Alaska’s infrastructure benefits from university research Author: Scott Rupp Published 2 hours ago
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Print article Alaskans are tough people, and it turns out we’re tough on our infrastructure, too. The 2017 report card for American infrastructure made several recommendations for improvement ranging from replacing aging structures with innovative, resilient solutions to prioritizing regular maintenance. Every Alaskan uses our transportation infrastructure to take their kids to school, manage their businesses, and access our state’s abundant natural beauty for work, sport or subsistence. Our roads, bridges, railways, ferry system and airports form the backbone of a healthy economy. And they all must be built and maintained to withstand harsh climate extremes while traversing a vast landscape.
Standing on the bank of the Yukon River, Karissa tossed the pink fireweed flowers into the water and watched them slowly float downstream.
Because of the pandemic, Karissa Carroll could not attend her grandfatherâs funeral in Fort Yukon, known as Gwichyaa Zheh in Gwichâin. The evening of the ceremony, she made her own flower memorial down the river, picking fireweed for her grandfather, like she used to do as a little girl.
âI wanted to toss them into the river because Fort Yukon is also along the Yukon River. Itâs what connects me back home,â she said. âI told my grandma, âIâm just at the other end of the river.ââ
Print article PALMER Robert Warren was almost home from the gym Thursday evening when he saw the long, thin funnel cloud extending from the clouds over Palmer just before 7. The funnel dropped so low, it sent dirt swirling beneath it. Alaska’s ample disaster menu includes earthquakes, volcanoes and killer cold. Tornadoes or weather that resembles them rarely make the list. “I immediately pulled over so I could get pictures,” said Warren, a 47-year-old nurse practitioner who works at Hiland Mountain Correctional Center. By the time he got out his iPhone, the funnel had already withdrawn back up toward the sky.
“They took my sealskin cap, Mom.” Those were the first words my son spoke to me after his high school graduation ceremony. With great pride in our Iñupiaq culture, my oldest son wore our sealskin graduation cap to his West Anchorage High School graduation ceremony. He had convinced me last year to sew the cap for my own graduation from the Master’s in Rural Development program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, reminding me that all my kids and future grandkids could wear it for their graduations, beginning with him this year something my other children enthusiastically agreed with.
Newest edition of Alaska Quarterly Review is again a showcase of the best, most empathic writing of our time
Edited by Ron Spatz. 262 pages. $12. “Alaska Quarterly Review,” Vol. 37, No. 3 & 4, Winter and Spring 2021. Edited by Ron Spatz. “Alaska Quarterly Review,” founded 40 years ago at the University of Alaska, continues now under the flag of the nonprofit Center for the Narrative and Lyric Arts. Under the exceptional editorship of Ron Spatz, it remains one of the most admired literary journals in the country. In an interview last month with the CLMP Community of Literary Magazines and Presses Spatz explained that the journal is “of Alaska but not Alaskan.” That is, it applies “an active and attentive lens to our Northern region including its traditions of Indigenous stories and cultures, environmental concerns, and related social justice issues.” It serves as a gathering place for writers and poets from all over, accomplished and new, for bringing a