“Are you ready, No. 2?”

“Ready!”

“No. 3?”

“Ready!”

“... and fire on the line!”

The popping sound of .22 caliber rifles echoed through the indoor shooting range as a handful of students from Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School pulled the triggers on their borrowed rifles Tuesday at the Alaska Department of Fish & Game Juneau Hunter Education Shooting Complex.

It’s all in the spirit of fun that three Juneau youth were spending a Sunday afternoon striding laps around the meadows below Eaglecrest Ski Area — that and the fact they also want to go fast.

Johnny Elliott, Duncan Smith and Aaron Blust are part of a new Nordic skiing development team that has formed this year under the insurance umbrella of the Juneau Nordic Ski Club. Coach Tom Brayton said the group is officially called the Juneau Nordic Youth Development Team, but the athletes, who range in age from 9-18, have dubbed it the “D-team.”

“Let thy food by thy medicine.” - Hippocrates.

This statement has been my mantra.

In our household its importance is heightened by a multitude of factors; but frankly, it truly is a matter of life or death.

Whoa.

Extreme.

It sounds that way, doesn’t it? But it’s not at all different than the messages nutritionists, doctors and scientists have been touting for years - eat right and thrive.

Sounds simple.

For more than a century, the yellow-cedar, a culturally and economically valuable tree in Southeast and British Columbia, has been dying. These trees, known best for their rich yellow coloration and naturally hardy properties, have slowly been decomposing, instead of thriving in area rain forests.

But until now, no one could say why.

“The cause of tree death, called yellow-cedar decline, is now known to be a form of root freezing that occurs during cold weather in late winter and early spring, but only when snow is not present on the ground,” Paul Hennon said.