A Naturalist on the Katmai Peninsula of Alaska

The Katmai lies west of Anchorage, across Cook Inlet. It is a rugged country with massive mountains, endless tundra plains, and numerous lakes, creeks, and rivers. The area is wild and still supports all the animals present when Europeans came to North America. The vastness, the bears, the salmon, and the glaciers will leave you in awe.

Travel with me to this country and explore a few places in two national parks. We will look for bears, follow sockeye on their migration, and explore the geology of the mountains. I will share stories from my book, Beyond the Wonder: An Ecologist’s View of Wild Alaska.

Standing within a baseball throw of a feeding grizzly is humbling, and the bear doesn’t even acknowledge my existence. In lazy zigzags, fly a dozen miles down a massive glacier thinking about the formation of North America, the Pleistocene, and the Little Ice Age. Although remote, this wild country faces many threats, and maintaining populations of birds, mammals, and fish isn’t guaranteed. You will leave this talk with a better sense of the country, its treasures, and a new sense of wonder for the planet we call home.

We will have a book signing event following the presentation.