Science

A beaver pauses on top of its dam.(Courtesy Photo / Chuck Caldwell)

On the Trails: All about beavers

Leave it to ‘em.

A beaver pauses on top of its dam.(Courtesy Photo / Chuck Caldwell)
This photo shows a view of Manhattan from the window seat of a New York to Seattle flight. (Courtesy Photo / Ned Rozell)

Alaska Science Forum: Chasing the sun from New York to Alaska

Around the country in a day.

This photo shows a view of Manhattan from the window seat of a New York to Seattle flight. (Courtesy Photo / Ned Rozell)
Courtesy Photo /Chris Arp Harry Potter Lake, at the top of this photo, as it looked four years ago, perched 10 feet above and 30 feet away from the creek that in 2022 received most of its water.
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Alaska Science Forum: If a lake drains in northern Alaska…

Rarely do people get to see it.

Courtesy Photo /Chris Arp Harry Potter Lake, at the top of this photo, as it looked four years ago, perched 10 feet above and 30 feet away from the creek that in 2022 received most of its water.
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A blue darner dragonfly perched on hands, shoulders, and heads. (Courtesy Photo / Ralf Gerking)

On the Trails: Sights and sounds from the trails in late summer

Winged wonders abound.

A blue darner dragonfly perched on hands, shoulders, and heads. (Courtesy Photo / Ralf Gerking)
Elizabeth Hall, assistant paleontologist for the Yukon government in Whitehorse, stands in her office laboratory. (Courtesy Photo / Ned Rozell)

Alaska Science Forum: Secrets of an ancient horse of the Yukon

The Yukon is a great place to find the preserved remains of ancient creatures.

Elizabeth Hall, assistant paleontologist for the Yukon government in Whitehorse, stands in her office laboratory. (Courtesy Photo / Ned Rozell)
From left, Kelsey Dean, watershed scientist with the Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition, and Kaagwaan Eesh Manuel Rose-Bell of Keex’ Kwáan watch as crew members set up tools to drag a log into place. Healthy salmon habitat requires woody debris, typically provided by falling branches and trees, which helps create deep salmon pools and varied stream structure. (Courtesy Photos / Mary Catharine Martin)  

The SalmonState: Bringing the sockeye home

Klawock Indigenous Stewards and partners are working to a once prolific sockeye salmon run.

From left, Kelsey Dean, watershed scientist with the Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition, and Kaagwaan Eesh Manuel Rose-Bell of Keex’ Kwáan watch as crew members set up tools to drag a log into place. Healthy salmon habitat requires woody debris, typically provided by falling branches and trees, which helps create deep salmon pools and varied stream structure. (Courtesy Photos / Mary Catharine Martin)  
A northern oriole used dietary carotenoids to make its feathers bright orange. (Courtesy Photo / J. S. Willson)

On the Trails: The colorful world of birds

Colors are produced by cell structure, which can scatter light rays, making iridescence, and by pigments, which absorb or reflect particular wavelength of light. Pigments… Continue reading

A northern oriole used dietary carotenoids to make its feathers bright orange. (Courtesy Photo / J. S. Willson)
A little fish called a graveldiver had hidden under a flat rock. (Courtesy Photo / Aaron Baldwin)

On the Trails: Bricolage — this and that, bits and pieces

There were good minus tides in May and June, and I went out with some friends to take a look at the intertidal zone in… Continue reading

A little fish called a graveldiver had hidden under a flat rock. (Courtesy Photo / Aaron Baldwin)
Red salmon gather at a Gulkana Hatchery fish weir that prevents them from going upstream on the east fork of the Gulkana River.(Courtesy Photo/ Ned Rozell)

Alaska Science Forum: High-country Eden for sockeye salmon

“It’s the largest sockeye hatchery in the world. Two-hundred and sixty miles from the ocean.”

Red salmon gather at a Gulkana Hatchery fish weir that prevents them from going upstream on the east fork of the Gulkana River.(Courtesy Photo/ Ned Rozell)
A Hills Bros. coffee can found at an old cabin on the Fortymile River. (Courtesy Photo / Ned Rozell)

Alaska Science Forum: A field guide to old coffee cans

Can you dig it?

A Hills Bros. coffee can found at an old cabin on the Fortymile River. (Courtesy Photo / Ned Rozell)
Courtesy Photo / KMHocker photo Recently emerged mayflies landed on our caps and hands, perhaps resting from the rigors of courtship dances.

On the Trails: Fun in Gustavus

A walk near a shallow lake was the highlight.

Courtesy Photo / KMHocker photo Recently emerged mayflies landed on our caps and hands, perhaps resting from the rigors of courtship dances.
The Valley of 10,000 Smokes pictured during a visit in 2018. (Courtesy Photo / Bob Gillis)

Alaska Science Forum: 110 years since the largest Alaska eruption

“Stretching as far as the eye could reach … were hundreds — no, thousands — of little volcanoes.”

The Valley of 10,000 Smokes pictured during a visit in 2018. (Courtesy Photo / Bob Gillis)
The whorl of seed-bearing follicles of fern-leaf goldthread is more robust, but similar in form to that of three-leaf goldthread. (Courtesy Photo / Bob Armstrong)

On the Trails: Buttercups and their relatives

“Buttercups”—the name conjures up an image of lots of bright yellow flowers, which we enjoyed recently in Cowee Meadows and which brighten the roadsides. But,… Continue reading

The whorl of seed-bearing follicles of fern-leaf goldthread is more robust, but similar in form to that of three-leaf goldthread. (Courtesy Photo / Bob Armstrong)
A very young oystercatcher chick waits for a parent. (Courtesy Photo / Bob Armstrong)

On the Trails: Oystercatchers, pinesap and spittlebugs

At the mouth of Cowee Creek, sometime in mid-June, we’d found a vigilant pair of black oystercatchers, presumably with a nest nearby. A couple of… Continue reading

A very young oystercatcher chick waits for a parent. (Courtesy Photo / Bob Armstrong)
Ben Gaglioti, an ecologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, stands next to a mountain hemlock tree damaged in winter on the outer coast of Glacier Bay National Park in Southeast Alaska. (Courtesy Photos / Ned Rozell)

Alaska Science Forum: Bonsai trees tell of winters long past

By Ned Rozell A GREEN PLATEAU NORTH OF LITUYA BAY — “These are museum-class bonsais,” Ben Gaglioti says as we walk through an elfin forest.… Continue reading

Ben Gaglioti, an ecologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, stands next to a mountain hemlock tree damaged in winter on the outer coast of Glacier Bay National Park in Southeast Alaska. (Courtesy Photos / Ned Rozell)
A male red-winged blackbird displays his red epaulets (Courtesy Photo / Bob Armstrong)
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Watching red-winged blackbirds

Their favorite foods include dragonflies and damselflies.

A male red-winged blackbird displays his red epaulets (Courtesy Photo / Bob Armstrong)
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. Lewis Sharman crosses a fallen Sitka spruce tree over Echo Creek just north of Lituya Bay in Southeast Alaska. (Courtesy Photo / Ned Rozell)

Rugged science on the Southeast coast

The first creek we crossed on this trip filled my Xtratufs with clear water.

. Lewis Sharman crosses a fallen Sitka spruce tree over Echo Creek just north of Lituya Bay in Southeast Alaska. (Courtesy Photo / Ned Rozell)
A male cloudberry flower resembles a female flower but has no visible ovaries. (Courtesy Photo / Kerry Howard)

On the Trails: Blooms, birds and bears in June

Notes from June.

A male cloudberry flower resembles a female flower but has no visible ovaries. (Courtesy Photo / Kerry Howard)
Katey Walter Anthony and Peter Anthony in Cherskii, Russia. (Courtesy Photo / Katey Walter Anthony)

Alaska Science Forum: Scientist’s memoir is revealing and brave

“Chasing Lakes: Love, Science, and the Secrets of the Arctic.”

Katey Walter Anthony and Peter Anthony in Cherskii, Russia. (Courtesy Photo / Katey Walter Anthony)

Alaska Science Forum: The worst fire year we can remember

Here’s how it happened.