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 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. [...]
Scientists conduct full necropsy in quest to determine what killed killer whale From a NOAA press release: [fusion_dropcap]A[/fusion_dropcap] collaborative team of scientists is investigating what caused the death of a female killer whale found on a beach in Portage Bay, Kupreanof Island, northwest of Petersburg. The team was able to reach the 17.4 foot long [...]
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 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 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 [...]
Deaths of large whales in Gulf of Alaska an unusual mortality event - NOAA Via NOAA press release [fusion_dropcap]N[/fusion_dropcap]OAA is declaring the recent deaths of 30 large whales in the western Gulf of Alaska an "unusual mortality event," triggering a focused, expert investigation into the cause. An unusual mortality event is a stranding event that [...]
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 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, [...]
NOAA Fisheries rescue harbor seal pup near Juneau Alaska: [fusion_dropcap]J[/fusion_dropcap]uneau, AK — An orphaned harbor seal pup is in stable condition at the Alaska SeaLife Center (ASLC) in Seward, after being picked up from a Douglas Island beach earlier this week. When NOAA Fisheries marine mammal experts received a call late Monday morning from two [...]