Cook Inlet
A hundred and seventy million years ago, sea-monster-like plesiosaurs swam between volcanoes. Lava flows poured into the warm sea, buried by mud and the carcasses of algae. As these volcanoes became part of Alaska, new mountains rose, flanked by a plain of winding rivers and lush swamps. The forces that thrust up the mountains also pulled the land down, burying the algae and plants, forming oil and coal.
Long after the plesiosaurs had disappeared, salmon evolved, swimming up those winding rivers. Ice rolled across the land, filling the lows between volcanoes and jagged peaks, pushing the living world far out beyond the current edge of the ocean. Ice pulsed in cycles; retreating, advancing, retreating… Caribou followed the tundra that replaced the ice. Moose followed the willow that replaced the tundra. Rising oceans filled Cook Inlet, mingling with waters still murky from the flow of glacial rivers.
As they had countless times before, the salmon returned to the new-again rivers. This time people followed them, the only true newcomers to this land. Thousands of years later, new faces and new technologies followed those first people, seeking trade routes, then otter pelts, gold, and oil.
People transformed this land. There were motors. Roads, drill rigs, ships, airplanes, telephones, and computers. Beetle-killed forests, disappearing halibut and king salmon, abandoned industries and settlements, tourist towns rising, glaciers melting. Otters returning.
Still, there are rocks, mud, ice, fish, bears, and people.
This is Cook Inlet’s past and present. What of the future?
What is the future of Alaska? Not the one or five or ten years that we often tend to think in — driven by current power structures, politics, and leaders. But the future of 50 or 100 years from now, and beyond.
We’re walking around Cook Inlet (beginning in less than a week), to see both the wild areas and the human ones, and to hear the stories and dreams of people who live along the way.
And this is what we want to ask: What do you think the future holds? For our economy, communities, lifestyles, wildlife, landscape, and ocean?
How You can Contribute
We’d love to hear your ideas in the comments, and for anyone who lives on Cook Inlet – in person as well. We’re also hoping to have people join us when we’re on beaches near towns for a walking conversation, or just to say hi (a 4-year-old’s pace is quite relaxed so we’ll be easy to catch/keep up with).
Get in touch by email (hig314@gmail.com), FB, or call 399-5530 (we’ll answer/check messages when we happen to be in a community). For info when we’re between towns and out of touch, contact Hig’s sister (valisamay@gmail.com or 541-520-7331). See our rough schedule below for an expected itinerary.
(This is a rough guide, not an exhaustive list. We’re also excited to visit folks in the places in between these, and we’ll try to update the time frame as things get firmed up)
Start: 3/26
Nanwalek: 3/28
Port Graham: 3/29
Seldovia: 4/1
Vosnesenska: 4/8
Homer:4/11
Ninilchik: 4/18
Kasilof: 4/23
Kenai: 4/27
Nikiski: 4/30
Hope: 5/9
Girdwood: 5/14
Anchorage: 5/21
Tyonek: 6/3
Tuxedni Bay: 6/19
Chinitna Bay: 6/28
Williamsport: 7/5
McNeil Bay: 7/14
Sukoi Bay: 7/23