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 [...]

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 [...]

More tropical nights in Alaska’s future?

More tropical nights in Alaska’s future? By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]B[/fusion_dropcap]y the end of this century, Alaskans may be enjoying tropical evening breezes for about a week each year. That's an increase from the almost zero such nights we currently savor. But it could happen, according to a graduate student who has tightened the grids of [...]

Lack of sea ice near Savoonga, Alaska and Lower 48 weather

Lack of sea ice near Savoonga, Alaska and Lower 48 weather By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]L[/fusion_dropcap]ast month, villagers in Savoonga landed a bowhead whale. Before 2017, in every January people can remember, sea ice surrounded St. Lawrence Island, locking it in for the winter. Boat-launching and whale-taking were not possible. Now, the disc of ice chunks [...]

To Alaska and then some for Yukon Lynx

To Alaska and then some for Yukon Lynx By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]A[/fusion_dropcap] lynx that roamed more than 200 miles from Kluane Lake in the Yukon Territory to near Chitina is still being tracked across the Alaska landscape, thanks to a curious couple living off the Edgerton Highway. A lynx that a couple in Kenny [...]

Living On An Alaska Glacier

Living On An Alaska Glacier By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]C[/fusion_dropcap]ANWELL GLACIER — This summer, Sam Herreid has slept for 12 nights on these rocks that ride slowly downhill on a mass of ice. For a few days at a time during the last six summers, the 28-year-old has lived on this ephemeral landscape in the eastern [...]

Exotic ticks found on Alaska dogs, Alaskans

Exotic ticks found on Alaska dogs, Alaskans By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]W[/fusion_dropcap]hile Alaskans have long endured dense mosquitoes and frigid air, we’ve always had the absence of venomous snakes and dog ticks. But the latter may be establishing themselves here. Ticks that infest red squirrels, snowshoe hares and a variety of birds have always been present [...]

Evidence Of What Killed St. Paul Island Wooly Mammoths

Evidence Of What Killed St. Paul Island Wooly Mammoths By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]U[/fusion_dropcap]sing the tiniest of clues, scientists have determined what probably killed the woolly mammoths of St. Paul Island — thirst. “It looks like climate did them in,” said Matthew Wooller, the UAF scientist who in 2013 went to St. Paul as part of [...]

Alaska Bears Harass Unmanned Science Instruments

Alaska Bears Harass Unmanned Science Instruments By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]I[/fusion_dropcap]nterior Alaska is a hungry place — lots of boreal forest and swampy wetlands with big, flat rivers winding through. Wildlife sightings, especially of big mammals, are rare. But a recent video posted by a seismologist makes the Tanana River flats look like the Serengeti. A [...]

Cos Jacket – A Ghost Town on the Tanana River

Cos Jacket - A Ghost Town on the Tanana River By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]C[/fusion_dropcap]OS JACKET — On a canoe trip down the lower Tanana River, we've scrambled up a sandy bank to explore a place that is less populated now than it was a century ago. No one, in fact, lives at Cos Jacket anymore. [...]