Alaska Outdoors

Saturday marks annual Twin Lakes Family Fishing Day

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s annual Family Fishing Day at Twin Lakes will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, June… Continue reading

Cottongrass springs up on the site of a 2015 wildfire on Birch Creek in Interior Alaska.

Fire breaks down and builds up boreal forest

I once wrote about how fire had ravaged more than 10 percent of Interior Alaska during two smoky summers. A wildlife biologist called me out… Continue reading

Cottongrass springs up on the site of a 2015 wildfire on Birch Creek in Interior Alaska.

Don’t touch fawns

Don’t touch fawnsThe Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Wildlife Conservation in Sitka reminds the public that deer fawns should not be handled,… Continue reading

Firewood from Oregon, California and Latvia, sold at different Juneau stores. Firewood from outside the Tongass has the potential to devastate our native species by introducing diseases and insects. Firewood has already introduced invasive species - and killed millions of trees - all over Europe and the Lower 48. It's also way more expensive than cutting your own - or buying local wood. Photo by Dick Callahan.

Woodshed Kings: Keep outside wood outside

Remember a few years ago when one of the local chain stores in Juneau tried selling Atlantic farmed salmon from down south? Oh, the hue… Continue reading

Firewood from Oregon, California and Latvia, sold at different Juneau stores. Firewood from outside the Tongass has the potential to devastate our native species by introducing diseases and insects. Firewood has already introduced invasive species - and killed millions of trees - all over Europe and the Lower 48. It's also way more expensive than cutting your own - or buying local wood. Photo by Dick Callahan.

An Alaskan takes on the heat

One lap around the parking lot to warm up, and I was glazed in the layer of anticipatory sweat that an Alaskan gets when he’s… Continue reading

Tzatziki - a Greek dish traditionally made with yogurt and cucumbers - made in part with greens foraged on a Wild Kitchen Walk hosted by the Juneau District Extension Office. Photo by Corinne Conlon

Foraging for goose tongue

On Shaman Island, during a day it seemed everyone in Juneau was outside embracing the sun, I had a friend identify goose tongue. It’s one… Continue reading

Tzatziki - a Greek dish traditionally made with yogurt and cucumbers - made in part with greens foraged on a Wild Kitchen Walk hosted by the Juneau District Extension Office. Photo by Corinne Conlon
Camping on the top of Mount Juneau with tram visible on Mount Roberts and Douglas Island Habor below.

Wild Shots

Submit your wild shots: The Empire Outdoors page is looking for superb images of Alaska’s wildlife, scenery or plant life. Send your photos to: Outdoors… Continue reading

Camping on the top of Mount Juneau with tram visible on Mount Roberts and Douglas Island Habor below.

Collaboration provides water recirculation workshop

Fish Tech professor Jim Seeland, Pentair Aquatic Eco-Systems and DIPAC partnered to host a workshop to inform Alaskan fish culturists how recirculation can be used… Continue reading

State awards nearly $300,000 in Clean Water Grants

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation will give $295,493 in Alaska Clean Water Actions grants. The ACWA partnership between DEC and the Departments of Fish… Continue reading

As first-grader Xander Webb is helped out of the top hatch, marine ecologist Michelle Ridgway, right, instructs other Faith Community Christian School students about the training submarine at the Auke Bay Fire Station on Tuesday.

Juneau kids explore Aureo, the yellow submarine

Before lowering himself into Aureo, an erstwhile research vessel brought to Juneau to teach kids about ocean sciences, local Faith Community Christian School fourth-grader Lucas… Continue reading

As first-grader Xander Webb is helped out of the top hatch, marine ecologist Michelle Ridgway, right, instructs other Faith Community Christian School students about the training submarine at the Auke Bay Fire Station on Tuesday.

On the Trails: Here and there in May

The lower muskegs at Eaglecrest were dotted with pink flowers of bog rosemary and the white flowers of cloudberry. Searching specifically for sundews (insect-eating plants),… Continue reading

Alaska Science Forum: Moose flies a high-summer Alaska pest

While boating down the Yukon River during the hottest summer recorded in Alaska (1915, when Fort Yukon reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit), missionary Hudson Stuck wrote… Continue reading

Alaskans ask for improved protections for waters, fish

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources received an unusually high number of comments in a recent public comment period, with residents supporting upgraded conservation measures… Continue reading

Fish Factor: High prices – the talk of the town

Alaska’s salmon season officially got underway on May 16 with the arrival of thousands of sockeye and king salmon at the Copper River near Cordova,… Continue reading

Off the Beaten Path: The brown bear and silver salmon

Off the Beaten Path: The brown bear and silver salmon

On my girlfriend’s first trip to Admiralty Island, we were picking salmon berries when we heard a bear moving through the nearby maze of thorns.… Continue reading

Off the Beaten Path: The brown bear and silver salmon
An image of the Kenai Peninsula taken June 15, 2015, acquired from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer aboard the Aqua satellite. The red box in this cropped image is a wildfire.

Alaska Science Forum: Big changes on a big Alaska peninsula

Larger than West Virginia, the Kenai Peninsula has the best of Alaska: coastal rainforests, two icefields, majestic deepwater fiords and a sapphire river home to… Continue reading

An image of the Kenai Peninsula taken June 15, 2015, acquired from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer aboard the Aqua satellite. The red box in this cropped image is a wildfire.
A Milbert's tortoiseshell butterfly visits a beach strawberry flower. This individual looks quite winter-worn, its colors somewhat faded.

Off the Trails: Footloose in May

We took the old way up to Cropley Lake, through the woods, working our way around or over windthrows and mudholes. The sun blazed out… Continue reading

A Milbert's tortoiseshell butterfly visits a beach strawberry flower. This individual looks quite winter-worn, its colors somewhat faded.

Optimism for salmon prices in 2016

A new market analysis has an optimistic outlook for the 2016 salmon season — and goes a long way in explaining why Bristol Bay sockeye… Continue reading

A do-it-yourself hanging flower basket is shown.

Dirt Girl: Creating your own hanging baskets

Like most people, I think of cascading flowers when I think of hanging baskets. Despite my predilection for edibles, I like to have at least… Continue reading

A do-it-yourself hanging flower basket is shown.

Youth fishing day at Twin Lakes on June 4

The Juneau Ranger District’s annual co-hosted Family Fishing Day will be at Twin Lakes on June 4 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Alaska… Continue reading