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February 20, 2004
Everett Kissinger, a soil scientist, arrived in Petersburg 26 years ago and served his entire Forest Service career in the largest national forest in the United States. When Kissinger retired in January, he had accrued more than 36 years of public service. Before arriving in Southeast Alaska, he worked 10 years for the Soil Conversation Service in Wisconsin. Kissinger said it feels good to be retired but it is "too early to tell" what he'll miss most about working on the forest. But, it's not too early for Tongass employees to tell they already miss Kissinger. "You really can't replace
that kind of corporate knowledge," said Forrest Cole, Tongass
National Forest supervisor. "Everett has many years of experience
working in the Tongass. Although we wish him all the best we've
lost an important member of our team. I'm just glad he's staying
in Petersburg we may have to consult with him once in a while."
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Petersburg:
Ketchikan:
Arctic Science: Polar bear headed for extinction, says scientist - Unless the pace of global warming is abated, polar bears could disappear within 100 years, says a University of Alberta expert in Arctic ecosystems. While it has been known for some time that the polar bear is in trouble, new research shows that Arctic ice--the polar bear's primary habitat--is melting much faster than scientists had believed, says U of A biologist Dr. Andrew Derocher. "The climate predictions coming out are showing massive changes in sea-ice distribution," said Derocher, who follows polar bears to see how they adapt to changing conditions. If the predictions are correct, he says, "we'll certainly lose polar bears in a lot of areas where we currently have them." Ice conditions in the Beaufort Sea, for example, are already changing dramatically. The world's largest terrestrial carnivores, polar bears rely on sea ice to survive, using it to pass between forest dens and hunting grounds where they prey on seals. There are about 15,000 polar bears in northern Canada, accounting for about two-thirds of the world's total population. Derocher shared his views Jan.
6 at a symposium on Arctic biology in Toronto. It was the biggest
gathering of Canadian Arctic biologists in more than a decade,
says co-chair Dr. David Hik, also of the U of A. Many of the
talks addressed the impact of climate change on northern ecosystems.
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And the heroine who survived it There is a desolate island
in the Chukchi Sea on the frigid top of the planet. It is 83
miles north of the coast of Siberia and it is named Wrangel Island
- Wrangel with one L. It is roughly kidney-shaped and said to
be about 80 miles long and 18 to 30 miles across, with a cluster
of low mountains at its center. During the warmth of its very
brief summer, rivers flow north and south over rolling tundra
to the sea. Along the frosty riverbanks are buried the bones
of a race of woolly mammoths, evidence of dwarfed survivors of
a larger race of Russian Steppe mammoths of perhaps 20,000 or
30,000 years ago. The island today is inhabited by a tiny Russian-Eskimo
settlement and is largely visited by polar bears, seals, foxes,
ducks and geese and the occasional scientist from around the
world. - Read
the rest of this story...
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