New Book From Alaska
If you have the Alaska bug there is a new book out that you will want to check out. It is getting great reviews and I have it on my short list on Amazon. Now that the summer is over and some work is actually done (but never all done) I will be digging into this. I pretty much consume anything about the Brooks Range I can snap up. Check it out.
Caribou Are In
The Caribou are sporting semi- big ol velvety antlers and are moving across the arctic tundra to wherever it is they go. They go all over so it is hard to say. They tend to move at a pretty quick pace too, the bugs keep them jumping and hopping and twitching almost constantly. Caribou will even go out on whatever sea ice they can get to in an attempt to get away from the pesky bugs that chase them. I won’t go into it here but they get chased by some nasty ones. This particular guy looks like he is mostly done with the molt, his coat is nice and evened out. The summer doesn’t last too long up here so it will be growing out here in short order. Note that the females have antlers too but they are much smaller in overall size and diameter. The antlers on this fella actually have a ways to go before being fully grown out, I would guess this is about 75%.
The Caribou are sporting semi- big ol velvety antlers and are moving across the arctic tundra to where it is they go. They go all over so it is hard to say. They tend to move at a pretty quick pace too, the bugs keep them jumping and hopping and twitching almost constantly. They will go out on whatever sea ice they can get to in an attempt to get away from them. This one looks like he is mostly done with the molt. The summer doesn’t last too long so it will be growing out here in short order. The females have antlers too but they are much smaller in overall size and diameter. The antlers on this fella actually have a ways to go before being fully grown out, I would guess this is about 75%.
Midnight Wilderness
Debbie S. Miller has written one of the best, if not the best, descriptive books on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and it is certainly the most enjoyable that I have read. Debbie has real world years of feet on the ground experience in ANWR and her book will impart to you her passion for a place of moving beauty. I’ll let her introduce herself in her own words (http://www.debbiemilleralaska.com/). Midnight Wilderness is a book to read if you want to know what the fuss is about with regard to drilling ANWR. http://www.debbiemilleralaska.com/MidnightWilderness.htm. It is available on Amazon of course.
Just got back from Denali NP and Denail State Park so I have a lot of catching up to do. I have a ton of photos to go through; I will put some up asap.
Arctic Wings
Another recommendation for you if you enjoy birds, birding, and are interested in finding out more about the ANWR. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is an extremely import migratory gathering point for well over 100 species of birds. Area 1002 is the proposed drilling area and this area is located on the coastal plain, there would be a large impact (at the least) to caribou and nesting birds and shore birds if this were developed for oil drilling and production. This is an area richly diverse and biologically expedient to many mammals and birds and the Arctic Ocean is of course, the anchor of the biology here and must be protected from oil spills. ANWR is a magnificent place (haven’t been there myself yet) and I believe there are other options for acquiring the oil reserves there that are far less obtrusive and invasive. The infrastructure required for oil drilling and production is sprawling and invasive and brings air pollution, noise pollution and light pollution to these wildness areas and it is first, avoidable and second disruptive to these important links in our ecosystem. This is an important place to conserve and we can conserve it by being realistic about how we go about extracting the resources that are in the earth while respecting the importance of the resources that are on it; all of them. “I would drill through a caribous’ head to get to the oil in ANWR” — Glenn Beck
Subhankar Banerjee has devoted the last 8 years exclusively to ANWR and increasing the awareness of it and working to protect it. He put this book together. Micho Hoshino’s photograph of a Snowy Owl graces the cover, some might remember him. Debbie Miller is an essayist for the book and I have another recommendation forth coming on her work, I really enjoy her ability to communicate so vividly about such a place in such a personal way.