Alaska Hit By Major Earthquake, Again

Alaska Hit By Major Earthquake, Again By Ned Rozell What’s this? Another aftershock? That’s hundreds now, each more faint than the last. Sorry, I guess I’ve moved on. I should pay more attention, given that you - a 7.9 deep in the seafloor not far from Kodiak - are the most powerful earthquake on the [...]

Beavers Moving Into Northern Alaska Due To Climate Change

Beavers Moving Into Northern Alaska Due To Climate Change By Ned Rozell Animals the size of Labrador retrievers are changing the face of Alaska, creating new ponds visible from space. “These guys leave a mark,” UAF ecologist Ken Tape said of North America’s largest rodents, beavers. He has observed the recent work of beavers north [...]

California Governor Brown Stops Off In Alaska To Talk Climate

California Governor Brown Stops Off In Alaska To Talk Climate By Ned Rozell A few Alaska researchers recently accepted a surprise assignment of giving Jerry Brown a tour of the Seward Peninsula. The California governor was stopping in Nome on his way to a meeting in Russia. The 79-year-old environmentalist and leader of a state [...]

Wolves a defining part of Alaska landscape

Wolves a defining part of Alaska landscape By Ned Rozell The wolf tracks appeared as they always do, as a surprise. On a day between fall and winter, with the leaves fallen and browning but the ground not yet hard, I was walking with my dog and an a.m. radio. We were descending a four-wheeler [...]

Dogs Have Made Alaska Home For Thousands Of Years

Dogs Have Made Alaska Home For Thousands Of Years By Ned Rozell When people first walked across the Bering Land Bridge thousands of years ago, dogs were by their sides, according to researchers who wrote a paper published in the journal Science. Scientists from Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles used dog DNA material — some [...]

Discovering A New Dinosaur In Alaska – Pachyrhinosaurus Perotorum

Discovering A New Dinosaur In Alaska - Pachyrhinosaurus Perotorum By Ned Rozell There's a new kind of dinosaur out there, and it lived in Alaska. Its bones, long turned to stone, are part of a cliff in northern Alaska. That's where dinosaur-hunter Tony Fiorillo brushed dirt away from a portion of its massive skull - [...]

Tundra Swans Take Two Distinct Paths to Alaska

Tundra Swans Take Two Distinct Paths to Alaska By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]S[/fusion_dropcap]kiing to work over a persistent spring snowpack, I looked up to see a large white bird flapping gracefully over the spruce tops. A few gentle honks confirmed it was a tundra swan. After a long winter when all the large birds were black, [...]

Life Returns to Alaska’s Kasatochi Island After Volcano Eruption

Life Returns to Alaska's Kasatochi Island After Volcano Eruption By Ned Rozell Nine years after it erupted, Kasatochi Island is just beginning to resemble its neighbors. Kasatochi is a speck in the middle of the Aleutian chain between Dutch Harbor and Adak, about 75 miles east of the latter. The volcanic island had no modern [...]

Are Alaska Ravens Responsible for Wolf Packs?

Are Alaska Ravens Responsible for Wolf Packs? By Ned Rozell People who study animal behavior think they may have found out why wolves hunt in packs — because ravens are such good scavengers. Scientists who watched wolves on Isle Royale in Lake Superior came up with the raven-wolf pack theory after puzzling over a question: [...]

Northern Alaska Lake Trout Living in Mystery

Northern Alaska Lake Trout Living in Mystery By Ned Rozell In early March up on the frozen Arctic Coastal Plain, as the wind sculpts snow into drifts, it’s hard to tell northern lakes from surrounding tundra. But lurking deep beneath that flat white world are toothy predators as long as your arm. In pools 60 [...]