Sitakaday Narrows is the entry(or exit)-way to Glacier Bay. Less than 5 miles across, and at some points less than 100 feet deep, tidal action can be very powerful in this area of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. In this short video Ranger Steve of the park staff explains why this is such an important area for both marine life and seabirds.

Mention Glacier Bay National and Preserve and you'll conjure visions of rivers of ice coating mountains and a miles long bay rich in marine life and birds. But it also holds rainforests that fill the park's fjords, and within those forests are incredibly diverse ecosystems that scientists are still trying to fully comprehend. One thing they do know, thanks to recent research, is that those rainforests nurture one of the highest concentrations of lichen diversity found on Earth.

As delegates from nearly 200 countries gathered for the recent international conference on climate change, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres decried the “utterly inadequate” global response to the crisis so far. He warned that the “point of no return is no longer over the horizon” but that “It is in sight and hurtling toward us.” Nowhere are the consequences more visibly “hurtling,” and landing, than in Alaska. And in the northern state’s national parks and preserves, that means growing pressures on the very resources the National Park Service is charged with protecting.