Denali Climate Anthology

It is the official position of the National Park Service that climate change is real, and that we all share a stewardship responsibility to reduce its impact on park resources for future generations.

Mitigating the effects of climate change is the story of our time. It is accepted within the scientific community that these effects are felt more keenly in Alaska than in temperate regions of the planet. Research indicates that within park boundaries vegetation is changing, average annual temperatures are rising, wetlands are shrinking, glaciers are thinning, and permafrost is melting. While these stories reflect tremendous impact, they have not been widely or comprehensively shared.

This anthology seeks to tell larger stories of climate change in Denali as actual stories, as five accomplished local authors describe the effects of a changing climate on the lives and landscape they treasure here.

 

• Foreword
  Kathleen Dean Moore: "The Rules of Rivers"
• Rising Temperatures
  Julie Collins: “When Snow Becomes Rain and Other Impacts of Warming Weather on Subsistence Life in Alaska”
• Shrinking Wetlands
  Christine Byl: “Crane, Water, Change: A Migratory Essay”
• Vegetation Changes
  Tom Walker: "Winners and Losers, Plant Regimes in Flux"
• Melting Permafrost
  Erica Watson: Notes on Mud and Latin
• Thinning Glaciers
  Carolyn Kremers: "Denali, Thinking Like a Glacier"