AIC's 52nd Annual Meeting

National Park Service Harpers Ferry Center (HFC) has a long history of working with Sitka National Historical Park on the preservation of their outdoor totem pole collection located throughout the park's Totem Trail. Since the early 1980s, HFC Conservators have performed detailed condition surveys, conservation treatments, and collaborative work with local Indigenous carvers. Over the years, detailed condition assessments of the poles have focused on pest damage, pole and support post structural issues, repair performance, and more recently- the efficacy of cyclical maintenance procedures. This comprehensive documentation resource has served as a reference point for how the poles are aging in the coastal rainforest, ultimately informing the duration of their display in Totem Trail. The documentation has also been a useful baseline source to which all current and future condition assessments are compared.

In recent years, HFC Conservators have observed an influx of previously unrecorded condition issues and unanticipated problems associated with climate change, increased tourism, and the effects of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Coastal erosion and increased annual precipitation have influenced pole fabrication techniques by Indigenous carvers and rerouted designated pole installation sites, while global warming has introduced new migrations of wood-damaging insects to southeast Alaska. The Alaska cruise ship tourism boom has generated a spike in park attendance, which correlates with an influx in pole graffiti and damage associated with vandalism. Atmospheric and environmental pollutants are being emitted by nearby “overflow” cruise ships now docked in close proximity to Totem Trail. Conversely, the absence of tourists and community members along the trail during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic escalated bear and squirrel activity, resulting in more severe damage to the lower parts of poles and new nesting areas inside support posts and pole cavities.

As a result, conservators, carvers, and park staff have had to pivot their approaches to preserving, carving, and caring for the totem poles and reevaluate current practices being implemented. This presentation will cover the transformation of preservation efforts by HFC Conservators along Totem Trail throughout the years, the impact of climate change and tourism, recent collaboration and insight from local carvers, and the trajectory for preservation efforts in the future.