Southeast Alaska: New report provides conservation, management strategies for yellow-cedar in Alaska - The U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station today released a new report that outlines a climate adaptation strategy for yellow-cedar in Alaska.

Bus stop shelter in Ketchikan, Alaska made from yellow-cedar.
Photo courtesy US Forest Service

The report, A Climate Adaptation Strategy for Conservation and Management of Yellow-Cedar in Alaska, is the first to provide a comprehensive science-based approach for managing the species in the face of climate change in the state of Alaska, where some populations of the tree have been declining over the past century. The report was produced in collaboration with land managers and specialists with the Forest Service's Alaska Region and State and Private Forestry forest health professionals and will be an important reference for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to review as it considers a petition to list yellow-cedar under the Endangered Species Act.

"Our report assesses the past, current, and expected future condition of yellow-cedar forests across all land ownerships where yellow-cedar grows in Alaska," said Paul Hennon, a research forest pathologist based at the station's Juneau Lab and the lead author of the report. "The report reveals specific areas of yellow-cedar forest that are affected by tree death, those that are currently healthy but are at high risk of mortality, and those that are expected to remain healthy in the future." Considerations for active management or monitoring are offered for each of these three outcomes.

Yellow-cedar is a culturally, economically, and ecologically valuable species that grows as far north as Prince William Sound in Alaska to as far south as the northern tip of California. Some yellow-cedar populations in Alaska and British Columbia have experienced mortality over the past 100 years linked to a warming climate, Hennon and his colleagues discovered in previous work. Loss of snow cover exposes yellow-cedar's roots to freezing, which can kill the tree. - More...
Wednesday PM - January 13, 2016

Alaska Science: Impressions of a place far from everywhere By NED ROZELL - I’m resting on a mattress of tundra plants that are growing more than 200 miles from the nearest Alaska village. While I have snuck away here to my own private ridgetop, eight other people, all scientists, are somewhere on this 30-mile-long wedge of tundra, rocky beaches, lakes and bird cliffs in the central Bering Sea. We nine make up the entire human population of the island.

On our 25-hour boat ride here from St. Paul Island aboard the 120-foot Tiglax, Steve Delehanty, manager of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, pointed out that more people climb Mount Everest each year than walk on St. Matthew. There is one main reason.

“It’s hard to get to,” he said.

Sheer distance has saved this place from fur trapping, mining, oil drilling, airstrip building and other endeavors that leave a mark. A moist climate good for decomposition is also allowing St. Matthew to outlast an occupation by the U.S. military in World War II.

Thanks to the attention given to the island during the Harriman Expedition in 1899, Teddy Roosevelt included St. Matthew in a group of islands designated as America’s first wildlife refuges in 1909. Biologists from the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, also responsible for the protection of the Aleutians and other coastal islands off Alaska, try to reach St. Matthew every five years to see what has changed.

Compared to other protected wilderness areas of Alaska, St. Matthew is of the gentle variety, at least in summer. The carpet of flowering tundra plants is alive in purples and pinks and blues, enhanced by fog-filtered sunlight. The hip-high tangles of Aleutian grasses are not here, nor are the tussocks of the North Slope; St. Matthew is a nice place to walk.

Here, you walk alone, but that wasn’t always the case. An 1874 map of St. Matthew includes this note: “Large numbers of polar bears infest this island.” The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service crew has included in its gear a shotgun, because you never know, but we have seen neither track nor skull of polar bear. And we’ve seen only a few bleached antlers of reindeer. A few decades ago, the animals roamed the island at an unsustainable 66 animals per square mile. There are none left. - More...
Wednesday PM - January 13, 2016

Alaska: Proposed Rule Challenges State’s Wildlife Management Authority; Governor Requests Comment Period Extension - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published a proposed rule last week to clarify that predator control is not allowed on national wildlife refuges in Alaska, unless necessary to meet refuge purposes, federal laws or Service policy, and is consistent with the agency’s conservation mission. The rule was developed in response to public interest and concern about predator control and recent liberalization of predator harvest within the State of Alaska.

The State of Alaska is strongly opposing these draft regulations that the state says would usurp the state’s authority to manage fish and wildlife in Alaska’s 16 national wildlife refuges.

Released recently for preliminary public review, the state says the proposed rule would require that fish and wildlife be managed for natural fluctuations, which would impact the state’s ability to manage wildlife populations for subsistence and other consumptive uses under the sustained yield concept.

As proposed, the state says the regulation would also contradict the state’s role under agreements made in the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act to manage fish and wildlife on all lands in Alaska.

“Ultimately, the new regulations would have significant impacts on Alaskans,” said Bruce Dale, director of the Division of Wildlife Conservation, “particularly those living a subsistence way of life.” - More...
Wednesday PM - January 13, 2016

Columns - Commentary

TOM PURCELL: Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution - The smart car is upon us and self-driving automobiles soon will be commonplace — which will be the buzz at this week's 2016 Detroit Auto Show.

In the past two or three years, you see, computer processing capacity has become powerful enough to rapidly manage and analyze massive amounts of complex data sets or "big data."

What does this mean for automobiles?

By installing incredibly intricate roadside sensor networks and additional sensors in "smart" automobiles — both of which feed continuous data, via the Internet, to a powerful collection engine — automobiles will be in constant communication with road conditions and each other.

Smart cars can be programmed to avoid crashing into roadside obstacles and each other, auto-correct if a driver strays from the road or sound an alarm if a driver shows signs he's falling asleep. - More...
Wednesday PM - January 13, 2016