Alaska Fish & Wildlife News
March 2014

The Urban-Wild Mendenhall Bears
Studying the Bear Human Interface

By Riley Woodford

Some of the most viewed and photographed bears in Alaska are providing new insights into how black bears coexist with people.

Southeast Alaska is world-class bear habitat, and is home to a lot of bears. In communities like Juneau, people live with bears. These animals have access to neighborhoods – and trash, bird feeders, pet food and barbecue grills – as well as salmon streams and prime wild foods in the forests adjacent to town.

“I’m very interested in these ...   Mendenhall Bears Article Continued

Berners River Coho Salmon

By Mark Stopha

After a 16 year hiatus, I volunteered for my second trip with ADFG fishery biologists Leon Shaul and Scott Forbes to the headwaters of the Berners River north of Juneau. Leon is a world authority on coho salmon, having spent three decades studying the species over its range from Oregon to Russia, and this was his 32nd year on the Berners River trip. Leon and his staff practice hands-on fishery science. They count spawning coho salmon by stream walking in the fall.

In the spring, they ...   Berners River Coho Article Continued

Steep Water
How to Measure a Waterfall

By Tess Quinn

Your alarm gently chirps at you to wake up, and you crawl out of bed as cheerfully as a cat in a bathtub. The air outside is a frigid shade of blue, and snowflakes gather in the glow of the streetlights as if they’re trying to stay warm. The hands of the clock climb slowly up the face from six-thirty. You open the door of your bunkhouse bedroom, pad downstairs in your socks, and pour yourself a cup of coffee from a pot landscaped with eons of mediocre black tar petrol. Back upstairs you ...   Steep Water Article Continued

Caribou Cuisine for the Contemporary Chef

By Meghan Nedwick

Augie slides his knife expertly up the center of the caribou.

He pushes his hands deep into the caribou’s chest cavity as I push mine deeper into pockets. Both finding warmth from the numbing September air.

A slurpy suctioning ripping sound breaks the silence and the connective tissue. Augie heaves, blood gushes, and guts flop away from the body. The hide folds on the ground as he punches it from the muscle. A crunchy pop signals severed joints. Augie sets aside the heart, tongue, ...   Caribou Cuisine Article Continued

DeeDee Jonrowe
Iditarod Star and Fish and Game Legend

By Candice Bressler

At age 17, she didn’t want to move to Alaska. Now, over forty years later, she’s the sweetheart of the Alaska state sport and an Iditarod favorite.

“I couldn’t think of any fun thing to do," she said. "We’d never really lived in cold weather, and I was bummed out and just wanted to get out of here as soon as I could. And by Christmas, I was so in love with the adventure and freedom of the state of Alaska that I never really ever considered leaving ...   DeeDee Jonrowe Article Continued