Erosion: Nome River mouth has dramatically changed
Comparing a recent drone photo of the mouth of the Nome River with a similar photo taken a year ago shows a dramatic difference. The mouth moved toward the camps at Fort Davis. Several camps will not withstand another such move should there be one when the storms come this fall. The bank is eroding so that several structures are right on the edge. “When we get a lot of rain the rivers come up,” said Wilson Bourdon, whose family has a subsistence camp at Fort Davis. “Last year in September and August it was the stormiest, rainiest month we ever had in like 20 years. That’s why the mouth switched directions. The surge of the tide just filled up and the water couldn’t get out. It eroded everything in front of our camp.” The Bourdons’ camp is one of the closest to the bank which is gradually falling away to the approaching river. “My cousin has a cabin, the blue one at the end there,” he said. “He had to move it over 100 yards and now he’s going to have to move it again if the storms keep getting worse.” His cousins are the Hukills, whose camp is the most exposed to the river.
On the 4th of July Eileen Ezukameow sat with her extended family enjoying the holiday under a bright July sun. Their camp is also in danger of falling into the fast moving waters should a storm tear at the bank. “This side of the ground used to be further out,” she said, gesturing toward the estuary. “And what we called the point was way down there. All grass, all ground.” Was she surprised when she saw the changes which took place this year? “Yes, more than half is gone, maybe three quarters of it. Our mouth used to be way down there. I remember running down to get my dad for lunch and it seemed like a long run.”
“It always went way down, way further toward town,” said Wilson Bourdon. “It’s always been where you had to walk 300 yards to get to the point on the inside.” Bourdon’s older brother told him the mouth used to be near to where their cabin is. There was a storm and it changed, going far down the beach. “That was 40 or 50 years ago. Maybe every 50 years it changes. Even where our cabin is there used to be 100 yards of grass. Now it’s only 30 yards. You can see where it’s all eroded. That last cabin on the ocean side is going to go in the next storm, I think.”
Not only has the bank eroded, endangering buildings, but old junk buried by the military has been exposed. “On the inside there’s all this stuff from the military base 50 years ago that got all unearthed. Barrels, tracks, transmissions, all this stuff we didn’t know was there unearthed itself after 50 years.” There are old tracks, galvanized 55-gallon drums, cast iron radiators from buildings, transmissions, railroad axels, wheels, wire and sinks. “Whatever they broke down they just buried,” said Bourdon.
“Even this spring it eroded another 20 feet toward our camp,” he said. “So it’s going to get worse every fall and every spring.” The family’s fish rack is there. “My mom is 90 and she doesn’t get down there much. But my brother pretty much lives there in the summer. He’s always camping and fishing. We hang our moose down there. We do seal hunting in spring. I hope that day doesn’t come but I think it’s coming, when it might be gone.”
There are state and federal agencies which deal with problems related to coastal erosion. FEMA is one and they offer grants for hazard mitigation plans. The State of Alaska Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services assists tribes that are faced with problems such as this. But the tribes need to reach out to the agencies which can provide help. That has not been happening with the Nome River erosion. Wilson Bourdon would like to see Sitnasuak make a move to shore up the bank with rock. “If they could fill it in and resurrect the mouth the way it used to be I’d be the happiest man in the world,” he said.