| Fast Facts |
location
130 miles southwest of Anchorage
ecoregions
Cook Inlet Basin, Gulf of Alaska Mountains and Fjordlands
project size
1 million acres of land and water
preserves
Stone Steps Lake Wetlands
public lands
Kachemak Bay State Park, Kachemak Bay Critical Habitat Area, Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge
partners
Kachemak Heritage Land Trust, Seldovia Native Association, Kachemak Bay Research Reserve, City of Homer
conservancy initiatives
Invasive Species, Marine
natural events
Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival, early May; extreme tides, daily; seabird colony of 15,000 nesting birds, spring | |
 | |
 |
Mounting development pressure along the shoreline of Kachemak Bay threatens the coastal and marine habitats of this unique tidal system. |
|
 |
Humpback whales.
© Duncan Murrell/Seapics.com |
|
The waters of Kachemak Bay cut a sapphire channel between two fingers of land at the tip of Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. To the south, glaciers and rugged fjords rise from the sea, giving way to dramatic snow-covered peaks. Across the bay, moose and bear forage among low-lying wetlands, spruce forests and open meadows. In 1778, Captain James Cook sailed into Kachemak Bay in search of the Northwest Passage, but the vast waterway is only an offshoot of a much larger inlet.
Kachemak Bay is one of the Earth’s most productive marine systems. The secret to its richness lies in the tides, which can rise as much as 28 vertical feet in six hours. This variation creates gravel bars and salt marshes teeming with life, which beckon hundreds of thousands of shorebirds on their spring migrations. Pods of orcas sweep the sea for prey, and sea otters bob playfully in the choppy currents. The bay and the rivers flowing into it support vigorous runs of five species of salmon that are endangered in the Pacific Northwest. |
Bald eagles on driftwood.
© Cary Anderson/Aurora |
|
Humans have inhabited Kachemak Bay for thousands of years, drawn by the same life-sustaining forces that support the bay’s abundance of wildlife. The Kenaitze and Dena’ina Indians subsisted for centuries fishing, hunting and gathering plants. Generous deposits of coal drew white settlers in the 1800s, but commercial fishing and processing gradually |
| overtook coal as the local economic driver. Today fishing is fueling a growing tourism industry, as sport-fishing enthusiasts are lured to “the Halibut Capital of the World” to catch specimens weighing as much as 350 pounds. | |
Although remote and sparsely populated by lower- 48 standards, Kachemak Bay’s allure is threatening its shoreline. Commercial development has spread into sensitive wetlands, and residential development rings many of the bay’s coves. In response, The Nature Conservancy works to acquire critical properties, to influence local land-use planning and to strengthen the capacity of a local land trust to acquire lands and secure conservation easements from private landowners.
Learn more about The Nature Conservancy's work in Alaska. |
|
| Conservation Profile |
targets
tidal marine/estuarine ecosystem, shorebirds, cliff-nesting seabirds, floodplain ecosystems, coastal spruce forest, wetland complexes, Steller’s sea lion, bald eagle, sea otter, orca, humpback whale, Pacific salmon
stresses
incompatible residential and commercial development, incompatible logging, marine pollution, especially from oil spills
strategies
acquire land, secure conservation easements, influence land-use planning, promote compatible development, build con-servation alliances, strengthen local partner organizations, engage community
results
largest unfragmented wetland complex on north shore protected; priority floodplain properties acquired | | | | |
