Alaska Outdoor News

• The body of a Craig man missing since Sept. 15 has been found in ocean water east of Ketchikan...
• For Adrian Knopps, 51, and Garret Hagen, 25, the dangers that come with a bear hunt did not end following a successful harvest.
• The fall whale hunt is going much better so far than the dismal spring hunt for much of the Arctic.
• Briton reaches Aleutian Islands after five months at sea, during which she capsized five times and got engaged
• The Arctic lost record amounts of sea ice last year and is changing at an unprecedented pace due to climate change, a landmark climate study
• A Wasilla moose hunter was rescued...
• A Florida-based author is seeking information for a new book entitledAlaska’s Fishing and Hunting Legends.

Interagency Working Group Calls for Integrated Management and Planning for a Rapidly Changing Arctic

An interagency working group chaired by Interior Deputy Secretary David J. Hayes today released a report that calls for an integrated management strategy for the rapidly changing Arctic. The report highlights the need for a coordinated approach that uses the best available science to integrate cultural, environmental and economic factors in decision-making about development and conservation.

“This report chronicles how Arctic residents are dealing with rapid, climate change-induced impacts on their resources and traditional ways of life at the same time that new economic activity and opportunities are emerging — notably oil and gas, marine transportation, tourism and mining,” said Hayes, chair of the Alaska Interagency Working Group that commissioned the report. “It is imperative that we reduce redundancies and streamline federal efforts as we safely and responsibly explore and develop Alaska’s vast resources while preserving the region’s rich ecosystems that will sustain future generations.”

The report — Managing for the Future in a Rapidly Changing Arctic — is based on input from a wide range of Alaska stakeholders. In addition to recommending integrated management, the report recommends continuing high-level attention on the Arctic, strengthening state and tribal partnerships, encouraging more stakeholder engagement, undertaking more organized and inclusive scenario planning, and coordinating and potentially consolidating environmental reviews that are now being prepared by multiple agencies.

The report does not recommend new regulations or represent new policy decisions, but it does call for a review of the activities of over 20 federal agencies involved in the U.S. Arctic by the end of 2013 with an eye toward increased coordination and the elimination of duplication of efforts. Congress has entrusted the federal government with primary jurisdiction over nearly three quarters of the U.S. Arctic's land mass. In addition, the federal government has a special relationship with Alaska natives, including Alaskan tribes and native corporations

The report to the President was led by the Interagency Working Group on Coordination of Domestic Energy Development and Permitting in Alaska, with active consultation and assistance from the National Ocean Council and the Arctic Research Commission. Established by Executive Order 13580, the Interagency Working Group on Coordination of Domestic Energy Development and Permitting in Alaska includes 11 federal departments, agencies and executive offices.

The report also includes the launch of a new government web site, the Arctic Science Portal, by the Arctic Research Commission, which is chaired by former Alaskan Lieutenant Governor Fran Ulmer. This web portal will provide decision makers and other interested parties with easier access to scientific information about the Arctic. It includes information on topics such as sea ice, fisheries, oil spill research and many others. It can be accessed athttp://www.arctic.gov/portal/.

“This report to the President emphasizes the importance of using a science-driven, stakeholder-informed framework—one that takes into account the needs of functioning ecosystems—for making good decisions in the Arctic,” said John P. Holdren, President Obama’s science and technology advisor and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, speaking on behalf of the National Ocean Council, which contributed to the report’s creation. “We must redouble our efforts to move forward on this path.”

“We are pleased to launch the Arctic Science Portal to help make science more accessible to decision makers and the general public,” said Fran Ulmer, Chair of Arctic Research Commission. “The report released today is extraordinarily important. It emphasizes the key role that science must play in making good decisions in the Arctic, and seeks to build on—and expand the successes achieved by the Interagency Working Group in coordinating across federal agencies, with all key stakeholders, and with the science community.”

The authors of the report engaged in discussions with many agencies and stakeholders in the Arctic to determine how the federal government might improve management processes and practices, reporting that diverse parties “agreed that management decisions in the U.S Arctic should seek to foster healthy economies, promote thriving cultures, and ensure sustainable ecosystems—an encouraging consensus.”

“Based on input from a wide range of stakeholders, this report shows how applying integrated Arctic management principles can help us make well-informed decisions in the Arctic,” said Hayes. “The key is taking a holistic approach and putting a premium on interagency coordination, the traditional knowledge of Native communities, and having a fuller understanding of landscape-level sensitivities and impacts. Because Congress has given the federal government such a major role in the U.S. Arctic, we have a responsibility to improve our coordination, planning, and outreach as we partner with the State of Alaska municipalities, tribes, Native corporations, and other parties that have a stake in the region.”

A copy of the report is available here.

BLM to Premiere New Film at Arctic Interagency Visitor Center in Coldfoot

Arctic Ice Bergs (Photo credit: Polar Cruises)

FAIRBANKS, Alaska — The Bureau of Land Management will celebrate the release of a new film, Arctic Visions & Voices, with a reception and screening at 7 p.m. on the summer solstice, June 21, 2012, at the Arctic Interagency Visitor Center in Coldfoot.

Inspired by the unique environments and people of northern Alaska, the 15-minute film was produced by Post Modern Company of Denver, Colorado, for viewing in the visitor center’s auditorium. The film’s release puts the final touch on the award-winning visitor center, which first opened to the public on the summer solstice in 2004.

Arctic Visions & Voices shows the starkly beautiful and sometimes ferocious arctic environment and the different ways people value the area. It entices viewers to go out and explore further – to touch the tundra, listen to the songbirds, and dip their toes in the Arctic Ocean. Featured in the film are a highway equipment operator, a truck stop manager, a permafrost scientist, local residents, wildlife biologists, visitors, backcountry guides and the spectacular landscape itself.

The film, like the visitor center for which it was made, is the result of a long-standing, cooperative effort between the BLM, the National Park Service, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

The Arctic Interagency Visitor Center is open in summer from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. For more information, call 907-678-5209 or visit the BLM’s Dalton Highway website at www.blm.gov/ak/dalton.

Refuge Notebook Brings Natural Science to Life in Alaska

Image via Wikipedia

Every week for 13 years, staff at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s

Kenai National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska have been giving science writing

a good name.

Their vehicle: 800- to 1,000-word observations on refuge life and work

that they take turns writing for a local daily newspaper. The result – the

Kenai Refuge Notebook, each installment of which appears on the refuge

website – is as distinctive as its followers on this south Alaska

peninsula.

Subjects may be familiar (hunting or snow) or specialized (thermal

imaging). But the perspectives are fresh, and the insights often

surprising. Consider these accounts published over the last year:

       Biologist John Morton’s account of three nunataks – exposed

glacial ridges at risk of losing their uniqueness as wildlife oases as the

climate warms.

       Entomologist Matt Bowser’s light piece about building a library of

insect DNA codes to offer another measure of environmental change. (“The

whole idea,” he jokes, “is to work myself out of a job.”)

       Graduate student Rebecca Zulueta’s observations of interactions

between bears and humans. (One lesson from her survey of local attitudes

on bears: “The fact that many Alaskans also have large, intimidating dogs

definitely added unwanted excitement to my experience until I learned to

bring along dog treats.”)

       And game warden Chris Johnson’s musings about wily scofflaws (like

the fisherman who hid a fresh-caught rainbow trout in his pants) and the

wilier officers who catch them.

The weekly newspaper column was conceived by ecologist Ed Berg in 1999,

who thought it would be a good refuge outreach tool. He spoke to Lori

Evans, then editor at the Peninsula Clarion.  They struck a deal.

“She gave me this advice,” says Berg. “‘Think of it as a personal letter

you’re writing to a friend you haven’t seen for some time.”

The informal tone ­that resulted has become a hallmark of the column, Berg

says. Column writers also tend to share a contagious enthusiasm for the

Alaska landscape and a willingness to laugh at themselves. Take Morton’s

aside about a recovered nunatak specimen: “We also collected one

terrestrial mite (Erythraeus tonsus) which eventually made the front cover

of the June 2010 issue of the International Journal of Acarology. I know

that’s a lot of excitement to handle in one newspaper article, but you’ll

be even more impressed to note that it was regarded as a ‘monstrosity,’ a

genetic anomaly which resulted in a 10-legged (rather than 8) mite. OK,

this is even nerdier than guys in Antarctica who name their band Nunatak.”

Will Morrow, the Clarion’s current editor, inherited the column from Evans

in its first year, and he’s still a fan. “It’s generally very well

written,” he says, of the Notebook. “It’s such a diverse thing. Sometimes

it’s a biologist or ecologist writing, sometimes one of the law

enforcement folks, sometimes one of backcountry rangers, so there’s always

something different in there.”

When Berg retired in 2010, John Morton succeeded him as Notebook editor.

“I think it’s incredibly valuable,” says Morton. “I’m trying to get

everyone on staff to write.”

Although the Notebook strives for a lighter tone, it provides serious

information as well.

For example, two different speakers at a public hearing this year cited a

Notebook piece to argue why the state of Alaska might want to consider

moth control rather than wolf control to boost moose populations. (Shrub

damage by moths means less forage for moose to eat in winter.)

By and large, says Morrow, “because of the way [the stories] are written,

it’s hard to argue with them. They’re written from the science.”

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