On the final cabin trip of the spring, as my friend Andy and I skied along a packed ribbon of snow, the wolf tracks were a surprise.
âLooks like more than one,â Andy said, noting a stream of paw prints â each as large as our hands â pressed into the warming snow.
Seeing those tracks less than 1 mile from the road made me think of a recent study, one in which scientists concluded that just 3% of Earthâs surface is âfaunally intact.âÂ
Due to the disappearance of a few species like the Stellerâs sea cow, Alaska did not make the cut of places with fully intact ecosystems. However, the authors of the study in the journal Frontiers in Forests and Global Change wrote that Alaska was one of the few places with wild patches somewhat close to what they might be without humanity. Alaska earned the honor along with parts of eastern Russia, northern Canada, the Amazon Basin, the Sahara Desert and the Congo Basin.
Listening to avalanches half a state away kodiakdailymirror.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from kodiakdailymirror.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The Alsek, a world-class rafting river that flows into the Gulf of Alaska from its headwaters in Canada, may soon abandon the lower part of its drainage for a steeper one 15 miles away.Â
The Alsek River starts in the Yukon Territory, flows through British Columbia and then on to Dry Bay in Alaska. It is a rare northern river that cuts from the interior of the continent through rugged mountains to the coast.
The re-route of the Alsek Riverâs ocean connection will be due to the extreme melt of Grand Plateau Glacier, which acts like a cork that prevents the Alsek from following a faster path to the sea.
Why are white-winged crossbills drawn to yellow snow? April 8th 11:52 am |
Ned Rozell, University of Alaska
While out on a springtime snow trail, I recently saw a dozen white-winged crossbills pecking at snow on the side of the trail. When I reached the spot, I saw a yellow stain from where a team of dogs had paused.
Last spring, I saw a bunch of crossbills gathered near an outhouse. They were congregated at a communal pee spot in the snow. The birds were poking at it.
Why might songbirds have a thing for yellow snow?
I put that question up on a forum used by bird lovers who live here in the boreal forest - the immense swath of spruce, birch, aspen, poplar and willow that stretches from the shores of the Bering Sea to the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.
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