Geophysical Institute food drive will run throughout October
Participate in the 3rd Annual Geophysical Institute Food Drive! Collection bins are located on the sixth floor of the Elvey Building, near the Mail Room. Drop off non-perishable foods or make a cash donation to support the effort throughout the month of October. Cash donations will be accepted by Roberta Greenlee or Jackie Dashiell of the GI Business Office. All donations will support the Fairbanks Community Food Bank.
Delegation of GI authority temporarily given to Doug Christensen
Pending the arrival of the new Geophysical Institute Director Bob McCoy, Vice Chancellor for Research Mark Myers has delegated authority to GI Associate Director Doug Christensen. Christensen will provide oversight and take any needed actions required of the director position including travel approval, HR and finance issues and documents.
Upon McCoy's arrival this month, Christensen's delegation will be rescinded. At that time McCoy will assume full administrative responsibilities for the GI.
In the company of moose for 32 years
Vic Van Ballenberghe, who has studied moose for three decades, drives the Denali Park road in late September, 2011.
Photo by Ned Rozell.
DENALI NATIONAL
PARK AND PRESERVE— On a late autumn day, as naked stems of dwarf birch nod away
from a warm breeze, a distant flash of antler reveals the object of our search.
“The hunters
would love to see him,” Vic Van Ballenberghe says as he pulls his pickup to the
side of the park road and grabs his binoculars. “He’s a trophy bull.”
In the company of moose for 32 years
By Ned Rozell
On a late autumn day, as naked stems of dwarf birch nod away from a warm breeze, a distant flash of antler reveals the object of our search.
“The hunters would love to see him,” Vic Van Ballenberghe says as he pulls his pickup to the side of the park road and grabs his binoculars. “He’s a trophy bull.”
The giant moose strolls over a brownish slope that waits for snow. The creature pauses at times, steering with massive antlers one of the cows that orbit him.
Fungus Man and the start of it all
Mycologist and author Lawrence Millman gives a presentation at Creamer’s Field in Fairbanks.
Photo by Ned Rozell.
Alaskans love fungi. This was evident on a recent Saturday when
author and mycologist Lawrence Millman offered a mushroom walk at
Creamer’s Field on one of the wettest days of the yellow-leaf season.
“Eighty people showed up in the rain, all eager to
learn about fungi,” Millman said by email after returning to his home in
Massachusetts. “I dare say the hunter-gatherer instinct is alive and
well in Fairbanks.”
Recovery after world's largest tundra fire raises questions
The great Anaktuvuk River tundra fire of 2007.
Photo by Michelle Mack.
Four summers ago, Syndonia Bret-Harte stood outside at Toolik Lake,
watching a wall of smoke creep toward the research station on Alaska’s
North Slope. Soon after, smoke oozed over the cluster of buildings.
“It was a dense, choking fog,” Bret-Harte said.
Lone wolf goes the distance
An Alaska wolf on the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.
Photo courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Somewhere
in the rolling tundra east of Deadhorse, a lone wolf hunts. The
100-pound male will take anything it can catch, or find — a ptarmigan, a
darting tundra rodent, a fish, the scraps of a carcass, or, if lucky, a
moose calf or caribou. Hunger is a common companion, but the wolf
somehow survived when his mate probably died of it last winter.
Recovery after world's largest tundra fire raises questions
By Ned Rozell
Four summers ago, Syndonia Bret-Harte stood outside at Toolik Lake, watching a wall of smoke creep toward the research station on Alaska’s North Slope. Soon after, smoke oozed over the cluster of buildings.
“It was a dense, choking fog,” Bret-Harte said.
Lone wolf goes the distance
By Ned Rozell
Somewhere in the rolling tundra east of Deadhorse, a lone wolf hunts. The 100-pound male will take anything it can catch, or find — a ptarmigan, a darting tundra rodent, a fish, the scraps of a carcass, or, if lucky, a moose calf or caribou. Hunger is a common companion, but the wolf somehow survived when his mate probably died of it last winter.
Climate change and the people of the Mesa
The Mesa site on Alaska's North Slope.
Photo courtesy Mike Kunz.
People tend to think of climate change as a recent phenomenon, but Alaska was once the setting for an environmental shift so dramatic it forced people to evacuate the entire North Slope, according to Michael Kunz, an archaeologist with the Bureau of Land Management.
