Just beneath the owl box, hung 20 feet up the stem of a balsam poplar, the backyard barbeque continued late into the evening. Despite the thwap of badminton birdies and the chirp of human voices, the boreal owl had work to do. With a vole in its talons, the hand-sized bird perched on a branch […]
Just outside my window here at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, workers are drilling into the asphalt of a parking lot using a truck-mounted rig. They twist a hollow bit 25 feet into the ground and pull up hard, clear evidence of why the blacktop is sinking. A few days ago, John Walsh gave a […]
Over the past 20 years, the South Olga Lakes on Kodiak Island has produced nearly half a million sockeye salmon per year on average. This fishery is historically one of the region’s most productive sockeye systems. But recently, its salmon wealth has plummeted, prompting calls for something to be done. Managers are considering fertilizing the […]
Of the five species of salmon that swim Alaska waters, the pink is by far the most plentiful. Some scientists think the fish is an overabundant predator that outcompetes other salmon and some seabirds. In the late 1990s, Japanese researchers noticed an intriguing pattern while studying in the Bering Sea just north of the Aleutians. […]