The relocation of an Alaska village is happening fast this summer, after many years of planning and work. Observers say Newtok’s transition to Mertarvik is flying along because it has to — the Ninglick River bank is crumbling less than 10 yards from a Newtok home. “There’s no more time,” said Aaron Cooke, an […]
Image: Jay Cable of Fairbanks hikes a ridge of cottongrass on a trek from the Dalton Highway to Eureka. Photo by Ned Rozell. On a Saturday morning near the summer solstice, nine people stood on a smoothed pile of gravel at Mile 5 of the Dalton Highway. A man talking to the group, the […]
Image: An Aleutian tern in Yakutat. Photo by Nate Catterson. YAKUTAT — On sandy barrier islands between mountains and the sea, two different birds that look alike lay their eggs side-by-side. Biologists here are learning more about the less-common, more mysterious one. Arctic terns and Aleutian terns gather together on ocean spits to scratch out […]
Image: Dead trees near a shoreline of Russell Fjord about 15 miles from the town of Yakutat. Ned Rozell photo. RUSSELL FJORD — Standing on this smooth gravel shoreline, 15 miles northeast of the town of Yakutat, you can tell something big happened. A forest of dead trees encircles the shoreline. The dry, bone-white stems […]