2019s going to move much further out, and you\u2019re going to have drying of those areas,\u201d Johnson told Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska\u2019s Southeast Environmental Conference attendees in September.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Kake, some of the bays and estuaries are going to be exposed,\u201d she said. Kake will see an increase in rocky areas, and a decrease in sediment coast and estuaries, Johnson said. Kake will also lose some of its eelgrass habitat, which could adversely impact salmon rearing.<\/p>\n
In Hoonah, the team predicts a major change in the length of its estuaries, an increase in some of the rock and sediment habitat, and increases in the kinds of red algae that surround it, including ribbon kelps.<\/p>\n
Angoon will see an increase in its rock and sediment areas, and estuaries\u2019 shoreline length may shorten.<\/p>\n
Next year, Kruger and Johnson hope to extend their study to other places in Southeast Alaska \u2014 Juneau, Sitka, and possibly Saxman \u2014 as well as Chugach National Forest, Prince William Sound, and Cordova.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s happening gradually, over time, but in the last few years, people have been struck by how quickly things have been changing, and how dramatically,\u201d Kruger said. \u201cIt\u2019s a combination of things. It\u2019s not just changing in one area. Weather patterns, timing, as well as things like the effects of pollution, and invasive species, and sea otters.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2022 Contact Mary Catharine Martin at maryc.martin@capweek.com.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a video from Kruger and Powell\u2019s earlier study, focusing on Yakutat and four Prince of Wales communities. https:\/\/vimeo.com\/124723553?utm_source=email&utm_medium=clip-transcode_complete-finished-20120100&utm_campaign=7701&email_id=Y2xpcF90cmFuc2NvZGVkfGU4NWE4NWM1MjJhOGQzNGExMDMyZDE3ZDY0ZGRjOWU4MzUwfDIxNjI1MTF8MTQyODgwNDg5Mnw3NzAx<\/p>\n
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