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An adult female bear peers through a dense thicket of cow parsnip. During the summer months, Kodiak turns a lush, vibrant green as thick vegetation carpets the island. Kodiak bears balance their diet with a variety of plants, including grass. Photo by Lisa Hupp. With 1.9-million acres to wander and no portion more than 15 miles from the Pacific, Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge includes some of the most diverse habitat on the planet, covering the southern two-thirds of Kodiak Island, all of Ban and Uganik islands, and a section of Afognak Island. Though notorious for its famed denizen, the Kodiak brown bear, a genetically distinct subspecies of browns/grizzlies, the refuge protects more than just big bruins. Consider that among the lush fjords, valleys, wetlands, and 4,000-foot peaks, more than 1,000 pairs of nesting bald eagles claim the area as their home, along with 250 species of migrating or breeding fish,…

Of Alaska’s 6,640 miles of coastline, some of the most ruggedly beautiful encircle Kodiak Island. Clusters of islands and rock outcroppings rise up from just beyond its jagged shoreline, while massive cliff faces with their craggy-ledged complexions share the island’s coarse coastline with long, narrow beaches of black sand and expansive tidal flats fanning out from the mouths of mountain-fed rivers that empty into the North Pacific.

Above: The Ascension Church of Our Lord Chapel at Karluk on Kodiak Island. Photo by Tommy’s Dog Climate change is impacting cultural sites across Alaska. From Denali to the Bering Sea coast and down to the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park, melting snowfields, eroding coastlines, and increasingly severe floods are unearthing artifacts faster than they can be preserved. Climate change also shows up as a stressor in Preservation Alaska’s annual list of at-risk historical sites. The number two site on the group’s 2024 list is Pilgrim Hot Springs, 0 miles north of Nome. The geothermic site, and its tree oasis in the vast tundra, bear evidence of Indigenous, gold rush, aviation, and homestead histories, along with buildings from a Catholic-run orphanage dating to the early 1900s. The site is also a popular recreation area today. But beavers, who are dramatically spreading north with warmer winters and increased woody vegetation,…