Wrangell Mountains: The Alaska Project

THE PROJECT

With glaciers flowing from 16,000 foot peaks, canyons deeper than Yosemite, and spruce-forested valleys, our study area is in the middle of the world’s largest international complex of protected wilderness lands.. Glaciation, volcanism, erosion and ecological succession are exposed and active, making it an ideal natural laboratory in which to study Alaska’s landscape of extremes.

Team members will embark on a series of backcountry explorations and research projects from our base in the heart of the Wrangells. Our interdisciplinary studies focus on understanding geophysical, biological and cultural change in this rapidly evolving setting. We learn about the politics of Alaska lands and explore our personal role in wildlands preservation.

During field investigations in the backcountry, we will gain an appreciation for geologic time and geomorphic processes. Our studies there will focus on the formation of the Wrangell Mountains and the history of the glacier systems they support. Hiking up from the valley floor, we will examine successional changes in the fluctuating glacier-edge environment and ecological characteristics in the alpine habitat of Dall sheep, brown bear, and mountain goat. We will study adaptations of plants and animals to the stresses of sub-arctic existence and see firsthand the effects of climate change on the landscape and its life.

Alaska’s parks are uniquely mandated to allow continued traditional use by their local rural residents. This summer, team members will discover the passionate connections people have to the Wrangells, both as a home and a park. We will examine the dilemmas a gateway community encounters as it works to sustain an Alaskan bush lifestyle in the face of an increasing pace of change brought about by tourism and other human activity.

Through writing and discussion, team members will reflect on relationships between culture and landscape, and on how those relationships influence land use and management. Our work can suggest creative possibilities for the future of the Wrangells and help us understand why Alaska’s wilderness affects us so profoundly.

By the end of the project, each of us will gain a firsthand knowledge of the natural history of a complex wilderness and an enriched appreciation of the continuity of life in the north. The project may serve as an interdisciplinary alternative to single-subject field camps in geology or ecology and may help students meet graduation requirements in those subjects.

If you are willing to commit your intellectual, emotional, and physical energies toward an in-depth understanding of this remarkable Northern wildland, we invite you to join us for a learning experience to last a lifetime.

Project leaders have posted additional information at http://www.alaska.net/~wmc/aws.html.

PROJECT LEADERS

MEGAN GAHL is an ecologist whose field work focuses on northern environments, including aquatic ecosystems and ecosystem response to changing conditions.

DAVID MITCHELL studies wildlife ecology and park wildlands management issues in the Wrangell Mountains, including conducting an annual survey of backcountry conditions for the Park Service with Wildlands Studies students.

BENJAMIN SHAINE is currently writing a book on the natural history of the Wrangells, including tectonic and glacial geology. He served with environmental groups during congressional deliberations on Alaska lands legislation designating the Wrangells Park and has taught with W.S. since 1983.