A Wild Promise: Prince William Sound

• The 2.1 million acres (equivalent to Yellowstone National Park) of the wilderness study area are coming under increasing threat by resource development
• Essays of personal explorations of the region by an award-winning writer are accompanied by dramatic images from an award-winning photographer
• The wilderness study area is home to the largest concentration of tidewater glaciers in America and hosts a vast diversity of terrestrial and aquatic mammals, birds, and fish

It's been said that "a picture is worth a thousand words," and nowhere is that more true than on the pages of A Wild Promise: Prince William Sound. The images of photographer Hugh Rose show you what this region holds--and what will be lost without protection from future resource development. Alongside Hugh's images are eloquent essays covering the natural and cultural history, people, and fragility of this region by noted Alaskan writer Debbie Miller.

Alaska's famed Prince William Sound includes more than 3,000 shore land miles of bays, coves, and deep fjords topped by the ice-capped peaks of the Chugach Mountains. More than 1 million tourists visit the region annually, and small family-owned fishing boats, ecotourism, oyster farms, and guide services provide sustainable livelihoods for year-round Alaskan residents. Many Americans first came to know of Prince William Sound through the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989--a catastrophe with lingering long-term effects, such the collapse of the once abundant herring population, a critical fish in the marine food chain.

In A Wild Promise, readers travel alongside Hugh and Debbie as they hike and kayak from Columbia Glacier to College Fiord, exploring the Nellie Juan-College Fjord Wilderness Study Area, a region set aside for study in 1980, to be followed--it was hoped--by permanent protection from Congress. After almost four decades of being in limbo as a designated wilderness study area, the fate of this spectacular, wild place is now in our hands. Its protection is a gift we can offer generations to come--a promise of wilderness, beauty, and natural diversity that we can, indeed, keep.

To learn more about Braided River and its mission: inspiring people to protect wild places through images and stories that change perspectives, please visit www.braidedriver.org

DEBBIE S. MILLER grew up near the San Francisco Bay. In 1975, she and her husband, Dennis, moved to teach in Arctic Village, Alaska, a Gwich'in Athabascan Indian village located on the southern boundary of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Over the past twenty-eight years, Miller and her family have explored the refuge on many trips through all of its seasons.

Miller has authored two nature books for adults, many children's books about Alaska's environment, and a number of essays and magazine articles. In 1998, she received the International Reading Association Teacher's Choice Award, and her book, Arctic Lights, Arctic Nights, received the 2003 John Burroughs Nature Book for Young Readers award. Her most recent book, Big Alaska: Journey Across America's Most Amazing State, won the 2007 Outstanding Science Trade Book for Children Award from the National Science Teachers Association. Her adult book Midnight Wilderness: Journeys in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge describes the natural and political history of the refuge through a series of wilderness adventure essays. She received the 1999 Refuge Hero Award from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for her writing, education, and conservation work. Miller lives near the wilderness in Fairbanks, Alaska, with Dennis and their two daughters, Robin and Casey.

Debbie Miller contributed "Clinging to an Arctic Homeland" to Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land (Braided River, 2003) and "Songs from Around the World" to Arctic Wings: Birds of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (Braided River, 2005). To learn more about her books and current work, click here.