Sarah Palin isn’t coming

In the early 20th century, Aldo Leopold helped preserve the Gila National Forest in New Mexico by raising awareness about its importance as a wilderness area. Robert Glenn Ketchum, a nature conservationist and photographer, hopes to do the same for southwest Alaska. Although the area supports a productive wild-salmon fishery and other wildlife, the proposal to develop oil leases in Bristol Bay remains a threat. Ketchum documented the area’s tundra, wetlands and large freshwater lakes for the exhibit Southwest Alaska: A World of Parks and Wildlife Refuges at the Crossroads, which will show through December 5, at Viewpoint Photographic Art Center, 2015 J Street, Suite 101.