“The Foundation Statement is a formal description of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve’s (park) core mission. It is a foundation to support planning and management of the park. The foundation is grounded in the park’s legislation and from knowledge acquired since the park was originally established. It provides a shared understanding of what is most important about the park. This Foundation Statement describes the park’s purpose, significance, fundamental resources and values, primary interpretive themes, and special mandates” (Foundation Statement 6). The purpose is to establish a National Park, the Foundation Statement will set out a list of reasons as to why and how the land will be used, what core values the park will have, and what good will come out of making the land a park instead of something else.

It’s a simple document, it establishes the uniqueness of Glacier Bay, and gives reason to make the land into a park. These documents have 5 sections: Purpose Statement, Significance Statements, Fundamental Resources and Values, Primary Interpretive Themes, and Special Mandates. As you will see in the following ten paragraphs each Significance Statements has four to five Fundamental Resources and Values. These fundamental resources and values act as a step for the Significance Statements, each one is fundamental to achieving the Significance Statements. The Primary Interpretive Theme seems to be a guiding hand for the statement, and a set of Park values.

The Purpose Statement for Glacier Bay National Park is as follows (taken from page 8): “The purpose of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve is to protect a dynamic tidewater glacial landscape and associated natural successional processes for science and discovery in a wilderness setting.”

There is that word wilderness again, the National Park service employs its use in almost every document or on every webpage. Here we can see that the word dynamic, is meant to describe sublime landscapes. It’s hard to imagine Glacier Bay becoming a park without the glacial features, as I learned though my last blog post, we associate God like feelings with only certain geological features. Glaciers are powerful, they contain the tools to mold mountains, change landscapes, and raise the sea leave; hence they are deemed worthy of praise and admiration. It is quite easy to see why it became a National Park.

The second part of a foundation document is the Significance Statements. The first Significance Statement is: “Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve fosters unique opportunities for scientific studies of tidewater glacial landscapes and associated natural successional processes”. For each Significance Statement, there are Fundamental Resources and Values, and a Primary Interpretive Theme. The fundamental resource and values are: Intact Natural Ecosystems, or preserving the whole ecosystem; Research, Inventory, and Monitoring; Partnerships, or works with outside scientist or biologist to help facilitate research within G.L.B; Park Collections, preserves findings or journals of exploration; and Education and Outreach. The Primary Interpretive Theme of Significance Statement one is: “One researcher’s efforts at preserving a living laboratory gave the world a park to study and enjoy through the ages. Nowhere else is there a record of glacial retreat that is so complete and compelling”.

The second Significance Statement is: “Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve gathers and protects records of exploration, scientific endeavor and human use, and provides for understanding the landscape through the lens of human experience and study”. The Fundamental Resources and Values are: Park Collections, Point of Reference, Ethnographic Resources, and Prehistoric and Historic Sites and Structures. The Primary Interpretive Theme is: “Glacier Bay inspires people of many cultures to explore their connections to this dynamic landscape”.

The third Significance Statement is:” Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve protects ecological integrity by preserving a diversity of large, contiguous, intact ecosystems (from the highest peaks of the Fairweather Range to the open Pacific Ocean and sheltered inland fjords) that are strongly dominated by natural processes”. The Fundamental Resources and Values are: Intact Natural Ecosystems, Natural Processes, Research, Inventory, and Monitoring, and Cultural Processes. The Primary Interpretive Theme is: “Glacier Bay is a place of hope – for it preserves a sample of wild America”.

The fourth Significance Statement is: “Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve protects a natural biophysical landscape that is continually changing through large-scale natural disturbance followed by the biological succession of plants and animals, and accompanied by an evolving physical environment”. The Fundamental Resources and Values are: Physical Landforms; Natural Ecosystems Processes, Intact Natural Ecosystems, and Cultural Landscape. The Primary Interpretive Theme is: “Glacier Bay’s story is one of dynamic change in the wake of dramatic glacial movements”.

The fifth Significance Statement is: “Glacier Bay National Park preserves one of the largest units of the national wilderness preservation system, encompassing more than 2.7 million acres of glacially influenced marine, terrestrial, and freshwater ecosystems”. The F.R.V’s are: Intact Natural Ecosystems, Marine Wilderness, Natural Conditions, and Inspiration/Challenge. The Primary Interpretive Theme is: “Glacier Bay is a place of hope – for it preserves a sample of wild America”.

The sixth Significance Statement is: “Glacier Bay National Park preserves one of the largest (nearly 600,000 acres) areas of federally protected marine ecosystems in Alaska (including submerged lands) against which other less protected marine ecosystems can be compared”. The Fundamental Resources and Values are: Intact Marine Ecosystems, Habitat Diversity, Water Quality, Water Movement, and Reference Information. The Primary Them is: “Glacier Bay is a place of hope – for it preserves a sample of wild America”.

The seventh Significance Statement is: “Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve lies within two Tlingit ancestral homelands that are of cultural and spiritual significance to living communities today”. The Fundamental Resources are: Spiritual and Cultural Landscape, Living Traditions, Partnerships, Archeological Sites, and Intact Natural Ecosystems. The Primary Interpretative Theme is:” Glacier Bay inspires people of many cultures to explore their connections to this dynamic landscape”.

The eighth Significance Statement is: “Glacier Bay National Park provides diverse opportunities for visitors to experience a dynamic tidewater glacial landscape”. The Fundamental Resources and Values are: Visitor Experience, Scenery, Natural Conditions, Intact Natural Ecosystems, and Alaska Native Culture. The Primary Interpretive Theme is: “Glacier Bay inspires people of many cultures to explore their connections to this dynamic landscape”.

The ninth Significance Statement is: “Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve protects the remote and wild character of the Alsek River as a significant route of discovery and migration through the coastal mountain range to the Pacific Ocean”. The Fundamental Resources and Values are: Free-flowing River, Migration, Intact Natural Ecosystems, Archeological and Sacred Sites, and Visitor Experience.

The tenth and final Significance Statement is:” Glacier Bay National Preserve protects a productive, evolving, glacial outwash ecosystem at the terminus of the Alsek River and provides a setting for subsistence uses, commercial fishing activities, and hunting as outlined by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA)”. The Fundamental Resources and Values are: Landform, Habitat Mosaic, Diverse and Healthy Biota, and Cultural Landscape. The Primary Interpretive Theme is: “Glacier Bay inspires people of many cultures to explore their connections to this dynamic landscape. Glacier Bay’s story is one of dynamic change in the wake of dramatic glacial movements”.

These statements are important and accurate. Glacier Bay National Park is an excellent resource for the scientific community, and they are building bridges with the Native Peoples. I would add that Glacier Bay National Park does not allow sustenance hunting, and it is one of a few National Parks that do not. This could be a huge step in the right direction for National Park’s and Native Relationships, for in our quest to build wild places we eliminated human interference. As we see today, Native peoples who regain the right to hunt or gather traditional foods also regain there sense of community, traditions, and their sense of self.