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Kenai Fjords National Park is an American
national park A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual ...
that maintains the Harding Icefield, its outflowing glaciers, and coastal fjords and islands. The park covers an area of on the
Kenai Peninsula The Kenai Peninsula ( Dena'ina: ''Yaghenen'') is a large peninsula jutting from the coast of Southcentral Alaska. The name Kenai (, ) is derived from the word "Kenaitze" or "Kenaitze Indian Tribe", the name of the Native Athabascan Alaskan tribe ...
in south-central
Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U ...
, west of the town of Seward. The park contains the Harding Icefield, one of the largest ice fields in the United States, and is named for the numerous
fjord In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Icel ...
s carved by glaciers moving down the mountains from the ice field. The field is the source of at least 38 glaciers, the largest of which is Bear Glacier. The fjords are glacial valleys that have been submerged below sea level by a combination of
rising sea levels Rising may refer to: * Rising, a stage in baking - see Proofing (baking technique) *Elevation * Short for Uprising, a rebellion Film and TV * "Rising" (''Stargate Atlantis''), the series premiere of the science fiction television program ''Starg ...
and land subsidence. Exit Glacier is a popular destination at the end of the park's only road. The remainder of the park is accessible by boat, airplane, and hiking. Kenai Fjords National Monument was initially designated by President
Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
on December 1, 1978, using the
Antiquities Act The Antiquities Act of 1906 (, , ), is an act that was passed by the United States Congress and signed into law by Theodore Roosevelt on June 8, 1906. This law gives the President of the United States the authority to, by presidential pro ...
, pending final legislation to resolve the allotment of public lands in Alaska. Establishment as a national park followed the passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act in 1980. The park protects the icefield, a narrow fringe of forested land between the mountains and the sea, and the deeply indented coastline. The park is inhabited by a variety of terrestrial and marine mammals, including
brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model ...
and black bears,
moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult ma ...
, sea otters,
harbor seal The harbor (or harbour) seal (''Phoca vitulina''), also known as the common seal, is a true seal found along temperate and Arctic marine coastlines of the Northern Hemisphere. The most widely distributed species of pinniped (walruses, eared se ...
s, humpback and
killer whale The orca or killer whale (''Orcinus orca'') is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Orcinus'' and is recognizable by its black-and-white pat ...
s.


History

Kenai Fjords National Park was established in 1980 by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA). It is a relatively small and accessible park by Alaskan national park standards, about 88% as big as
Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ...
. It is the fifth most-visited park in Alaska, but the 11th of 13 Alaska parks in area, and is the closest national park to Anchorage. The park's headquarters is in Seward. It is the only Alaska national park that did not originally allow subsistence use by Native Americans, but native village corporations continue to have interests in inholdings within the park, and have since established subsistence rights on those properties.Catton, pp. 213–217.


Human habitation

At the time of the park's establishment, there were few permanent inhabitants.Catton, pp. 93–94. Archeological surveys have altered the early view that the area was subject to only transient occupation as evidence has accumulated of long-term use. It is believed that coastal subsidence and rising water levels have inundated many sites, as the shoreline was the place richest in resources for early peoples.Catton, pp. 197–198. A 1993 Park Service survey documented several village sites dated between 1200 AD and 1920. The survey also found evidence that an earthquake dating to about 1170 AD lowered the shoreline by at least , potentially inundating earlier sites. A 2003 follow-up survey indicated that one site was occupied between 950 AD and 1800. Another site was used from 1785 to 1820. A third site showed occupancy from 1850 to 1890. Several gold mines from historical times have been documented in the park. Mining activity centered on Nuka Bay. Some sites had been active into the 1980s. Eleven mine sites have been documented and two of the mine sites have been determined to be eligible for the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
.


Proposals for a Kenai Fjords park

Early studies of possible new Park Service units in Alaska took place in the 1930s and 1940s. The first study, entitled ''Alaska - Its Resources and Development'' was centered on the development of tourism, despite a dissent from co-author Bob Marshall, who advocated strict preservation. Another study, funded as part of the Alaska Highway in the 1940s drew similar conclusions to the first study's majority opinion. In 1964
George B. Hartzog Jr. George Benjamin Hartzog Jr. (March 17, 1920 – June 27, 2008) was an American attorney and Director of the National Park Service. Admitted to the bar in South Carolina in 1942, he became an attorney for the General Land Office (now the Bureau o ...
, director of the National Park Service, initiated a new study entitled ''Operation Great Land'', advocating the development and promotion of the existing Alaska parks. Follow-up action by Hartzog brought the Park Service into discussions over the
Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) was signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 18, 1971, constituting at the time the largest land claims settlement in United States history. ANCSA was intended to resolve long-standing ...
(ANCSA). The Kenai Fjords area was not considered to be of the first priority for park designation under the ANCSA. The earliest proposals for a national park at the Kenai Fjords was raised in the 1970s. In 1971 the Seward National Recreation Area was proposed for the area between the head of Resurrection Bay and Turnagain Arm, extending east to Whittier and west to Exit Glacier. This proposal allowed logging and mining in the area. Although the proposal had support in Congress and from the
US Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency in ...
and the
Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's ...
, it was overcome by difficulties with native land claims. Internal Park Service documents envisioned an park protecting the coast and the icefield, but this conflicted with the Seward National Recreation Area and a proposed expansion of the Kenai National Moose Range. Another proposal placed the Aialik Peninsula under US Fish and Wildlife Service jurisdiction. On March 15, 1972, four areas of the Kenai Peninsula were set aside under the ANCSA for federal protected areas. The same day the National Park Service formed an Alaska Task Force to study proposed park lands. The Kenai Fjords region was designated Study Area 11. Negotiations between the Park Service, Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and the
Chugach Alaska Corporation Chugach Alaska Corporation, or CAC, is one of thirteen Alaska Native Regional Corporations created under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA) in settlement of aboriginal land claims. Chugach Alaska Corporation was incorporated ...
resulted in a decision by the Department of the Interior to make the Park Service the lead agency for the Kenai Fjords area. In 1973 the Nixon administration proposed the Harding Icefield–Kenai Fjords National Monument as part of the ANILCA legislation. The proposed monument totaled in three areas: the icefield and two island groups. Legislation stalled in Congress during the
Watergate scandal The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's contin ...
, and was not pursued again until the Carter administration. Secretary of the Interior
Cecil D. Andrus Cecil Dale Andrus (August 25, 1931 – August 24, 2017) was an American politician who served 26th and 28th governor of Idaho, for total of fourteen years. A Democrat, he also served as U.S. Secretary of the Interior from 1977 to 1981 during th ...
proposed a Kenai Fjords National Park. Alaskan opposition to ANILCA prompted President
Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
to proclaim Kenai Fjords National Monument under the provisions of the
Antiquities Act The Antiquities Act of 1906 (, , ), is an act that was passed by the United States Congress and signed into law by Theodore Roosevelt on June 8, 1906. This law gives the President of the United States the authority to, by presidential pro ...
on December 1, 1978, pending final passage of an Alaskan lands bill. No visitor facilities or full-time local management structure resulted from the monument's proclamation. A single ranger was assigned to Seward as a local liaison.


National park

On December 2, 1980, the ANILCA bill was signed into law by Jimmy Carter, converting Kenai Fjords to a national park. The first park improvements focused on improving access to Exit Glacier. In 1982, a general management plan for the park was finalized, designating Exit Glacier as "front-country," the fjords as "back-country," and the icefield as wilderness. The park was initially administered by a small cadre of permanent and seasonal rangers and technicians who put considerable emphasis on community liaison. Under the provisions of ANILCA the park included of "native selected lands," property that was taken out of federal ownership and conveyed to Alaskan native corporations. Most of the lands claimed were on the coastline. were repurchased by the Park Service in the 1990s, retaining subsistence rights on about . This altered the original intent of the park to include subsistence claims, previously unrecognized. A lodge was developed by the Port Graham community on Aialik Bay.


Activities

Seward is a departure point and destination for large cruise ships from
Celebrity Cruises Celebrity Cruises is a cruise line headquartered in Miami, Florida and a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Group. Celebrity Cruises was founded in 1988 by the Greece-based Chandris Group, and merged with Royal Caribbean Cruise Line in ...
,
Holland America Line Holland America Line is an American-owned cruise line, a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. Holland America Line was founded in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and from 1873 to 1989, it operated ...
, Royal Caribbean International and others. Passenger traffic through Seward is projected at 68,000 for 2013. Cruise tours originating from Seward provide access to the park via Resurrection Bay. Various companies offer tours, many guided by
National Park Ranger National Park Service rangers are among the uniformed employees charged with protecting and preserving areas set aside in the National Park System by the United States Congress and the President of the United States. While all employees of the ...
s. The tours provide views of land and marine wildlife, particularly
Steller sea lion The Steller sea lion (''Eumetopias jubatus''), also known as the Steller's sea lion and northern sea lion, is a near-threatened species of sea lion in the northern Pacific. It is the sole member of the genus ''Eumetopias'' and the largest of ...
s, puffins, Dall's porpoises, American black bear, snowshoe hares, Mountain goats, and humpback and orca whales, as well as natural sights such as the fjords and tidewater glaciers. Seward is a destination for cruise ships. Bus tours from Seward visit Exit Glacier and boat tours visit other parts of the park The park maintains public-use cabins and shelters in coastal areas and at the edge of the Harding Icefield. Some of these are on native corporation lands, with a portion of the use fee going to the native community. The park has established a cooperative relationship with the
Alaska SeaLife Center The Alaska SeaLife Center, Alaska's premier public aquarium and Alaska's only permanent marine mammal rehabilitation facility, is located on the shores of Resurrection Bay in Seward in the U.S. state of Alaska. Open since May 1998, it is dedic ...
, exchanging interpretive services.


Geography

The park lies on the southeastern side of the
Kenai Peninsula The Kenai Peninsula ( Dena'ina: ''Yaghenen'') is a large peninsula jutting from the coast of Southcentral Alaska. The name Kenai (, ) is derived from the word "Kenaitze" or "Kenaitze Indian Tribe", the name of the Native Athabascan Alaskan tribe ...
, about south of Anchorage. The nearest large town is Seward, immediately to the east of the park on Resurrection Bay. The park includes the region's deeply indented glaciated coastline and its interior icefields. The most significant
fjord In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Icel ...
s include
Aialik Bay Aialik Bay, (Russian:) also known as Dora Passage between Harbor Island and the Harris Peninsula, is a fjord on the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska, United States. It has no permanent settlements, but there are two public use cabins located on the bay ...
, Harris Bay, McCarty Fjord and
Nuka Bay Nuka can mean: * Younger sibling of the speaker's sex (younger brother or younger sister) in the Inuit language. Nuka is widely used as a personal name for females and males in Greenland. In Canadian Inuktitut as well as Alaskan Iñupiaq and Yup ...
. Much of the interior is covered by the Harding Icefield. The park's highest point is an unnamed peak of in the Kenai Mountains. The park is bordered on the west by
Kenai National Wildlife Refuge The Kenai National Wildlife Refuge is a wildlife habitat preserve located on the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska, United States. It is adjacent to Kenai Fjords National Park. This refuge was created in 1941 as the Kenai National Moose Range, but in 198 ...
and on the south by Kachemak Bay State Park. The park can be reached from Seward, south of Anchorage at the southern terminus of the Seward Highway. It is only one of three national parks in Alaska that can be reached by road, via the Exit Glacier Nature Center. A network of trails from the Nature Center provide access to the glacier, and the Harding Icefield Trail.


Geology

The park's landscape has been shaped by
plate tectonics Plate tectonics (from the la, label= Late Latin, tectonicus, from the grc, τεκτονικός, lit=pertaining to building) is the generally accepted scientific theory that considers the Earth's lithosphere to comprise a number of larg ...
, with the
Pacific Plate The Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. At , it is the largest tectonic plate. The plate first came into existence 190 million years ago, at the triple junction between the Farallon, Phoenix, and I ...
subducting beneath the
North American Plate The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, Cuba, the Bahamas, extreme northeastern Asia, and parts of Iceland and the Azores. With an area of , it is the Earth's second largest tectonic plate, behind the Paci ...
. The process has lowered the elevation of the Kenai Mountains, gradually pulling glacial features down into the sea, which is at the same time rising. The floors of the fjords can be from below the present sea level. The motion of the North Pacific Plate has accreted a variety of
terrane In geology, a terrane (; in full, a tectonostratigraphic terrane) is a crust fragment formed on a tectonic plate (or broken off from it) and accreted or " sutured" to crust lying on another plate. The crustal block or fragment preserves its ow ...
s against the shoreline, so that the coastal region is a mixture of rocks that originated elsewhere, together with local
igneous rock Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word ''ignis'' meaning fire), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma o ...
. Predominant rock types include shale and graywacke, with greenstone,
tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock ...
and
chert Chert () is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, the mineral form of silicon dioxide (SiO2). Chert is characteristically of biological origin, but may also occur inorganically as a ...
. Kenai Fjords is extensively glaciated, with 51% of the park covered by ice. The Harding Icefield receives of snowfall per year. More than thirty glaciers originate in the icefield, which first formed about 23,000 years ago. Icefield coverage has declined, with a 3% reduction in coverage over a 16-year study period. The park's largest glacier is Bear Glacier. The most accessible glacier, and the only portion of the park accessible by road, is Exit Glacier.


Climate

According to the
Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...
system, Kenai Fjords National Park has a
subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of an ocean, g ...
(''Dfc'') with cool summers and year-round precipitation. According to the
United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of comme ...
, the Plant Hardiness zone at Exit Glacier Visitor Center at 463 ft (141 m) elevation is 4b with an average annual extreme minimum temperature of -20.3 °F (-29.1 °C).


Wildlife and ecology

Kenai Fjords National Park is dominated by a glaciated landscape. The park's glaciers have retreated through the twentieth century, exposing new lands to colonization by plant and animal life. The park also features a significant marine environment. Large terrestrial mammal species in the park include timber wolf,
porcupine Porcupines are large rodents with coats of sharp spines, or quills, that protect them against predation. The term covers two families of animals: the Old World porcupines of family Hystricidae, and the New World porcupines of family, Erethiz ...
, Canadian lynx,
brown bear The brown bear (''Ursus arctos'') is a large bear species found across Eurasia and North America. In North America, the populations of brown bears are called grizzly bears, while the subspecies that inhabits the Kodiak Islands of Alaska is k ...
, black bears,
moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult ma ...
and mountain goat. Smaller mammals include
coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecological nich ...
,
beaver Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers a ...
and river otter. Marine mammals include sea otter,
harbor seal The harbor (or harbour) seal (''Phoca vitulina''), also known as the common seal, is a true seal found along temperate and Arctic marine coastlines of the Northern Hemisphere. The most widely distributed species of pinniped (walruses, eared se ...
and
Steller sea lion The Steller sea lion (''Eumetopias jubatus''), also known as the Steller's sea lion and northern sea lion, is a near-threatened species of sea lion in the northern Pacific. It is the sole member of the genus ''Eumetopias'' and the largest of ...
.
Cetacea Cetacea (; , ) is an infraorder of aquatic mammals that includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Key characteristics are their fully aquatic lifestyle, streamlined body shape, often large size and exclusively carnivorous diet. They propel th ...
ns seen in park waters include
orca The orca or killer whale (''Orcinus orca'') is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. It is the only extant species in the genus '' Orcinus'' and is recognizable by its black-and-white ...
,
fin whale The fin whale (''Balaenoptera physalus''), also known as finback whale or common rorqual and formerly known as herring whale or razorback whale, is a cetacean belonging to the parvorder of baleen whales. It is the second-longest species of ceta ...
,
humpback whale The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh up to . The hu ...
, minke whales, Dall's porpoise and Pacific white-sided dolphin. Birds that nest in this park include
bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...
, the Peale's subspecies of peregrine falcon,
black-billed magpie The black-billed magpie (''Pica hudsonia''), also known as the American magpie, is a bird in the corvid family found in the western half of North America. It is black and white, with black areas on the wings and tail showing iridescent hints o ...
, and
Steller's jay Steller's jay (''Cyanocitta stelleri'') is a bird native to western North America and the mountains of Central America, closely related to the blue jay found in eastern North America. It is also known as the long-crested jay, mountain jay, and p ...
. Marine birds include
tufted Tufting is a type of textile manufacturing in which a thread is inserted on a primary base. It is an ancient technique for making warm garments, especially mittens. After the knitting is done, short U-shaped loops of extra yarn are introduced thro ...
and
horned puffin The horned puffin (''Fratercula corniculata'') is an auk found in the North Pacific Ocean, including the coasts of Alaska, Siberia and British Columbia. It is a pelagic seabird that feeds primarily by diving for fish. It nests in colonies, often ...
,
common Common may refer to: Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts * Clapham Common, originally ...
and
thick-billed murre The thick-billed murre or Brünnich's guillemot (''Uria lomvia'') is a bird in the auk family (Alcidae). This bird is named after the Danish zoologist Morten Thrane Brünnich. The very deeply black North Pacific subspecies ''Uria lomvia arra ...
, and marbled murrelets. The plant communities at Kenai Fjords are shaped by glacial retreat. New lands exposed in former glacier beds are at first stony, lacking in soil. The first plants to appear in recently glaciated areas are lichens and mosses, with a few hardy plants such as dwarf fireweed and yellow dryas. These pioneers are followed by other plants as the moss and lichen break rock down into soil. In particular, Sitka alder is capable of fixing nitrogen, supporting itself and enriching the soil. Willows also appear at this stage. Willows and alders are followed by black cottonwoods, then Sitka spruce. The mature forest features Sitka spruce and mountain hemlocks, with an understory of devil's club, Alaska blueberry, elderberry,
baneberry ''Actaea'', commonly called baneberry, bugbane and cohosh, is a genus of flowering plants of the family Ranunculaceae, native to subtropical, temperate and subarctic regions of Europe, Asia and North America. Taxonomy The genus was redefine ...
, watermelon berry and
lady fern ''Athyrium'' (lady-fern) is a genus of about 180 species of terrestrial ferns, with a cosmopolitan distribution. It is placed in the family Athyriaceae, in the order Polypodiales. Its genus name is from Greek '' a-'' ('without') and Latinize ...
in the coniferous forest understory. A similar succession pattern is seen at the park's nunataks, exposed rock outcroppings in the Harding Icefield. Forested portions of the park are dominated by conifers, with deciduous forests confined to areas recently vacated by glaciers. Harsh conditions at higher altitudes limit tree growth above the
tree line The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snow ...
, creating an alpine ecosystem. The
tree line The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snow ...
at Kenai Fjords is between above sea level. The alpine regions support shrubby grown to alders, devil's club, elderberry, lady fern, cow parsnip and other plants. Herbaceous plants can grow in areas with better soils, supporting grasses,
Nootka lupine ''Lupinus nootkatensis'', the Nootka lupine, is a perennial plant of the genus ''Lupinus'' in the legume family, Fabaceae. It is native to North America. The Nootka lupine grows up to 60 cm tall. Late in the 18th century it was first ...
, fireweed and other perennial plants. Higher alpine regions support a dwarf shrub community less than high, at a very slow rate of growth. Dwarf plants in this region include bog blueberry, partridgefoot, black crowberry and Aleutian mountainheath, all of which are vulnerable to damage from foot traffic.


Fjord Estuary Ecosystem

Kenai Fjords features an unusual
estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...
formed from the mix of glacial fresh water and seawater. The erosive power of the glaciers produces sediment as rock flour coloring the waters around the toes of glaciers and carrying minerals into the ecosystem that support
phytoplankton Phytoplankton () are the autotrophic (self-feeding) components of the plankton community and a key part of ocean and freshwater ecosystems. The name comes from the Greek words (), meaning 'plant', and (), meaning 'wanderer' or 'drifter'. ...
, which in turn sustain larger animals.


''Exxon Valdez'' oil spill

The grounding of the oil tanker '' Exxon Valdez'' in Prince William Sound on March 24, 1989, produced extensive contamination of the Kenai Fjords coastline. By early April, Park Service personnel established oil containment boom lines across the mouths of salmon streams and conducted preliminary inventories of plants and animals that might be affected by the oil. The first oil arrived on April 10. In time, about of coastline was oiled, amounting to about 4% of the total coastline. Headlands were the most affected areas. The oil did not reach the fjords, repelled by heavy spring water flows from the land. Cleanup was difficult, as the oil became a tarry emulsion that could not be skimmed, and had to be dredged. The first season's work stopped in September. Work resumed the next year and continued in 1991. That year Exxon settled with the federal and Alaskan governments, paying about $870 million into a restoration fund, some of which was earmarked for Kenai Fjords.Catton, pp. 127–130. Archeological sites were also affected by the oil. A beach site near MacArthur Pass was discovered during cleanup operations. The site showed that contrary to earlier beliefs, portions of the park had been used over a long term by native peoples. The site proved to be particularly challenging to clean up without disturbing the area.


See also

* List of birds of Kenai Fjords National Park * List of national parks of the United States


References


Bibliography

* Catton, Theodore (2010)
''A Fragile Beauty: An Administrative History of Kenai Fjords National Park''
(via the
Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
),
National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational properti ...
* Cook, Linda; Norris, Frank (1998)
''A Stern and Rock-Bound Coast: Kenai Fjords National Park Historic Resource Study''
(via the Internet Archive), National Park Service


External links

* of th



{{Authority control ANILCA establishments Archaeological sites in Alaska Fjords of Alaska Bodies of water of Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska