The Kenai Catastrophe
Genre: ACTION ADVENTURE, ENVIRONMENTAL MYSTERY
ISBN: 0-9705593-2-1
Rebel Publishing Company
Released October 2002
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A Synopsis
Our children's children will inherit an earth that has been so altered by human activities that the understanding of naturally flowing streams and luscious forests will be a vague memory. The Kenai Catastrophe is a story about an aquatic ecologist attempting to prevent that from happening in a remote area of Alaska where the rich and
abundant salmon runs are being damaged at an alarming rate. Excess sedimentation to the streams of the Kenai Peninsula threatens not only the salmon's continued existence, but also the multitude of people whose economy is dependent upon the annual salmon spawning runs up the tributaries of the Kenai River. The Phoenix Environmental Research Institute (PERI) sends one of its best aquatic biologists, Dr. Chad Gunnings, to investigate this wild corner of North America. When Chad and his associates are attacked at the Anchorage airport by members of the Warrior Society, a native para-military organization, they know that something very secretive is behind the problems in the Kenai. Their adventures take Chad and his colleagues to the site of a 100-year old massacre of an Indian village. What does this catastrophic event have to do with the present-day environmental problems in the Kenai? The surprising conclusion supports the contention that not everything is as it seems. The Kenai Catastrophe begins a new era of environmental mystery/adventures.
Michael Barbour's enviremental mystery, "The Kenai Catastrophe" is not just a fun read; it also portrays the conflicts between development and conservation, short term needs versus long term benefits, and the important role that the aquatic ecologist can play in both evaluating and mediating disputes. The life of adventure, intrigue, and the love affairs depicted in this novel may result in a stampede of students wanting to enter the ecological field!