JUNEAU, Alaska- The 1964 Good Friday earthquake in Alaska harmed and disrupted many people in Southcentral Alaska. Now, Forest Service scientist Dr. Gordon Reeves is leading research to learn how that earthquake may have affected fish, wildlife and migratory bird habitat on the Copper River Delta.

The Delta’s complex wetland, pond, and tidal sloughs are important for fish and migratory birds. The ponds’ plant life appears to have changed and many ponds are shrinking since the uplift caused by the 1964 earthquake. The Forest Service manages the 700,000-acre Delta primarily to provide healthy fish and wildlife habitat.

Reeves organized a 2007 study of water quality, biological characteristics and food structure of Delta ponds to learn how they had changed. He enlisted the help of eight researchers from several major universities for the research, and parlayed $20,000 of funding into $300,000 worth of work. 

Reeves and his students published three scientific papers based on original research about the Delta. Managers are currently using the research to manage fish and wildlife habitat in Alaska, and to reconstruct the reasons for failing watersheds and fisheries in the Pacific Northwest.

Reeves recently won the “Excellence in Science and Technology Award” from the Alaska Region Forest Service for his work on the Copper River Delta. The award goes to an individual or group whose sustained research has had a major impact on the advancement of science, or the development and application of technology.

Reeves has a Ph.D. in fisheries science from Oregon State University. He works for the Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station at its Corvallis, Ore., forestry sciences laboratory.

For Info: Gordon Reeves: greeves@fs.fed.us (541) 750-7314
or: http://www.fsl.orst.edu/clams/cv_gordie.html