Chugach National Forest: Copper River Salmon and the Iditarod Headwaters

The Copper River exits the Alaska Range through a canyon and enters the Chugach National Forest on its way to the Gulf of Alaska at Cordova. The delta where the river meets the ocean is one of the most productive salmon ecosystems on earth. Copper River king salmon and red salmon are among the most prized wild-caught salmon in the United States, appearing on restaurant menus in every major American city within days of the May opener. The fish are fat from their long migration and from the conditions of the river, which is cold, silt-laden, and running hard from glacial melt.

The Eyak people of the Copper River delta, and the Ahtna Athabascan people of the Copper River basin upstream, built their economies on the salmon run for thousands of years before the commercial fishery began. The Eyak language, once considered extinct, has had a small revival effort. The Ahtna are one of several Alaska Native groups that manage lands within the Copper River watershed through their ANCSA regional corporation.

The Iditarod Trail, now known primarily as the sled dog race route from Anchorage to Nome, ran through the Chugach before heading west. The trail was established as a gold-rush supply route in the early twentieth century and formally marked by the Alaska Road Commission in nineteen oh eight. Parts of the original trail pass through Chugach National Forest land. The Iditarod Race was established in nineteen seventy-three in part to commemorate the trail and in part to preserve the culture of sled dog travel that was being displaced by snowmobiles.

The Chugach also contains the Harding Icefield, one of the largest icefields in the United States, feeding as many as forty glaciers that descend from the plateau onto the Kenai Peninsula. Exit Glacier, accessible by road near Seward, has retreated more than a mile since nineteen fifty.