Author Description

"Alaska's Copper River Delta" visits the largest wetland on the Pacific coast of North America - with its associated rain forest, barrier islands, mountains and glaciers, and its wildlife and human inhabitants - and reveals the Delta through the work of 22 artists from eleven countries. Invited by local residents and by the Netherlands-based Artists for Nature Foundation, artists traveled to the Delta to see spawning runs of Copper River salmon and the world's greatest shorebird migration. They stayed in the seaport town of Cordova, working closely with residents to portray their daily lives on fishing boats and in processing plants, and visited a Chugach-Aleut spirit camp to appreciate the community's spiritual strengths. Together, artists and residents seek to both celebrate and protect the area's magnificent resources and cultural diversity, while helping to build a healthy future for all inhabitants. The artists' work in presented in sections covering genesis and climatology; saltwater habitats; freshwater habitats; forest habitats; alpine tundra and rocky slopes; and human activities. Appendices discuss the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the Copper River Watershed Project.