Science

From left, Kelsey Dean, watershed scientist with the Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition, and Kaagwaan Eesh Manuel Rose-Bell of Keex’ Kwáan watch as crew members set up tools to drag a log into place. Healthy salmon habitat requires woody debris, typically provided by falling branches and trees, which helps create deep salmon pools and varied stream structure. (Courtesy Photos / Mary Catharine Martin)  

The SalmonState: Bringing the sockeye home

Klawock Indigenous Stewards and partners are working to a once prolific sockeye salmon run.

From left, Kelsey Dean, watershed scientist with the Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition, and Kaagwaan Eesh Manuel Rose-Bell of Keex’ Kwáan watch as crew members set up tools to drag a log into place. Healthy salmon habitat requires woody debris, typically provided by falling branches and trees, which helps create deep salmon pools and varied stream structure. (Courtesy Photos / Mary Catharine Martin)  
A northern oriole used dietary carotenoids to make its feathers bright orange. (Courtesy Photo / J. S. Willson)

On the Trails: The colorful world of birds

Colors are produced by cell structure, which can scatter light rays, making iridescence, and by pigments, which absorb or reflect particular wavelength of light. Pigments… Continue reading

A northern oriole used dietary carotenoids to make its feathers bright orange. (Courtesy Photo / J. S. Willson)
A little fish called a graveldiver had hidden under a flat rock. (Courtesy Photo / Aaron Baldwin)

On the Trails: Bricolage — this and that, bits and pieces

There were good minus tides in May and June, and I went out with some friends to take a look at the intertidal zone in… Continue reading

A little fish called a graveldiver had hidden under a flat rock. (Courtesy Photo / Aaron Baldwin)
Red salmon gather at a Gulkana Hatchery fish weir that prevents them from going upstream on the east fork of the Gulkana River.(Courtesy Photo/ Ned Rozell)

Alaska Science Forum: High-country Eden for sockeye salmon

“It’s the largest sockeye hatchery in the world. Two-hundred and sixty miles from the ocean.”

Red salmon gather at a Gulkana Hatchery fish weir that prevents them from going upstream on the east fork of the Gulkana River.(Courtesy Photo/ Ned Rozell)
A Hills Bros. coffee can found at an old cabin on the Fortymile River. (Courtesy Photo / Ned Rozell)

Alaska Science Forum: A field guide to old coffee cans

Can you dig it?

A Hills Bros. coffee can found at an old cabin on the Fortymile River. (Courtesy Photo / Ned Rozell)
Courtesy Photo / KMHocker photo Recently emerged mayflies landed on our caps and hands, perhaps resting from the rigors of courtship dances.

On the Trails: Fun in Gustavus

A walk near a shallow lake was the highlight.

Courtesy Photo / KMHocker photo Recently emerged mayflies landed on our caps and hands, perhaps resting from the rigors of courtship dances.
The Valley of 10,000 Smokes pictured during a visit in 2018. (Courtesy Photo / Bob Gillis)

Alaska Science Forum: 110 years since the largest Alaska eruption

“Stretching as far as the eye could reach … were hundreds — no, thousands — of little volcanoes.”

The Valley of 10,000 Smokes pictured during a visit in 2018. (Courtesy Photo / Bob Gillis)
The whorl of seed-bearing follicles of fern-leaf goldthread is more robust, but similar in form to that of three-leaf goldthread. (Courtesy Photo / Bob Armstrong)

On the Trails: Buttercups and their relatives

“Buttercups”—the name conjures up an image of lots of bright yellow flowers, which we enjoyed recently in Cowee Meadows and which brighten the roadsides. But,… Continue reading

The whorl of seed-bearing follicles of fern-leaf goldthread is more robust, but similar in form to that of three-leaf goldthread. (Courtesy Photo / Bob Armstrong)
A very young oystercatcher chick waits for a parent. (Courtesy Photo / Bob Armstrong)

On the Trails: Oystercatchers, pinesap and spittlebugs

At the mouth of Cowee Creek, sometime in mid-June, we’d found a vigilant pair of black oystercatchers, presumably with a nest nearby. A couple of… Continue reading

A very young oystercatcher chick waits for a parent. (Courtesy Photo / Bob Armstrong)
Ben Gaglioti, an ecologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, stands next to a mountain hemlock tree damaged in winter on the outer coast of Glacier Bay National Park in Southeast Alaska. (Courtesy Photos / Ned Rozell)

Alaska Science Forum: Bonsai trees tell of winters long past

By Ned Rozell A GREEN PLATEAU NORTH OF LITUYA BAY — “These are museum-class bonsais,” Ben Gaglioti says as we walk through an elfin forest.… Continue reading

Ben Gaglioti, an ecologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, stands next to a mountain hemlock tree damaged in winter on the outer coast of Glacier Bay National Park in Southeast Alaska. (Courtesy Photos / Ned Rozell)
A male red-winged blackbird displays his red epaulets (Courtesy Photo / Bob Armstrong)
Video

Watching red-winged blackbirds

Their favorite foods include dragonflies and damselflies.

A male red-winged blackbird displays his red epaulets (Courtesy Photo / Bob Armstrong)
Video
. Lewis Sharman crosses a fallen Sitka spruce tree over Echo Creek just north of Lituya Bay in Southeast Alaska. (Courtesy Photo / Ned Rozell)

Rugged science on the Southeast coast

The first creek we crossed on this trip filled my Xtratufs with clear water.

. Lewis Sharman crosses a fallen Sitka spruce tree over Echo Creek just north of Lituya Bay in Southeast Alaska. (Courtesy Photo / Ned Rozell)
A male cloudberry flower resembles a female flower but has no visible ovaries. (Courtesy Photo / Kerry Howard)

On the Trails: Blooms, birds and bears in June

Notes from June.

A male cloudberry flower resembles a female flower but has no visible ovaries. (Courtesy Photo / Kerry Howard)
Katey Walter Anthony and Peter Anthony in Cherskii, Russia. (Courtesy Photo / Katey Walter Anthony)

Alaska Science Forum: Scientist’s memoir is revealing and brave

“Chasing Lakes: Love, Science, and the Secrets of the Arctic.”

Katey Walter Anthony and Peter Anthony in Cherskii, Russia. (Courtesy Photo / Katey Walter Anthony)

Alaska Science Forum: The worst fire year we can remember

Here’s how it happened.

A male red-winged blackbird displays his showy red patches and calls to a rival male (Gina Vose photo)

On the Trails: Birds and beetles at Kingfisher Pond

Something is almost always happening at Kingfisher Pond.

A male red-winged blackbird displays his showy red patches and calls to a rival male (Gina Vose photo)
Heather Best (in water), a USGS hydrologist, prepares to toss a road-grader blade with a river-measuring device attached into the Yukon River near Eagle, Alaska. USGS hydrologic technician Liz Richards watches for icebergs. (Courtesy Photo / Ned Rozell)

Alaska Science Forum: Wading into the icy Yukon River for science

EAGLE, ALASKA — Snow geese flew in a ragged V overhead, rasping as they looked down upon Alaska’s bumpy face for the first time in… Continue reading

Heather Best (in water), a USGS hydrologist, prepares to toss a road-grader blade with a river-measuring device attached into the Yukon River near Eagle, Alaska. USGS hydrologic technician Liz Richards watches for icebergs. (Courtesy Photo / Ned Rozell)
A golden-crowned sparrow nibbled on elderberry flower buds. (Courtesy Photo / Bob Armstrong)

On the Trails: Enjoying birds, blooms and more near the Mendenhall Glacier

The trail to Nugget Falls was a lively place in early May.

A golden-crowned sparrow nibbled on elderberry flower buds. (Courtesy Photo / Bob Armstrong)
A white-winged scoter handles a prickly sea urchin. (Courtesy Photo / Bob Armstrong)

On the Trails: An April scrapbook of little observations

Spring wings and other things.

A white-winged scoter handles a prickly sea urchin. (Courtesy Photo / Bob Armstrong)
The frozen Yukon River at Eagle, Alaska, in February 2020. (Courtesy Photo / Ned Rozell)

Alaska Science Forum: Awaiting river breakup on the Yukon

By Ned Rozell Andy Bassich lives on the south bank of the Yukon River, about 12 miles downstream from Eagle, Alaska, the first community in… Continue reading

The frozen Yukon River at Eagle, Alaska, in February 2020. (Courtesy Photo / Ned Rozell)