In this era of limited air travel, my family and I have spent most of our recent months in Fairbanks. Here, we are surrounded by spruce and birch trees of the boreal forest, a swath of mosquito-laden vegetation that stretches from Alaska all the way to Nova Scotia. We just punched out of that […]
Late in the evening of July 21, 2020, State Seismologist Michael West heard a text alarm. His phone informed him of a large earthquake beneath the ocean, just south of the Alaska Peninsula, about 60 miles southeast of the village of Sand Point. His first thought was that this — the biggest earthquake on […]
As I started hiking a ridgetop during the July 4th weekend, a friend told me to look for the mushroom rock ahead. At first, I thought I may have heard her wrong. But a few hours later I saw the rock she was talking about. It appeared to be a granite tor, but looked […]
A scientist recently wondered which animal travels farthest across the landscape in one year. In doing his research, he found a few Alaska creatures near the top of the list. Kyle Joly is a biologist with the National Park Service in Fairbanks. He works for both Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve […]
It has been a rainy week in middle Alaska. Blah. But perhaps I judge liquid precipitation a bit harshly. Rain is, after all, the free distribution of a substance more valuable than gold. And, even in the Southeast’s Little Port Walter — where residents endure 80 days each year with precipitation amounts greater than […]
SOUTH FAIRBANKS — Just after 3 a.m., over this city built near the confluence of two rivers, the sun rose with the color of an orange Creamsicle. I watched this sunrise with my wife, who is a bird biologist. She needed to do point counts along the route of a proposed new road through […]
High summer is here in middle Alaska. North of Fairbanks, in bright sunshine, alder flycatchers are perched in spruce tops, just arriving from Bolivia and Peru. A few steps away, accompanied by the smell of sulfur, dozens of carrion flies buzz on and above a moose carcass. Permafrost expert Tom Douglas has led me […]
[smartslider3 slider=6] The recent discovery of the most complete dinosaur skeleton ever found in Japan suggests the duck-billed creatures once stomped across the Bering Land Bridge. The dinosaur found in Japan is very similar to Edmontosaurus, fossils of which have been found throughout Alaska. The creatures may have been more adaptable and widespread than […]
It was the first weekend in May, and Alaskans were getting out. Emboldened by words from the governor to get outside, or more likely their desires to escape the house, people were driving south on the Richardson Highway from Fairbanks. At the same time, far greater numbers of beating hearts were headed the opposite […]