Measuring the highest peaks in the Brooks Range of Alaska

[fusion_dropcap]U.[/fusion_dropcap]S. Geological Survey topographic maps give you a choice on the height of Mount Isto. Depending on what map scale you choose, the mountain in the Brooks Range is either higher or lower than 9,000 feet. Using a new combination of techniques, an Alaska researcher has crowned Mt. Isto the highest peak in America's arctic, [...]

Kenai bark beetles primed for another devastating run

Kenai bark beetles primed for another devastating run By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]E[/fusion_dropcap]d Berg has spent much of his life observing the natural happenings on a large peninsula (the Kenai) that juts from a larger peninsula (Alaska). The retired ecologist who worked many years for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been around long enough [...]

Face of Anaktuvuk River tundra pitted by tundra fire

Face of northern Alaska pitted by tundra fire By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]E[/fusion_dropcap]ight summers ago, a bolt of lightning struck a dry tundra hillside in northern Alaska. Fanned by a warm wind that curled over the Brooks Range, the Anaktuvuk River fire burned for three months, leaving a scar visible from the International Space Station. The [...]

Japanese Submarines on Kiska Island in Alaska

Japanese Submarines on Kiska Island in Alaska By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]O[/fusion_dropcap]n a damp island far out in the Aleutian chain, a secret weapon of Japan's World War II Navy sinks into the sod. A Type-A midget submarine the shape of a killer whale was one of six the Japanese carried to Kiska Island in 1942. [...]

Wood Bison Settling Home in Shageluk, Alaska

Wood bison settling home in Shageluk, Alaska By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]T[/fusion_dropcap]hese nights, Tom Seaton is dreaming less about red-brown, steaming, humpbacked hulks. He's also getting more sleep, knowing dozens of wood bison that galloped to freedom behind his snowmachine last spring are wandering new country, munching grass and having babies. So far so good in [...]

Alaska alders go their own way in autumn

Alaska alders go their own way in autumn By Ned Rozell: [fusion_dropcap]W[/fusion_dropcap]ith every autumn breath we take, Alaska brightens with yellows, reds and oranges of plants recovering what they can from tired solar panels. But one shrubby tree does not join the party. Alders remain a stubborn green. Many won't drop their leaves until long [...]

Spillways Of An Ancient Alaska Lake

Spillways Of An Ancient Alaska Lake By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]M[/fusion_dropcap]any years ago, geologists stood on the bank of the Copper River and watched Childs Glacier thunder icebergs straight into the river. Using a little imagination, one researcher remarked how an advance of the glacier could seal off the big river. He envisioned a process that [...]

A float down Alaska’s Tanana River

A float down Alaska's Tanana River By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]T[/fusion_dropcap]his is not Henry Allen's Tanana River. Nor is it the Trail River of people living here thousands of years before the nineteenth-century government explorer struggled his way down the Tanana. But it seems close. I'm on a family trip down the wide brown river, starting [...]

Alaska’s wildfires and the changing boreal forest

Alaska's wildfires and the changing boreal forest By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]I[/fusion_dropcap]n late July, more than 300 wildfires are burning in Alaska. With burned acreage totals one month ahead of the historic 2004 fire season, summer 2015 is again the year of the wildfire. Many scientists are not surprised. In papers written a few years ago, [...]

Ancient Northern Pike Found in Alaska Lake Mud

Ancient Northern Pike Found in Alaska Lake Mud By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]W[/fusion_dropcap]hile slicing a cylinder of mud he pulled from an Interior Alaska lake, Matthew Wooller ran into a snag. The wire he was using to cut the mud stopped when it hit something solid. He grabbed a knife, carved around the obstruction, and made [...]