Welcome to Bartlett cove the park's land-based entry point. It's hard to imagine with all the
growth around us that just a short 200 years ago there were no trees shrubs or even animal life as
this area was covered completely in a glacier. The glacier covering this land is now one of the same
glaciers we need to travel roughly 65 miles to view the glaciers here have receded and advanced
and reseeded creating what we now call glacier bay national park a 3.3 million mile square area
of rugged terrain deep fjords and wild coastlines. Left in their wake the massive rivers of ice
encapsulated clues for us to uncover the dynamic glacial history of glacier bay national park can
be told through these relics scattered throughout the bay's tideline. Glacier bay is a refugium for
trees which held witness to the glacial history preceding our time here witness trees are the
trees which were present through key events in history many times these trees have been around
for hundreds of years and are the only remaining witness to the historical events in that area
well-known witness trees are in Gettysburg as witness to the civil war or in Oklahoma City
as witness to the bombing of the Murrah federal building. Though these are two well-known witness
trees we can find witness trees throughout the world which live through great moments in history
or possibly great moments in individuals lives the glacial history of glacier bay can be told through
witness trees scattered throughout the park these witness trees are called interstadial stumps.
Interstadial stumps are remnants of trees which were alive before the last ice age giving a
glimpse of the forest which existed before the ice overran this land interstadial is not the same as
fossilized whereas fossils are organic material replaced with minerals and turned into stone
interstadial stumps were frozen as the glacier advanced. Stadial literally means between stages
or between glacial advances meaning these trees sprouted and grew between ice ages these trees
died not from the glacier but from the glacier's front runner glacial outwash which we see here
as pebbles and rocks here in the glacial outwash these trees died their stumps now rooted in sand
and gravel the trunks of these trees may have broken off as they were subjected to weather or
possibly they were broken off once the ice advanced and overtook the forest graveyard
leaving the stumps encased in outwash and ice as the glacier retreated the stumps were once
again exposed and we often find them in the intertidal zone depending on where
you are in this park the stumps we find were alive hundreds or even thousands of years ago
the oldest trees found further up the bay and the youngest in the mouth of the bay here in Whidbey
passage these stumps are known to be about two thousand to twenty five hundred years old
at the end of the great ice age about eighteen thousand years before present
only the surrounding high peaks were free of ice in some places the ice was a mile deep
and if we looked east the ice extended all the way to Cape Cod Massachusetts. Four thousand
years later the ice was in full retreat and the glaciers were actually smaller than they are today
and the mountaintops we see behind us were an archipelago of islands the ice stayed in
a troubled form until roughly five thousand years before present when grand pacific glacier began to
advance out of the west arm and near glacier began to advance out of the east arm it took 2500 years
for the ice in the west arm to extend to the middle of the bay damming the entrance to the
east arm this ice dam created a large glacial lake dubbed Adams lake. While Adam's lake was
filling grand pacific glacier continued to extend from the west arm its sediment overwhelming would
be passage this waterway behind us here we find a collection of interstellar stumps remnants of an
old forest you can see one two and three there and they're scattered further along the beach
we find them in the intertidal zone on the shoreline and then higher here even in this
forest this cluster of stumps has been exposed for many years and supports the forming of new life
here we see a collection of different vegetation lichens mosses and we even see a spruce tree
which is sprouting up out of this stump but imagine the ice creeping in 2500 years ago
pushing debris covering the forest that was once here and then being covered completely by ice
and then the ice continuing to move down the bay the Huna Tlingit people's oral tradition say they
have lived here since time immemorial living near glacial streams and the out wash which it created
and the new life which grew from this land here at halibut point the remnants of a 300 year old
forest might not be apparent right away but as we walk the rocky beaches at low tide we come across
pieces of wood which are engulfed in gravel and sand we see them right here and right here
and as you walk around you start to notice them pop up all around. This cluster of interstadial
wood are remnants from the little ice age when approximately 250 years ago the glacier advanced
rapidly out to the middle of icy street these trees are witnessed to the Huna Tlingit people
fleeing their homeland as the ice nipped at the stern of their canoes as they escaped the ice
and settled across icy strait these trees continue to witness the succession of life
as the glaciers retreat and expose new earth if you come look closer you'll see that these trees
now offer a home to smaller creatures and plant life this one stump has hundreds of snails on it
eventually the tides and exposure to weather will erode these trees completely
and our witness trees will be gone the National Park System has preserved glacier bay so that
we can enjoy learn and be inspired from this land the same as those before us
but Glacier Bay is a dynamic landscape changing year by year the land does not preserve itself
as the glaciers continue their life's work carving out fjords and exposing new land if
you have visited glacier bay before you'll be shocked at the changes the glaciers have
made leaving land for life forms to grow and succeed and it will be drastically
different for your children and your children's children but as we travel through glacier bay
either virtually on kayak small boat or cruise ship interstadial stumps are waysides to guide you
through the glacial history they have witnessed, preserving the past one tree ring at a time.