Home2

Geoff Kirsch is an award-winning Juneau-based writer and humorist.

Slack Tide: There’s More to Memorial Day than Bermuda shorts and potato salad

Break out the white shoes and cabana wear…

Geoff Kirsch is an award-winning Juneau-based writer and humorist.
Nature often provides an escape from the brutality of modern life, but it can’t always provide the answers we seek. (Jeff Lund / For the Juneau Empire)

I Went to the Woods: Into the maze

“Into the Wild” and “The Grizzly Maze” are complex reads. To reduce Chris McCandless and Timothy Treadwell to naïve, unprepared fools who are led to… Continue reading

Nature often provides an escape from the brutality of modern life, but it can’t always provide the answers we seek. (Jeff Lund / For the Juneau Empire)
Witty Youngman performs a set Saturday evening at Crystal Saloon during the Amplify Alaska Fundraising Festival on behalf of the Áak’w Rock Indigenous Music Festival scheduled in September. The event featuring five mini-concerts raised more than $5,000. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

Stocking up for Aak’w Rock

Livestreamed multi-artist gig raises more than $5K for Indigenous music festival

Witty Youngman performs a set Saturday evening at Crystal Saloon during the Amplify Alaska Fundraising Festival on behalf of the Áak’w Rock Indigenous Music Festival scheduled in September. The event featuring five mini-concerts raised more than $5,000. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
A family of orcas swam along the shore (Courtesy Photo / DJ Kyser)
Video

On the Trails: Orcas, sand lance, and a junco

The highlight of our Berners Bay cruise…

A family of orcas swam along the shore (Courtesy Photo / DJ Kyser)
Video
TMHS student Lelehua Fujimoto Vertido in her watercolor workshop for which she received an award at this year’s Alaska Student Activities Association’s Region V Art Fest in Yakutat. (Courtesy Photo / Heather Ridgway)
TMHS student Lelehua Fujimoto Vertido in her watercolor workshop for which she received an award at this year’s Alaska Student Activities Association’s Region V Art Fest in Yakutat. (Courtesy Photo / Heather Ridgway)
Ryan Becker, a teacher at the Eagle school, takes a photo of his students as part of a continuing Yukon River ice study on May 12, 2023. (Courtesy Photo / Ned Rozell)

Alaska Science Forum: When river breakup came to Eagle

the Yukon River’s solid sheets were breaking into smaller pieces.

Ryan Becker, a teacher at the Eagle school, takes a photo of his students as part of a continuing Yukon River ice study on May 12, 2023. (Courtesy Photo / Ned Rozell)
Alaskan Brewing Company’s Chillin’ Cold IPA recently won a Gold Crushie award for Best Can Design at this year’s 2023 Craft Beer Marketing Awards in Nashville, Tennessee. (Courtesy Photo / Alaskan Brewing Co.)
Alaskan Brewing Company’s Chillin’ Cold IPA recently won a Gold Crushie award for Best Can Design at this year’s 2023 Craft Beer Marketing Awards in Nashville, Tennessee. (Courtesy Photo / Alaskan Brewing Co.)
Lisa Hawkins interviews drummer Cameron Cartland for the Anchorage-based livestream concert/conversation podcast Amplify Alaska. (Courtesy Photo / Yngvil Vatn Guttu)

Upcoming concert series to ‘Amplify Alaska’ voices

Saturday night show to serve as a fundraiser for Aak’w Rock Indigenous Music Festival.

Lisa Hawkins interviews drummer Cameron Cartland for the Anchorage-based livestream concert/conversation podcast Amplify Alaska. (Courtesy Photo / Yngvil Vatn Guttu)
A skunk cabbage inflorescence shows the pointed stigmas of the female phase and the beginning of pollen presentation for the male phase. (Mary F. Willson / For the Juneau Empire)

On the Trails: Spring has sprung

Early avian harbingers have been joined by lots of other species…

A skunk cabbage inflorescence shows the pointed stigmas of the female phase and the beginning of pollen presentation for the male phase. (Mary F. Willson / For the Juneau Empire)
This image shows the cover of Kate Troll’s new book, “All In Due Time: A Memoir of Siblings, Genealogy, Secrets and Love.” (Cirque Press)

New book tells story of growing family and admiration

Kate Troll’s memoir details discovery of siblings and new appreciation of her mother.

This image shows the cover of Kate Troll’s new book, “All In Due Time: A Memoir of Siblings, Genealogy, Secrets and Love.” (Cirque Press)
Artist Liza McElroy of Seward, Alaska, recently sketched two moose in their summertime aquatic environment to illustrate this story. (Courtesy Image / Liza McElroy)
Artist Liza McElroy of Seward, Alaska, recently sketched two moose in their summertime aquatic environment to illustrate this story. (Courtesy Image / Liza McElroy)
The author's wife waits for a steelhead to hit. (Jeff Lund / For the Juneau Empire)

I Went to the Woods: A solid skunking

But learning never stops and often happens best when reflecting upon failure.

The author's wife waits for a steelhead to hit. (Jeff Lund / For the Juneau Empire)
On a visit to Pokai Bay, Cruz shares the significance of the ancestral lands where she lives, on the Waianae coast of O’ahu. Cruz speaks to the battle that her community is enduring to protect their lands and leads prayers with the visitors from Southeast Alaska. (Courtesy Photo / Lauren Tanel)

Resilient Peoples & Place: Cultural healing mission bonds Indigenous peoples across the Pacific

Tucked amongst the endless array of fog-coated islands that make up the Tongass National Forest, on the northwest edge of Kupreanof Island, is the small… Continue reading

On a visit to Pokai Bay, Cruz shares the significance of the ancestral lands where she lives, on the Waianae coast of O’ahu. Cruz speaks to the battle that her community is enduring to protect their lands and leads prayers with the visitors from Southeast Alaska. (Courtesy Photo / Lauren Tanel)
Spruce tip, Fireweed blend jelly. (Vivian Faith Prescott / For the Capital City Weekly)

Planet Alaska: Postcards from the Rainforest

If your hometown could talk, they asked, what would it say?

Spruce tip, Fireweed blend jelly. (Vivian Faith Prescott / For the Capital City Weekly)
A pair of rough-skinned newts beginning the process of mating in a local pond this spring.  (Courtesy Photo / Bob Armstrong)

On the Trails: Rough-skinned newts

Breaking new(t)s.

A pair of rough-skinned newts beginning the process of mating in a local pond this spring.  (Courtesy Photo / Bob Armstrong)
This photo shows Spam Musubi with Southeast Alaskan Furikake and Highbush Cranberry dipping sauce. (Vivian Faith Prescott / For the Capital City Weekly)

Planet Alaska: Furikake — A sprinkle of summer

Pronounced FOO-ree-kaw-kay, meaning “to sprinkle.”

This photo shows Spam Musubi with Southeast Alaskan Furikake and Highbush Cranberry dipping sauce. (Vivian Faith Prescott / For the Capital City Weekly)
Blueberry flowers provide early-season food for bumblebees. (Courtesy Photo / Bob Armstrong)

On the Trails: Setting the seasonal clocks

Our spring is slow in coming.

Blueberry flowers provide early-season food for bumblebees. (Courtesy Photo / Bob Armstrong)
The tide was out at Eagle Beach with three snow geese feeding on seaweed. (Courtesy Photo / Kenneth Gill, gillfoto)

Wild Shots

Reader-submitted photos of Mother Nature in Southeast Alaska.

The tide was out at Eagle Beach with three snow geese feeding on seaweed. (Courtesy Photo / Kenneth Gill, gillfoto)
Kristen Rozell skis past grizzly bear tracks pressed into a snowmachine trail near Fairbanks on April 23, 2023. (Courtesy Photo / Ned Rozell)

Alaska Science Forum: Bear tracks on snow a sign of the season

Melt season is a sad time for people who enjoy the magic of snow crystals bonding so well to one another, resulting in a web… Continue reading

Kristen Rozell skis past grizzly bear tracks pressed into a snowmachine trail near Fairbanks on April 23, 2023. (Courtesy Photo / Ned Rozell)
This photo shows an Aleutian tern. Intentionally scheduled during the “slow season” to help boost the economy between the steelhead and sockeye runs, the Yakutat Tern Festival is a celebration of Yakutat’s natural and cultural resources, highlighted by the area’s Aleutian terns. The Yakutat Nature Society will host the 12th Annual Yakutat Tern Festival in Yakutat, from June 1 through June 4 — with a more robust schedule of events compared to recent years. (Courtesy Photo / Nate Catterson)

12th Annual Yakutat Tern Festival is not just for the birds

Southeast Alaska Birding Trail & Guide offers regenerative ways to see state, boost rural economies.

This photo shows an Aleutian tern. Intentionally scheduled during the “slow season” to help boost the economy between the steelhead and sockeye runs, the Yakutat Tern Festival is a celebration of Yakutat’s natural and cultural resources, highlighted by the area’s Aleutian terns. The Yakutat Nature Society will host the 12th Annual Yakutat Tern Festival in Yakutat, from June 1 through June 4 — with a more robust schedule of events compared to recent years. (Courtesy Photo / Nate Catterson)