In a blow to environmentalists, the Obama administration gave conditional approval to oil giant Royal Dutch Shell to go ahead with drilling six exploratory oil wells in the Chukchi Sea. The conditional approval by the Interior Department sets aside a major hurdle for the oil company as it continues with its plans for drilling in […]
At the edge of a spruce forest in Interior Alaska, archaeologists have unearthed bone pendants that might be the first examples of artwork in northern North America. During the last two summers, teams led by UAF’s Ben Potter have expanded the breadth of the Mead Site, a white spruce bench that overlooks Shaw Creek Flats […]
On a recent ski trip across the Seward Peninsula, I followed a trail along the Pilgrim River broken by five friends. Their path led to a subarctic oasis. Beyond the blank white of frozen river was a small settlement nestled in balsam poplar trees 60 feet high. The cleared fields, old farm equipment, scattered pine […]
In a Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on the DHS budget request 2016, Senator Murkowski briefly questioned the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on the agency’s Arctic commitment before leaving for another hearing. Murkowski pointed out at the start of her statement and question that the U.S. has only one full-strength icebreaker, […]