Sunday, October 24, 2010

Explore Alaska - Module Three

by Kris Owens

Essential Question: How are landscapes formed and how, in turn, are cultures shaped by their landscapes?

Whether it is the mountain the man must climb in order to eat fresh goat meat, the birch-bark canoe a family fishes from, or the bridge we must cross in order to get to work, landscapes affect and shape culture.  Much of how a landscape looks, is the result of geological processes over time. Sometimes, sudden changes in landscapes occur, or even new landscapes emerge quickly. In addition, living organisms that inhabit a particular landscape, can have an impact upon how it looks and changes.

Geological Processes are primary shapers of our landscape and environment. It is interesting, how they are often tied in with other systems, such as the climate patterns that created the ice-ages, which in turn, caused geological forces to occur. While geologic ice-movement caused fluctuating sea-levels, these in turn, had an impact on global climate patterns, and the migrations of people and other animals, to new places. Once again, the interconnecteness of everything stands out!

Tectonic-plate movement, with the resulting formations of mountain ranges, deep-ocean trenches, volcanoes, and earthquakes, are also significant shapers of landscape. In addition, weathering and erosion are long-term agents of change to a landscape. The formation of landscape, due to geological processes, can also occur quickly. A good example is the formation of the island of Sursey in 1963, with the violent eruption of an underwater volcano.

While much of how a landscape is formed, occurs over time, landscape formation and change can occur relatively quickly, and even suddenly. This can be the result of events ranging from the eruption that led to the formation of Sursey Island, to the impact of living organisms on an environment. Since moving to Alaska in 1982, it has been interesting to witness relatively quick and dramatic changes to familiar landscapes. One example was the impact of a spruce-bark beatle infestation on landscapes and the oranisms that live here.

In 1982, I flew from Anchorage to Homer for the first time. Coming from the metropolitan New York area, I was unprepared for the beauty of the landscape below. We flew over ocean, lake-country, and dense, spruce forests. After landing in Homer, and exploring more of the peninsula, it was clear that much of the landscape was dominated by spruce-forested land.

The first signs of change occured in the Cooper Landing area. When driving the Sterling Highway for the first time in a long while, I noticed the death of large stretches of trees, along the sides of the mountains that the highway cuts through. I wondered what had caused this massive change, and found out it was spruce-bark beetles. Eventually, the insects impacted most parts of the Kenai Peninsula. In our area (southern peninsula), the death of trees, and later wind-storms and wildfires, transformed the forested landscape, into a much more open one, with some young spruce, and a higher predominance of cottonwood, birch, willow, alder, grasses, and wildflowers. Much of this landscape became more prone to wildfire (standing dead) and erosion.

Other quick changes in my personal experience, have included those resulting from geologic eruptions (the change in height and terrain of a volcano), to "100-year floods" (we had two!) that altered the courses of many local rivers and streams. A very dramatic example of fast change, included the recent collapse of part of a cliff located near the bottom of the popular Diamond Creek Trail, just north of Homer. The collapse caused a massive uplift, raising tidelines up 20 ft.

The interconnection between the organisms that inhabit a place, and the landscape, is another interesting loop to explore. For example, the spruce bark beetle epidemic described earlier, had a rippling effect on the plants and animals (including humans) that live in this place. Animals that relied on the forest for habitat, no longer had the habitat they needed, and moved (at least for the time being) to places with more suitable habitat. People worked hard to clear the dead spruce from their lands, winds blew trees down, forest-fires burned, and erosion increased in certain areas. Conditions emerged that were conducive to new plant and animal inhabitants, and were less conducive, to many organisms that previously lived in the forest habitat.

Economic effects also resulted, ranging from jobs created, such as tree-clearing, to individuals and businesses bearing the cost of tree-removal. Finally, much of the old-growth forest has been lost, affecting the hunting and gathering of those who participate in these endeavors, as well.

Cultures are a part of the woven fabric of a landscape. They are affected by the landscape they inhabit, and in turn have an effect on these landscapes. The structures that they live in, as well as the food that they eat, are directly tied to the landscape they inhabit. An interesting example to consider, when thinking about this, is the use of the same trails over thousands of years, by caribou. The trails become a part of the landscape. The people living there know of and use these trails, as part of their way of surviving and living. The caribou become woven into their culture and life, as food, as clothing, and as part of their culture (story, song, dance, celebration, traditions).

Recently I was lucky enough to catch the video presentation, "Gates of the Arctic: Alaska's Brooks Range." One elder interviewed in this PBS presentation, described how caribou had been part of her life since she was born. She described being raised with caribou and how many different ways she had eaten it in her life, from broth that she drank, to meat that she chewed. At one point she stated it was, "a guide." Without it, she asked, what would she eat?

The impact culture can have on landscape and the envirnoment, is also a point to consider. A dramatic example of this was the draining of wetlands located along the southwerstern Iraq - Iran border. This draining was ordered by Sadam Hussein, in the 1990's, at least in part due to the lack of support by the people called the Marsh-Arabs, who inhabited this area. The draining transformed this landscape from a lush, water-filled landscape, to a desolate, barren one, in a very short timel.

Impacts on living organisms were profound. Migrating birds, fish, and mammals such as the smooth-coated otter, are only a few examples of wildlife impact. The Marsh Arabs who live here, used reeds as materials for homes, canoes, and tools. They relied on the plants and animals that inhabitated this landscape for food and shelter, and it shaped their culture as well. The interconnection of environment and culture, is readily seen in this example.

How do landscapes affect culture? They affect where and how people live, while adding to culture in the form of their music, stories, traditions, and ways of being. In turn, cutlures imact and shape the landscapes they live in. Along with the ways in which people and other living organisms form and shape landscapes, there are long-term geological changes to consider, such as those caused by tectonic-plate movement. Short-term change, and even creation of landscapes, also occurs. All of these factors, culture, geologic forces, and sudden-change, are woven together to create the tapestries of the landscapes and cultures of Earth.

Links to Explore:


Bering Strait Had Profound Impact On Ice Age Climate

Clip from Gates of the Arctic:  Alaska's Brooks Range: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg2rTTIZ_Bc



Surtsey - Iceland's Island of Fire -
http://explorenorth.com/library/weekly/aa042601a.htm

Rebuilding Eden -  http://discovermagazine.com/2003/sep/breakeden

Restoring the Mesopotamian Marshlands in Southern Iraq - http://www.landandwater.com/features/vol47no5/vol47no5_1.html

Ma'dan: Marsh Arabs - http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Germany-to-Jamaica/Ma-dan-Marsh-Arabs.html

Cliff collapse likely cause of uplift </MCC HEAD> - Homer News http://homernews.com/stories/071509/news_3_004.shtml

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