Date: July 15, 2015
Contact: Kathleen Kelly, 907 683-9504
The National Park Service (NPS) this week announces completion of a new online anthology of essays by five accomplished local authors about the effects of a changing climate on the lives and landscape they treasure in Interior Alaska.
The “Denali Climate Anthology” features works commissioned from writers Christine Byl, Julie Collins, Carolyn Kremers, Tom Walker and Erica Watson. The free, online collection collection includes photo galleries, video and audio clips.
“What this project was about was to tell real stories,” said Deputy Superintendent Eric Smith during opening remarks at a public reading in June at Tonglen Lake Lodge, south of Denali National Park and Preserve. “I really appreciate that these guys have taken time to produce some very quality products.”
The writers were asked to describe effects ranging from rising temperatures, vegetation changes, thinning glaciers, melting permafrost and shrinking wetlands. The collection also includes a foreword by nature writer and environmental philosopher Kathleen Dean Moore from work she donated as a writer-in-residence at the park in 2013.
“We do a really good job of telling our stories to our constituency. We speak and preach to audiences that we already have very well. We don’t do as good of a job speaking to diverse audiences that maybe hold different viewpoints than we have,” Smith said.
“We’re not going to argue with people about what the cause is. But it’s real, it’s happening,” he said.
