Local perspectives on the impacts of glacier retreat on ecosystems, harvests, and communities in the Northern Coast Mountains

Glaciers along coastal British Columbia and Southeast Alaska are part of a dynamic system that connects mountains to the sea, drives local food webs, and supports fishing-based livelihoods and cultures. As the climate warms and glaciers recede, shifting runoff patterns and warmer temperatures are expected to impact salmon runs, coastal food webs, and livelihoods. This study learns from place-based knowledges to better understand how glacier retreat is impacting coastal ecosystems, hazards, harvests, and communities in the region. Much attention has focused on the biophysical relationship between glaciers, downstream systems, and salmon (O'Neel et al., 2015; Pitman et al., 2020; Pitman & Moore, 2021; Shanley & Albert, 2014); however, most studies are not engaging with local communities to understand local concerns and observations of glacier change and its impacts. Through interviews with indigenous communities, subsistence and commercial fishermen, resource managers and scientists, we work to integrate local knowledge of these system linkages and identify community-based concerns that can help guide future research. We seek to better understand if and how glacier retreat factors into local perspectives of landscape change and concerns for the future. By exploring the relationship between glaciers and coastal systems from the people who know these lands best, most especially from those who have adapted to climate change and glacier advance/retreat for millennia, there is a unique opportunity to understand how the loss of glaciers has and will continue to impact communities and essential ways of life along this glaciated coastline.