Kotlik, an Alaska Native community in southwestern Alaska, works in partnership with AIJ to monitor the erosion and other weather events that present an increasingly severe risk to the community as the climate changes. The homes and infrastructure in Kotlik are located along the banks of the Kotlik River near the southern coast of Norton Sound. In 2009, the United States Army Corps of Engineers identified Kotlik as a “priority action” community in the agency’s Baseline Erosion Assessment. In the past ten years, approximately 20 feet of river bank have been lost to erosion and flooding. Numerous homes and buildings are imminently threatened by erosion. The community is working with AIJ and a number of other state and federal agencies to relocate homes, protect people and infrastructure, and adapt to the intensifying local effects of climate change. This report, produced by AIJ in collaboration with residents of Kotlik, documents studies of the hazards threatening Kotlik, the effects of erosion on the community, mitigation efforts, and steps the community has taken to relocate threatened homes. The goal of the report is to assist the community in its efforts to obtain technical assistance and funding to relocate homes to safer ground.
