Teshekpuk Lake is the largest lake on Alaska’s North Slope and the lake is surrounded by wetlands stretching to the Arctic Coast. The Teshekpuk Lake wetlands are likely the most productive and ecologically important wetlands in the entire circumpolar Arctic, supporting nearly one hundred thousand molting geese, 6 million nesting shorebirds, and providing critical habitat…
I spent the last week, the last week of April, working on the frozen Chukchi Sea, helping train a group of scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society who are studying eider ducks. Their goal is to count the hundreds of thousands of King and Common Eiders that migrate past Barrow each spring to update the…
Why do we take people to the Arctic? This summer we guided a group from the Sierra Club including the Sierra Club’s Executive Director Michael Brune on the Aichilik River in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This video, made from their trip, perfectly captures why we love sharing the Arctic.
On the very edge of the earth, where the coastal tundra melts into the Chukchi Sea in a watery tangle of streams, bays, lakes and lagoons is a world of austere beauty, vibrant with life. Kasegaluk Lagoon is rich beyond compare in Arctic Alaska. The long list of descriptors for the area only hints at…
I was recently asked where I would suggest donating money to further conservation in Alaska. I had some ideas, but I decided to ask several professional conservationist about where they thought conservation dollars might be best spent. Acknowledging that conservation is a multi-faceted issue, there was agreement that funding a variety of approaches was important. There was…
There is a two hundred and twenty mile road proposed to cross the tundra of the western Brooks Range, and it will take a half a billion dollars to build it. The currently roadless Gates of the Arctic National Park will no longer be roadless. One hundred and sixty-one currently free-flowing rivers will be compromised….
By Dan Ritzman, Arctic Wild Guide, Sierra Club Organizer and Avid Wolverine Watcher I am headed up to Fairbanks this weekend with my family for the annual Arctic Wild end of the season party, to see my Fairbanks friends, tell some lies, and try to one-up everyone. Wait until I tell them about my four…