Porcupines are quite common in Alaska, but for most of the year they commonly visible. One may see quite a number of them while driving in early spring. They come to the edge of the highway for a couple of reasons, but mostly to lick the remains of salt left from winter sanding. Also, along the relatively warm asphalt, there are the first green shoots of summer. The remainder of the year, they eat a lot of flowers and the walls of your plywood recreational cabin. Porcupines don’t move much in the winter. Their average range covers about 300 acres. Their winter diet is mostly the inner cambium layer — the white inner bark — of spruce and birch. They will also eat quite a number of white spruce needles.