CORDOVA, ALASKA

Cordova is a community of nearly 3,000 year-round residents on the eastern shore of Orca Inlet. It is an excellent location for a regional research facility, offering good access to both Prince William Sound and the adjacent Copper River Delta, the largest contiguous wetlands in the Western United States.

Cordova is a hub of commercial fishing activity with a small but growing tourism industry. Modern Cordova dates from the railroad construction to the interior copper mines active 1911-1938. Its facilities include a modern airport with daily jet service to Anchorage and Seattle, a hospital and regular ferry service to Valdez, Whittier and Seward. The economy is based on commercial fishing. Major employers are the five fish processors and government administration. The Chucach National Forest and Alaska Department of Fish and Game - Commercial Fisheries division have offices in Cordova.

Historically Cordova was a meeting place of diverse native cultures, including the resident Eyak, the Chugach and Aleut people. The Native Village of Eyak is a vital part of the contemporary community.

Prince William Sound is a beautiful complex of deep, glacially-carved fjords on the north Gulf of Alaska. The Sound region is noted for its spectacular geomorphology and high biological productivity and diversity. Its location, where north temperate and sub-arctic conditions overlap, results in a wealth of natural resources.

Prince William Sound's waters and its roughly 3,000 miles of shoreline support large numbers of sea birds and marine mammals. The salmon industry is productive, sustainable and well managed. Other important fisheries include halibut and other groundfish. In decades past, the Sound also hosted some of the world's richest clam and herring fisheries. The Sound is home water to one of the world's densest populations of sea otters and killer whales. Seals, sea lions and other ceteceans are also residents and, when combined with the otters and orcas, may represent the world’s most profuse population of marine mammals.

Prince William Sound is the northern boundary of the farthest north temperate rainforest. This coastal forest strip, primarily comprised of slow growth Sitka spruce, mountain hemlock and western hemlock. The Copper River Delta is a two-million acre complex of sedge marshes, braided glacial streams, intertidal sloughs and shallow ponds. Approximately 60 miles across, the Delta is ringed by glaciers and snowcapped peaks in the relatively young Chugach Mountain Range. The Delta is prime habitat for waterfowl, salmon, bear, wolves, goats, coyotes and a healthy population of transplanted moose.

Two hundred forty species of birds -- notably about 3,000 bald eagles and a dozen major seabird colonies -- are found in the Sound and the adjacent Copper River Delta region. The Dusky Canada goose and Trumpeter swan are two species which nest in the Delta. The Delta's mudflats and sandbars support the largest concentration of shorebirds in the Western Hemisphere. Flocks in the tens of thousands migrate through the Cordova area each spring, some coming from as far away as Chile.