Glacier Bay National Park: Life after ice - the birth of a river

The Wild with Chris Morgan

KUOW News and Information

Science, Nature

4.8 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 7 January 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melting ice is usually bad news, but this place in Alaska has turned from frozen to flourishing in just 200 years.

Nestled in southeast Alaska, the stunning and famous Glacier Bay National Park is often called a “living laboratory.” Scientists from all over the world come here to study ecological succession: the step-by-step return of plants, insects, forests and animals. It’s a unique place to do that because just a couple hundred years ago, this whole landscape was covered in ice. But then, the ice started melting, uncovering a clean slate for nature to show us how she creates a flourishing ecosystem.

On this episode of THE WILD, Chris time travels through Glacier Bay National Park to discover how fast biodiversity can build when nature is left alone, in the surprising spectacle of life after ice.

This show would not be possible without listener support. You can help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by donating at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

For some great photographs and clips from our journey through the national parks, check out our Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW, Chris Morgan Wildlife, and the NPR Network. This episode was produced by Lucy Soucek, written by Christopher Preston and edited by Jim Gates. THE WILD is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	On points north, two guys in southern Michigan are out hunting coyotes.
0:06.0	They're trying to lure them into range with different calls.
0:10.0	All of a sudden, they see what they think is a huge coyote coming to view, and they shoot it.
0:15.0	It's ginormous because it isn't a coyote.
0:19.0	It's a federally endangered gray wolf.
0:22.3	But the thing is, there is no wolf population in the lower peninsula of Michigan.
0:26.6	So how did this wolf get there?
0:28.7	And did the hunters know anything about it?
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0:38.2	In the dry states of the Southwest, there's a group that's been denied a basic human right.
0:44.6	In the Navajo Nation today, a third of our households don't have running water.
0:47.9	But that's not something they chose for themselves.
0:51.5	Can the Navajo people reclaim their right to water
0:54.3	and contend with the government's legacy of control and neglect?
0:58.4	Our water, our future.
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	...

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