Southeast Alaska

It was one of those rare cloudless days in Juneau when the Mendenhall Valley felt like a playground. Kids pedaled along trails, families hiked beside the lake, and lawns buzzed with summer chores. But beneath the glacier, a hidden force was building, and it would soon surge into the city.

Water is the thread that weaves Lingít Aaní or Southeast Alaska together. It falls from the sky as relentless rain, clings to mountains as snow and collects in ice fields and glaciers. It trickles through peat-rich muskegs and carves deep fjords that open into the sea.

In 2023, research ecologist Jeremy Litell, along with students and staff from the Juneau Icefield Research Program, skied miles across glaciers and ice ridges to follow up on a report of a five-needle pine tree dwelling in the gnarled, patchy, treeline, known as an alpine ecotone, that lined the Llewellyn Glacier.