One man’s quest to find Glacier Bay’s ecological Holy Grail

Brian Buma received funding support from the National Geographic Society. (Photo courtesy of Brian Buma/University of Alaska Southeast)Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve is home to some of the oldest ecology records in the world. But until fairly recently, nobody knew where to find the metal nails that marked the research plots. They were left by scientists over 100 years ago and buried beneath a carpet of soil and shrubs.
When William S. Cooper arrived in Glacier Bay in 1916, he did so in a