Arctic Wild

By Author and Arctic Wild Guide, Michael Engelhard

This year, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, “a land like no other.” Let us not forget that 2010 also marks the 30th anniversary of ANILCA, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. This landmark piece of legislation protected more than 100 million acres of federal lands in Alaska, doubling the size of the country’s national park and refuge system and tripling the amount of land designated as wilderness. ANILCA expanded the national park system in Alaska by over 43 million acres, creating 10 new national parks and increasing the acreage of three existing units. Together with the Refuge, the newly established (in 1980) Gates of the Arctic National Park and Noatak National Preserve form a 1000-mile swath of mountains, rivers, tundra, and boreal forest from the Canadian border to the Bering Strait — the longest stretch of wild country left in this nation.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is hosting a number of events in Alaska and the Lower Forty-Eight to honor the refuge’s anniversary:

In the fall of 2010 (in Alaska) and spring of 2011 (Outside), a photo exhibit — Arctic Sanctuary — by California large-scale photographer Jeff Jones will travel to Fairbanks, Anchorage, Portland, Albuquerque, Washington D.C., and other cities. The University of Alaska Press will publish an accompanying book (by the same title) of Jeff’s photos and essays by Laurie Hoyle and Wild Moments editor Michael Engelhard.

A documentary film — Discovering the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (working title) — will present an ecological and historical portrait of the refuge and of the people dedicated to preserving that glorious place. The USFWS also commissioned a play — Wild Legacy — based on the Murie’s writings. Lastly, refuge staff is preparing a five-panel traveling exhibit — A Sense of the Refuge — describing its physical and biological wonders, as well as its impact on people near and far.

Especially “far people” will find this an excellent opportunity to stay in touch with a place that means so much to so many. Along the way, attendees may gain knowledge that will make future visits to the refuge even more rewarding.

For more info and updates, see: http://arctic.fws.gov/50th.htm

So, crack a bottle and join the revelry!

By Co-owner Michael Wald

I went for a walk this overcast and windless afternoon around the head of the bay near where we are

Wald boys catching crabs in Southeast Alaska

staying, 10 miles from the town of Haines in Southeast Alaska. On the way back home from the fresh water spring under the enormous Sitka Spruce, my 3-year old son was quiet long enough for my ears to catch a faint but familiar noise from down the inlet. There were no birds in sight but the sound of the Long-tailed Ducks instantly transported me to the arctic coast. Long-tailed ducks, formerly known by the apt and descriptive but derogatory name Old-squaw or the Inupiat onomatopoetic name Ahalik are small and hardy sea-ducks that breed across the arctic and winter from the Aleutians to Southeast Alaska.

We often see them on isolated lakes in the Brooks Range and they are nearly constant companions along the Beaufort Sea coast in the summer. I have spent many an arctic night around driftwood fires watching and listening to these black and white ducks feed and rest among the rotting summer sea-ice. We (Michael and Sally and our two boys) are spending January through March watching a friend’s homestead here in Haines, as a sort of trial run for where we would like to spend our “off-season” when we are not guiding and running Arctic Wild. After more than a decade (3 decades for Sally) living in Fairbanks year round, I wondered if I would miss the deep dry cold, the proximity to the endless wilderness of the Interior and Brooks Range, or our wonderful

Long-tailed Duck

community of friends, many of whom are involved with Arctic Wild. I have also been feeling sheepish about fleeing the cold rather than enjoying the winters charms. In contrast many have suggested that if we are going to run from the cold we should go a whole lot further than Southeast Alaska (Mexico or Hawaii). But today standing on the beach hearing the long-tailed ducks calling “ahalik ahalik”, I thought that maybe they and we have found some ideal winter habitat. I don’t really want to be the cliché snow birds, but following the sea ducks’ example might be a wonderful life for our family. We miss our friends in Fairbanks but I am loving spending time on the water paddling and fishing, and skiing among the big trees of Southeast Alaska is a treat. Winter is speeding by;  we know that we will head north to the arctic just as soon as the ducks tell us it is time to go.

By Dan Ritzman, Arctic Wild guide and Alaska Program Director for the Sierra Club .

Beluga whales are an emblem of the arctic seas. Big males can reach 16 feet in length and nearly 4,000 pounds. The are supremely ice adapted regularly feed and travel in seas which are 90% covered in sea ice. Belugas are circumpolar in the northern hemisphere where they live in groups from 2  to several thousand individuals. During the summer they primarily feed at the edge of the continental shelf where upwelling presumably create a rich marine environment where arctic cod are abundant. Though many individuals from the Beaufort Sea feed in shallow waters near the Alaska/ Canadian border we rarely see them on our trips that go to the arctic coast.

Though off-shore drilling in the Beaufort Sea and proposed gas and oil projects in the Chukchi Sea could have delitory effects on Beluga populations, this edition of my conservation blog doesn’t focus on the Arctic but takes a look at Cook Inlet, and the local population of endangered Beluga Whales that ply these waters. Cook Inlet stretches 180 miles (290 km) from the Gulf of Alaska to Anchorage in south-central Alaska. Cook Inlet branches into the Knik Arm and Turnagain Arm at its northern end, almost surrounding Anchorage.
Like the legendary Moby Dick, the full-grown beluga whale is snowy white. Yet unlike Herman Melville’s mostly fictitious albino sperm whale, which had only Captain Ahab to deal with, the beluga swims in an ocean chock-full of dangers such as pollution, oil drilling, and global warming. The isolated Cook Inlet beluga whale population must also contend with the increasingly perilous and industrialized waters near Anchorage, Alaska’s fastest-growing city.
Recently the Obama Administration proposed designating over 3,000 square mile of Cook Inlet as critical habitat for the Beluga. These whales are already on the brink of extinction and are now facing multiple new threats.  One of the most pressing comes from the proposed Chuitna Coal Strip Mine, just 45 miles west of Anchorage, Alaska. The strip mine would decimate a salmon stream that is part of the Cook Inlet and supplies a portion of the Beluga’s primary food source.

You can help protect the habitat of the Cook Inlet Beluga by going to the Sierra Club’s take action page:

By Co-owner and Guide Michael Wald

Winter in Fairbanks has its charms, but it sure feels good to get some sunshine and warm weather in Hawai’i. We can’t keep our boys, ages 1 and 3, out of the warm water. The island of Kauai is truly spectacular and we have had beautiful weather for the entire time we have been enjoying the little beach town of Hanalei on the north side of the island.

The island isn’t big (especially by Alaska standards) but it does have a few little rivers that are perfect for Packrafting. Packrafts are little 4 pound rafts that easily pack into a daypack and can be carried anywhere you can hike. They are used in the Brooks Range to access otherwise inaccessible rivers and creeks or to cross rivers too deep to ford on backpacking trips. (I have lots of arctic packrafting trips dreamed up if anyone is interested. Napmaktuak Pass anyone?)

Here in Kauai, we found a little jungle trail and hiked up the Hanalei River and then paddled back down. It was just a day trip but banana trees, freshwater lobsters, deep swimming holes, and waterfall-streaked mountains were just some of the sights. I had never paddled in warm water before but I think I could get used to it. Enjoy the little movie of our trip my friend Ben Shelton made.

By Dan Ritzman, Arctic Wild Guide and Northwest Director for the Sierra Club.

Dan will be adding conservation updates and news to our blog monthly.
The Arctic Refuge turns 49 today, and it is time to think about the many dedicated people who

have protected the refuge for the past 50 years.

Back in the 1950s two stellar adventurers and outstanding conservationists – Olaus and Mardi Murie visited the northeastern corner of Alaska. The federal government asked them to scope out the wildlife and wilderness values of this little known part of the North America. Long story short, the Muries discovered a great wilderness and dedicated a good portion of the rest of their lives to protecting it; the Arctic National Wildlife Range was created by President Eisenhower on Dec. 6, 1960. The effort by the Muries and others in pushing for the creation of the Arctic Range set the example that would be followed over the next 50 years– the importance of grassroots support and pressure.

During the 1970s the conservation community pushed to pass the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) to protect millions of acres of critical wildlife habitat and special places across Alaska. One of the most controversial parts of this massive legislation was the coastal plain of the Arctic Range. The oil industry and their friends in DC wanted the coastal plain opened to oil development. Conservationists, scientists and many in the Alaska Native community wanted to see this area included in the Wilderness provisions of ANILCA. In the end, the ANILCA passed and was signed by President Carter in December of 1980. However, Congress settled on a compromise – the coastal plain was not put in Wilderness, yet it would require another act of Congress to open it to oil development – and this set up one of the most iconic struggles of the last 30 years. (The ANILCA changed the name of the Range to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and expanded it to almost 20 million acres. Still, the 1.5 million acres of the coastal plain remained the ‘biological heart’ and ground zero for the oil controversy.)

In the 1980s under President Reagan the oil industry yet again set their sights on the coastal plain. They made a serious push to include Arctic Refuge drilling in an energy bill. This prompted intense public reaction. In the spirit of the Muries and the champions of ANILCA, thousands of people engaged to resist the efforts of oil lobbyists. Many people like Glendon Brunk and Lenny Kohm put their lives on hold and took to the road to share the importance of the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge. The two of them gave thousands of slideshows to  Americans across the country and urged folks to stand up to do something to protect this special place. The situation was pretty desperate.

Then the worst oil disaster in America’s history happened. The Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, spilling at least 11 million gallons of oil. This cooled the jets of the oil lobbyists, and the controversial disaster helped to keep the Refuge protected.

Again in the mid-90s the oil industry, with the help of Newt Gingrich and the ‘Republican Revolution’ put the Alaska’s delegation (Young, Murkowski, and Stevens) in powerful positions. They made another run at opening the Refuge, and once again people from all across the country and all walks of life stepped up to meet the challenge.

This is where I enter the picture. I moved to Alaska and began working at the Northern Alaska

Arctic Activist, Dan Ritzman

Environmental Center in Fairbanks. On a lobby trip to Washington DC I met Ron Yarnell the owner of Arctic Wild, and convinced Ron that with my guiding background he should let me lead trips for him. I found myself on the Hulahula River which cuts right across the coastal plain and drains into the Arctic Ocean. I fell in love with the place and a big part of my life ever since has been working with folks across the county to keep the oil industry out of the Refuge. Thanks to the continued efforts of people like Lenny and Glendon, and Pam Miller, and David van den Berg, Adam Kolton, Brian O’Donnell  and hundreds of others, President Clinton stepped up and vetoed the bill with Arctic drilling in it. Newt blinked and the Arctic was safe again.

It’s still not over. In 2000 the Supreme Court appointed Bush 2 to the Presidency. Many political observers believed that the Refuge was doomed. But once again they discounted the power of the will of the people.  It has been demonstrated to me over and over that our political leaders can be moved. Again when it looked bad, some great leaders like Cindy Shogan stepped up. During this time I was living in Washington DC running the national grassroots efforts of the Alaska Coalition. We had organizers in key states across the country and it felt like we had volunteers everywhere.

We lost a key vote early in the House of Representatives and put all of our attention on the Senate. There were rallies across the country in big cities and small towns and there was creativity. In North Dakota an entire congregation of a Unitarian Church signed a letter to their Senator asking for protection of the coastal plain and it just so happened that that Senator’s father was the founder of that particular church. Activists rode their bikes across the country giving slideshows; all the stops were pulled out. Eventually the fight turned back to the House and we needed to convince the moderate Republicans to admit that conservation is a bipartisan issue. It appeared the refuge was going to be developed. But again people rose to the occasion. One of those moderates was Rep Reichert from WA. When he took office, Reichert looked like a vote against the Arctic Refuge but then the activists in his area started to organize. Working with Shannon Harp, a Sierra Club organizer, they put together a plan to show Reichert that the people of his District really wanted to protect the Refuge – that this was the right thing to do. After months of letters and phone calls and rallies, once again conservation prevailed.

Not only did Rep. Reichert vote to protect the Refuge but he became a leader on the Republican side for protecting the Refuge and other special places!

Unfotunately, this part of the story for me has a tragic ending. I moved to Seattle and took a job with the Sierra Club. Shannon Harp was one of the organizers in my region. Shannon’s life came to a senseless end in December of 2007 – a terrible blow to her family, her friends and the community. Shannon, incredibly, had never been to the Arctic Refuge. She still did her best to protect the place and made a lasting impression on at least one important decision maker. When I’m at my desk I can look up and see a poster that Shannon and the Sierra Club created with the Alaska Coalition. It highlights that drilling in the Refuge will not save any money at the gas pump and that drilling will ruin an amazing place for future generations. Working to protect the Refuge was one of Shannon’s gifts to future generations.

As we count down to the golden anniversary of the Arctic Refuge, we should remember all of the people who have worked hard to give this gift to future generations. I think our soul needs wild places and sometimes it is only through very strenuous action that these places are able to stay wild.

Thanks to all of you who have worked for the refuge.

By Dan Ritzman, Arctic Wild Guide

Well, it is certainly hard to top a blog post on lighting lake farts on fire, but I’m going to try. While I wish I

Polar Bears on Barter Island

were up in AK playing with fire I’m not — instead I’m sitting behind a desk thinking about polar bears. I’m not just thinking about the last two Septembers when I joined fellow guide Dave Shaw watching the bears around Barter Island, but I’m also thinking about how their future is being decided right now by scientists and policy wonks in Washington DC. One of the great things about working for Arctic Wild is the conservation ethic that the company has, all of the guides are encouraged to learn about and talk about the threats posed to these special places we visit and we are encouraged to advocate for their protection. This is where you all come in. Right now the Department of the Interior is taking comment on a proposal to designate critical habitat for polar bears across the arctic – from the eastern edge of the Arctic Refuge all the way to Pt. Barrow. The Department of Interior needs to hear from you.

A little background: The polar bear depends on the frozen Arctic ocean to travel and hunt. Over the past

Polar Bear in the Beaufort Sea Critical Habitat Area

few decades amount of ice that covers the ocean has diminished by almost half. Scientists have said that by the middle of this century the Arctic might be ice free in summer – this would be devastating to polar bears. In 2005 conservation groups petitioned the Bush Administration to protect the bears by listing them under the Endangered Species Act. Not surprisingly the Bush Administration declined to do so. This prompted two lawsuits before, in May 2008, the bear was finally listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. In 2009, thanks to a huge outpouring of public comments the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed the protection for more than 128 million acres of the species’ habitat: the largest critical habitat proposal in Endangered Species Act history.

To make sure that the USFWS follows through on their proposed critical habitat they need to hear from people across the country that care about the future of these bears. Please take a minute to click over to the Sierra Club Take Action page and send in a comment

If you have any questions or want to know of other ways you can help protect America’s arctic please drop me an email dan.ritzman –at-sierraclub.org

By: Co-owner and Guide Bill Mohrwinkel

I get asked frequently on our trips “ what do you do in the winter”? Yes, It’s cold and dark, we are losing about 5 minutes off each day until December 21st. Aside from the usual winter activities such as skiing, ice skating, snowshoeing, and curling, the long dark days make us a little……wacky.

Lighting trapped methane on a pond in Alaska

So last night Carrie, Halley Erickson and I decided to go down to the pond near our house, drill holes in the ice, releasing the trapped methane bubbles, and light the gas as it escapes up the hole. You get flames from a couple inches to a couple feet, depending on the size of the trapped methane bubble.  Ok, so it does involve a little adult beverage, It helps to calm your nerves when you light a big one that sounds like a jet engine. I know, sounds crazy. Anything to help with these long dark days, like sitting in front of my light box as I write this. But I really don’t think I could live anywhere else.

If you want to experience what it’s like in the winter in the Arctic, join us in April for our Brooks Range Winter Wildlife trip. There’s much more daylight, so I promise we won’t be as weird!

Methane in arctic lakes is a lots of fun (a real gas). It is also the topic of research at UAF.  Here is a link and an except from a recent article about methane in arctic lakes:

“Lakes really flared up on this icy permafrost landscape, emitting huge amounts of methane,” she said.

As the permafrost around and under the lakes thaws, the organic material in it–dead plants and animals–can enter the lake bottom and become food for the bacteria that produce methane.

“All that carbon that had been locked up in the ground for thousands of years is converted to potent greenhouse gases:………….

By Arctic Wild guide, Ron Yarnell

It was one of those typical days on our June 2009 Utukok Basecamp trip. Sun was up. (Of course it never

Bears near the Utukok

really sets here in June, 175 miles north of the Arctic Circle).  After a leisurely breakfast we ferried folks across the river in one of the canoes we had assembled for the river trip that was to follow the base camp. We had already taken several hikes on our side of the river and decided that today we would climb the ridge across the river to see what we could see on that side of the valley.

After successfully getting everyone across, we climbed the tundra-covered ridge. Wildflowers were

everywhere. A few caribou were still passing through the country on their way to meet up with the cows and calves that were, by now, farther to the east in the Kokolik River drainage.

From the crest of the ridge we could look up-valley to Driftwood Creek, a major tributary

Archemides Ridge in the Utukok Uplands

of the Utukok headwaters. Beyond the foreground hills rose the snow-covered peaks along the Arctic Divide that separate the north-flowing drainages from the west flowing Noatak River.

Peaks in this part of the Brooks Range aren’t as dramatic as in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or the Central Brooks Range. This is a land of expansive landscapes with long-distant views. You can see for a hundred miles. It is also remote. It took us nearly three hours to fly here from Coldfoot, in the Central Brooks Range, itself an hour’s flight north of Fairbanks.

And the walking….. Its incredible. For such rolling country it is surprisingly dry. (Where are the tussocks)? I assume it has something to do with these long linear ridges, which go on forever. The one we were on this morning goes for over 30 miles, all the way to the Kokolik River.

“What’s that across the side valley? That splotch of brown on the green tundra, near those bushes.” Sitting down on the ground and using my knees as a platform to hold my binoculars, I was able to confirm that we had something animate in those bushes. Sure enough it occasionally moved. Walking on up the ridge for a better view we confirmed that it was a grizzly bear. Then it morphed into two grizzlies…..then three and eventually four. Now this was unusual.

We had already seen a few grizzlies in the vicinity, most moving east, where the caribou were going, following the same ridges we were. Did they have caribou calves on their minds?

But four grizzlies all together. It wasn’t the berry season. Was it a sow with three cubs? (Very unusual this high in the arctic). One did appear to be a bit larger. And they were all piled on top of each other. In fact that is what made it so difficult to determine the final number. It was one big mass of brown fur, from which a head or two would occasionally materialize.

This puzzle required a better viewpoint. Slowly, and crouching, the six of us moved to a location several hundred yards from our grizzlies. Then after watching them for 5 or 10 more minutes we moved to a better location, about a hundred yards closer, where we could be more concealed. Unfortunately in the process one of the cubs spotted our movements. It was incredible. A hundred yards is a good distance for a bear to see. Especially considering the fact that we were crawling on our hands and knees, at a very slow pace. This one cub got up and ran up onto the tundra above the others. It wanted to leave, but wouldn’t leave “Mom”.

Of course this alerted the other three. They looked in our direction. Everyone froze. Mom went back to playing with one of the siblings. She didn’t see us and wasn’t the least bit nervous.

For the next several hours we watched these four bears playing on the snow field. The one nervous cub never did get over it. Numerous times he tried to convince “Mom” to leave, but she would have nothing to do with it. Once in a while one of the others would look our way, but by this time we were well concealed below the tundra, with only our heads visible. They played and played. Sometimes “Mom” would disappear down to the creek, and we would all get nervous, because she was out of our sight and might come up on the tundra, on our side of the creek, 50-75 yards away, a distance I was uncomfortable with.

These three cubs must have been three-year-olds, as they were practically the size of their mother. (Here in the arctic, grizzlies keep their young three or even sometime four years). It is hard to believe “Mom” could do this, raise three cubs this far north. But there she was constantly playing with  the one cub. They all seemed healthy, and certainly had the energy to play endlessly. At one point they found the perfect slide, where they could slide down the snowbank and off the cliff into the creek.

Finally we decided we needed to have lunch (it must have been four in the afternoon by now), so we slowly backed up the ridge, leaving the bears to play on the snow field. It had been a good day. We had experienced one of those rare moments in arctic wildlife encounters that will be burned into our minds for the rest of our lives. This land needs to be protected for future generations of grizzly cubs and caribou calves. Hopefully, 100 years from now, other groups like ours, will still be able to sit on the tundra and watch a family of grizzlies playing on a snow field.

Caribou in the Arctic Refuge

Predicting caribou movements is like trying to track a ghost. Caribou migration patterns are affected by innumerable factors including distribution of quality forage, snow depth, insect abundance and hatch timing, wind direction and calf production. We love seeing the big herds streaming across the tundra and our job of planning trips to coincide with caribou movements just got a little easier. CARMA (Circum Arctic Rangifer Monitoring and Assesment Network) has produced animations of caribou movements around the arctic. By compiling satellite data from several years they have plotted the locations of adult female caribou as they move across their range. The resulting movie shows the tremendous sweeps of country they cover moving from wintering grounds south of the mountains to upland calving grounds and the frantic search for bug relief in July. Check out all of the animations here or download the Alaska movie here.

The Kokolik River is a wonderful canoe trip for so many reasons. The river is clear and swift, making for fun but easy paddling. The scenery is spectacular and varied as the river cuts through rocky ridges and emerges into broad basins only to reenter the canyons a few miles later. Bird watching is a true joy. In addition to species common to Alaska’s arctic like Lapland longspurs, short-eared owls, and rock ptarmagin we see Asian migrants like blue-throats, wagtails, and bristle-thighed curlews. We see scores of raptors nesting on the river’s cliffs and bluffs including white gyrfalcons, peregrines, and rough-legged hawks. Muskox are common, as are bears, marmots, and foxes. Swans and geese are plentiful and the hiking is superb. But the real jaw dropper on the past two canoe trips I have guided down the Kokolik has been our encounters with the Western Arctic herd of caribou. Recent estimates place the population at around 300,000 animals, so we have only seen but a fraction of the herd, but on one trip so many animals swam the river it became white with shed hair. I would guess we saw 60,000 animals in a 24 hour period! In 2008 we also got to see both wolves and bears chasing and eating caribou. It is thrilling to see such an abundance of wildlife. Here is a little video clip I took in June 2008. The footage isn’t great but it does convey the mass of animals we saw at lunch one day.