Poppy Benson – Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges

What Really Matters: Reflections on our Combined 80 Years with Refuges

Presented by
Steve Delehanty, Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge Manager
Andy Loranger, Kenai National Wildlife Refuge Manager

Tuesday, January 21, 5 – 6 pm Alaska Time
Zoom link can be found HERE

Homer – Steve Delehanty in person at the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center, 95 Sterling Hwy. Reception follows talk
Soldotna – Andy Loranger in person at the Kenai Refuge Visitor Center, Ski Hill Road. Reception follows talk.
Anchorage – Watch party at BP Energy Center, Spruce/Willow Room,1014 Energy Ct.
Zoom – Click here to join via Zoom.

The Kenai River is the heart of the Kenai Refuge. With the salmon rich rivers, highway access to Anchorage, canoe country and mountain trails, campgrounds, refuge cabins and a fine visitor center, this is the most visited refuge in Alaska. That visitor use creates love for the refuge but also management challenges unique in Alaska. PC Lisa Hupp/USFWS

Andy Loranger and Steve Delehanty have spent decades as refuge managers of two of Alaska’s most iconic and significant national wildlife refuges – the Kenai and the Alaska Maritime refuges. They are retiring this month leaving a big hole in refuge management in Alaska. In one of their last acts, they will share with us what their years in the refuge system have taught them and what it might mean for us and the future of refuges. They have seen the best from our crown jewels in Alaska – the Kenai with its salmon highways, abundant moose and bear and lovely landscapes from lake country to alpine; the Alaska Maritime – largest seabird refuge in the world with tens of millions of birds, volcanoes, thousands of islands and otters – to other significant wildlife landscapes in Minnesota, Texas, Wisconsin and elsewhere. This is a trying time for refuges. We all will benefit from their enthusiasm for refuges, their wisdom and a sense of the long view. Please join us for this significant event.

Alaska Maritime’s Steve Delehanty Kenai’s Andy Loranger

Biographies

Steve Delehanty has said that being a refuge manager is the best job in the world, except when it isn’t. While the incredible wildlife and wild places bring inspiration and solace, the real professional challenges as refuge manager generally involve people. “I love wildlife”, says Steve, “But I love people even more. Good thing, because I spend a lot more time at work dealing with people than I do with wildlife.” Fifteen years as manager of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge has topped Steve’s 39 year career with the Fish and Wildlife Service that began with an internship on Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge in Minnesota. Over his career, he has worked in Illinois, Montana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Alaska. Except for a brief internship in Illinois, Steve’s entire career has been in states near Canada.

Steve and his wife, Wendy, live in Homer. They have two adult children, one living in Alaska and one in Alabama. He likes hockey more than basketball, tundra more than forest, oceans more than mountains, and national wildlife refuges more than anything else.

Marine mammals, 40 million seabirds, and over 3000 islands characterize the Alaska Maritime Refuge. Most islands are only accessible by ship so the refuge has the largest ship in the Fish & Wildlife Service, the 120 foot R/V Tiglax. Very remote field camps, supervision of the Tiglax in the rough waters of coastal Alaska, and the dependence of the refuge’s abundant wildlife on off refuge food sources in the ocean create unique management challenges on this refuge.

Andy Loranger has been refuge manager at Kenai National Wildlife Refuge for 15 years. This was his second tenure on “the Kenai”. His first was as a wildlife biologist under Dr. Ted Bailey from 1988 to 1992. Andy said, “When I left Alaska to try refuge management in 1992, my only definitive career plan was to return someday. Being given the opportunity to come home to Alaska, and amazingly to the Kenai Refuge, has been an immense privilege.”

Accompanied from the very beginning by his wife Linda, a registered nurse, Andy‘s career journey started as a seasonal biological technician on the Benson Wetlands Management District in Minnesota, and continued in Alaska in the early 1980s with more seasonal employment on field crews conducting Arctic nesting goose research on Yukon Delta and Izembek refuges. This experience led to a permanent appointment as Nowitna Refuge’s first wildlife biologist, and later a similar role at Kenai. Upon leaving Alaska, he managed refuges in Arizona and Texas and served as Chief of the Refuge System’s Division of Natural Resources in the Fish and Wildlife Service’s national headquarters in Washington, DC. Andy received national recognition for his work in 2018, when he was selected as Refuge Manager of the Year by the National Wildlife Refuge Association. Andy said, “The refuges I served on, and my time in DC, helped me realize what true treasures we have in each and every one of our national wildlife refuges, and to appreciate the depth of dedication of our staff, Friends and volunteers.”

Andy and Linda reside in Soldotna and have 2 adult children, John and Emily, who also chose careers in public service. “We were so fortunate to share the wonders of the natural world on national wildlife refuges as a family, and more recently with our childrens’ families, and best yet, with our grandson Ira. In many ways these experience define who we are, and they have truly been the gift of a lifetime for all of us. Our retirement plans are for more of the same!”

NEW: Feb 13th Deadline to Protect Izembek National Wildlife Refuge!

UPDATE (as of December 28th): A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who attended the hearings, either in person or virtually! And an enormous shout out to those of you who have submitted comments.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has extended the deadline for comments until February 13th, 2025. Any comments already submitted will still be considered.

A proposed land exchange at the end of the Alaska Peninsula threatens wildlife conservation and the protection of public lands in Alaska. Pristine wilderness and high value wetlands within the refuge would be traded away in order to build a road from King Cove to Cold Bay. We need all Friends to speak up and oppose this land swap! Submit your public comment today- the deadline has been extended until February 13, 2025.

The draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (draft SEIS) completed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service selected Alternative 6 as the preferred alternative- to implement a land swap with King Cove in order to build the road along the isthmus through the refuge and designated wilderness.

In person and virtual hearings:

These meetings took place in December and there are no more scheduled. Thank you all who participated.

The full schedule and supporting documents can be found here.

Comments
We need all Friends to submit comments!! Comments can be submitted online here.regulations.gov. Bullet points for your testimony are below, but we need you to draft your own response– each unique set of comments is counted as one comment, while identical comments (say, if Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges gave out a script for you to copy and paste) are counted as only one comment, regardless of the number of submissions.

Map of the Preferred Alternative showing road corridor, exchange lands. Note how the road bifurcates the refuge at the narrowest part cutting between Izembek Lagoon and Kinzarof Lagoon. Also note the wetlands it will pass through and all the planned “material sites”. I imagine it will take a lot of gravel from those material sites to fill in a wetland like that. Note the significance of that narrow neck for migration. It is also a “blow hole” with winds howling from the Bering Sea to the north to the Gulf of Alaska to the south. Preventing drifting snow on this road would be a significant challenge.

Sample talking points for your comments:

The comments taken most seriously by agencies are those in your own words for your own reasons. But here are some thoughts on why the road is such a terrible idea.

Izembek is a world class coastal wetland, recognized as a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention.

Nearly the entire world’s population of Pacific black brant depend on the Izembek Lagoon complex for migrating and/or wintering as well as hundreds of thousands of other waterbirds.

The trade would cause the refuge to lose high value wetlands in exchange for lower value wildlife habitat.

The road would affect the migration corridor used by caribou, bear and others by bisecting the narrow neck of land between the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. This road would inevitably bring hunters to this narrow crossing.

The trade would set a dangerous precedent far beyond Izembek because it would allow lands established as a Conservation Unit by the Alaska National Interest Lands Act (ANILCA) to be taken out of the refuge and lose its conservation status without the approval of Congress. Congress created the refuge. If the boundaries are to be changed, Congress should do it. To allow the Secretary of the Interior to undue Congress’s work in passing ANILCA threatens all ANILCA Conservation Units – National Parks, National Forests, National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska.

The trade would set another dangerous precedent by taking Congressionally designated Wilderness out of the National Wilderness Preservation System to be traded to private ownership. Again, only Congress should undue a Wilderness designation.

Native groups other than King Cove oppose the swap. Twenty resolutions and a letter representing 78 tribes have been submitted asking for the “no action” alternative.

The trade will only harm the refuge and the purposes for which it was Congressionally created.

The Izembek National Wildlife Refuge is one of the most ecologically significant wetland areas in the world. The entire population of Pacific black brant and Emperor Geese rely on the refuge’s eelgrass beds. The wetlands themselves are internationally recognized as hugely significant for bird populations.

The draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement disregards years of precedent and work to protect Izembek’s wetlands and lagoons. Everyone involved in conservation work understands that roads bring people and development. Izembek should not face that fate.

Over 80 resolutions from Native tribes in Alaska were submitted to Secretary Haaland urging her to choose the “no action” alternative. She disregarded those resolutions.

Thank you, and remember to submit your comments by ~~December 30, 2024~~ February 13, 2025!

Black Brant, Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, PC: USFWS/Kristine Sowl

Our Gifts to the Refuges: Friends in 2024

By Poppy Benson, Vice President for Outreach

How did we fulfill our mission of supporting the Alaska National Wildlife Refuges through 1) direct support both financial and with volunteer time, 2) outreach and education and 3) advocacy? Our outreach and education programs were better than ever but budget uncertainty and staff loss made it difficult to develop volunteer projects. Our advocacy efforts faced very stormy weather.

Fairbanks Friends member Gail Mayo (l) with refuge volunteer at the Arctic Interagency Visitor Center in Coldfoot.

Volunteering: More than 50 Friends volunteered on eight different refuges. Selawik offered projects for the first time in memory – office and maintenance help and help with camps for village kids. Also, significant this year was the amount of help refuges were requesting with visitor centers. Friends went to Kodiak and Tetlin for month assignments as well as a few weeks for Arctic at the Interagency Visitor Center in Coldfoot. Public events required the most volunteers with Friends helping at the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival, Kenai Riverfest, Kenai Sportsman Show, Migratory Bird Days at Creamer’s Field, Seabird Fest in Seward, Bethel Ducks Unlimited Banquet, and Walks for the Wild at Kenai, Alaska Maritime and Anchorage. Numerous Friends volunteered at Kodiak, Kenai and Alaska Maritime refuges to staff visitor center desks and refuge special events. Izembek and Tetlin needed biological help with brant surveys and duck banding. With the exception of two volunteers that we had travel funding for, all other volunteers paid their own travel although refuges provided housing. For three projects we were unable to help because no one applied. Take a look at the project photos and stories on our volunteer activities page.

In 2024 we had less volunteer requests than we could have because Congress failed to pass a budget until late into the year causing refuges to avoid committing to projects. In addition, some refuges have lost so many staff that there is no one to plan or supervise a project. These conditions are likely to persist in 2025. To have any kind of a volunteer program, we need a volunteer coordinator to help develop opportunities and match members to jobs. See the article below. Interested? Write us at volunteer@alaskarefugefriends.org.

Funding: About $16,000 was approved by the Board to support refuge projects which includes half of our unrestricted funds plus some designated funds for specific refuges which come from bequests, donation boxes and other sources. Some projects are annual such as interns at Arctic Refuge’s Canning River Research Camp, school bus reimbursements for Kenai Refuge field trips, and support for the Migratory Bird Calendar. New this year was support to bring an Unangan artist to Homer for bentwood hat making workshops, support for a scoping meeting in Anchorage for the Alaska Maritime’s rat eradication proposal and for Koyukuk/Nowitna’s river management planning meeting, and a tablet for Innoko. We paid travel for the Friends volunteer to Izembek, a very expensive place to get to, and used some of our funds and a small grant from the Fish & Wildlife Retirees Association to pay the way of an environmental educator to Kotzebue for Selawik Refuge’s art and science camp. We contributed funds to a variety of refuge community events from Christmas bird count activities at Togiak, to the 20^th Anniversaries of the Arctic Interagency Visitor Center and the Alaska Maritime Refuge’s Visitor Center and an art opening at Selawik Refuge. We received an additional Fish & Wildlife Service Retiree’s grant of $1600 which paid for seven urban youth to attend the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival. A $5000 grant from the Sam and Mary Lawrence Foundation partially paid for four Native student interns with the Kodiak Refuge and a student intern at Innoko. A $6000 designated gift from the Safari Club is purchasing steel shot to trade out with lead shot and has paid for shipping lead shot off the Yukon Delta Refuge.

Friends has long supported the Migratory Bird Calendar contest with prizes for the many winners from refuge villages. This charming calendar featuring the drawings and writings of village children can be picked up from refuge offices throughout Alaska. If you are a member and not near a refuge office, contact us and we will send one.

Outreach and Education: This was a very successful year for our meetings with more attendees than ever. Archaeology in the Aleutians with 200 people had the highest attendance ever and a new watch party in Dutch Harbor that attracted 18. The three meetings this fall averaged 150 attendees between in person, watch parties and zoom. We learned about the Koyukuk/Nowitna/Innoko Refuge complex, the Fish and Wildlife’s new initiative to save salmon – “Gravel to Gravel”, winter recreation on the Kenai Refuge, float hunting on interior refuges, migratory bird work on all the refuges and the Porcupine caribou herd of the Arctic Refuge. Our programs are recorded and you can view those you missed here. Speaker watch parties resumed in Anchorage for the first time since the pandemic. We partnered for some meetings with Backcountry Hunters & Anglers for the Float hunting talk, Campbell Creek Science Center for Porcupine Caribou and REI for Flying Wild.

We Friends were the only ones representing Alaska Refuges at the Migratory Bird Day Festival in Fairbanks. No refuge staff were available due to budget cuts. This is likely to get worse making our role in refuge outreach more critical. Tom Chard, Fairbanks Friends Board member, helping a child with a wildlife game.

Advocacy: This has been an extraordinarily challenging year for advocacy. Although we signed on with a number of other Alaska conservation groups to letters opposing bad Congressional legislation and continued to intervene in Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority’s (AIDEA) lawsuit to reinstate their Arctic Refuge leases, we have lost some major battles to protect refuges. We commented on the Arctic Refuge’s Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) on an oil and gas leasing program in the Refuge and signed on to extensive comments by the Arctic Coalition spearheaded by Trustees for Alaska. The No Action alternative was, unfortunately, not a legal alternative because the 2017 Tax Act requires this lease sale. We supported the alternative with the greatest, but still inadequate protective measures for the Refuge resources and the original purposes for which the Refuge was created. The final SEIS was issued on November 8 and selected this alternative. These protections will guide the second oil and gas lease sale scheduled for January 9.

As I write, the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for Izembek Refuge is out for review with a preferred alternative selected by the Fish and Wildlife Service of trading away high-quality refuge wetlands and designated Wilderness to provide for a road through the heart of the refuge. This was a huge blow after the years we have been fighting this through lawsuits and letter writing. See the advocacy section for more on this and how to comment.

In November the Fish and Wildlife Service proposed a land exchange to accomodate a road through the wetlands and designated Wilderness of the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. PC Cindy Mom, Seldovia Friends volunteer on Izembek Brant Project.

Friends leadership met with the FWS Alaska Regional Director in May to discuss our concerns about reduced staffing at refuges. Unfortunately, things got even worse as more budget cuts were applied. By the end of January there will be only seven refuge managers left for 16 refuges. Kodiak has lost three out of four of its outreach staff and the visitor center has closed for the winter for the first time in my memory. We have also recently heard that none of these positions will be filled in the foreseeable future. The last Trump administration instituted a six-month hiring freeze. The three refuges in Fairbanks have dropped all their public programs except fulfilling their obligation to partner with BLM and NPS on the Coldfoot Interagency Visitor Center during the summer. The 19-million-acre Yukon Delta Refuge lacks a pilot or a public use person. This is a thorny problem at the Washington and state level and I don’t see that we have made any progress advocating for budgets.

All this reminds us of the quote by noted author and conservationist Rachel Carson, “Conservation is a cause that has no end. There is no point at which we will say our work is finished.” Details and numerous other issues which caught our attention in 2024 are described in our Advocacy Reports here.

This was only our second Friends sponsored Discovery trip this time to the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge. Eight Friends got to see for themselves how special this refuge is. Refuge staff spent a full day with us at headquarters in Bethel outlining their programs and challenges and exploring ideas for Friends help. Our first trip was in 2023 to the Arctic Refuge.

Thank you all for your support that allowed us to accomplish these things. Sixteen refuges and 75 million acres requires all of us pulling together to give refuges the help they need. It is hard to be hopeful looking at 2025 and the change in administration. We need to up our game.

November Advocacy Update

By Caroline Brouwer, Advocacy Committee Chair

Alaska’s refuges are taking a hit this month, between the decision by the Biden Administration to propose a land swap with the King Cove Corporation in order to build a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge and the announcement that 400,000 acres of land in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will be auctioned off for oil and gas leases.

The only comforting news is that the announced acreage for oil and gas leasing in the Arctic Refuge is the smallest amount allowable by law. The Administration is required by law (the 2017 Tax Act) to hold a lease sale, so they have chosen to put the smallest acreage possible up for auction. This second Arctic Refuge lease sale will take place January 9, 2025. During the first lease sale in early 2021, there was very little interest from lease purchasers. We will see what happens in January.

The Izembek announcement (as part of the draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement) was just baffling in its absurdity. Refuge Friends and other public lands advocates have fought this potential road for decades, and now all of a sudden the Biden Administration decides to go forward with a road that will carve a path through one of the most remote and protected lands in the Refuge System, and for what? A supposed medical evacuation path in one of the most difficult terrains in the world to traverse in the winter. It’s nonsensical.

Friends sent out an action alert last week regarding the Izembek road, and a hearing was held in Anchorage on December 9th. Many, many thanks to those of you who attended! Please let us know if you went, and what your thoughts were on the hearing- you can email me here.

You can still comment online, at the remaining public meeting or at the virtual meetings this week. Each of the virtual meetings are tailored for an Alaska Peninsula community but they have been very clear that anyone can attend and testify at these virtual hearings.

A FWS web page.on the project has a great deal of background information.

Bethel, Thurs, Dec. 12, 6 – 8, Yupiit Piciryarait Cultural Center, 420 Chief Eddie Hoffman Hwy
Virtual – Register online at the links below
- Wednesday, Dec. 11 – 3:00 to 5:00 p.m
- Friday, Dec. 13 – 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.
- Monday, Dec. 16 – 4 – 6 pm

Please take action by December 30th! The link to comment is here.

Map of the road the FWS proposes to allow in Alternative 6, the preferred alternative. Note the wetlands and the narrow neck of land between the two highly productive lagoons – Izembek and Kinzarof Lagoons – that will be bifurcated by the road. Note also the intent to take gravel from numerous sites along the road. Source: Draft SEIS

“The Trip of a Lifetime!” Surveying Brant on the Izembek Refuge

By Cindy Mom, Seldovia Friends member

I had the privilege to volunteer on the brant survey at Izembek National Wildlife Refuge this fall. Afterwards, it took me two days to get home from Cold Bay to Seldovia, and even when my cargo was unpacked and put away, I felt like my mental and emotional experiences from Izembek were still very present – not unpacked yet at all. What a beautiful and wild place! I still see the thick luscious eelgrass in my mind’s eye, and all those brant slurping it up with pure delight. The raucous sounds of thousands of happy geese can’t help but make you happy, too.

The Refuge staff and visiting biologists welcomed me to the Brant crew, and made it easy to explore and enjoy the Refuge. Our six-person crew (usually split into two groups of three) visited the brant goose habitat, the incredibly extensive eelgrass bed of Izembek Lagoon. To get to our observation points we hiked across the tundra or boated in inflatable skiffs to shallow waters or shorelines. Once there, we set up spotting scopes and counted flocks of brant, using clickers to tally adults vs. juveniles. While one or two people scoped and counted, one person recorded data and watched for bears.

The Izembek Lagoon is one of the very few places on earth that I have visited that feels still intact, and complete, and of-itself. Pc Cindy Mom

As the entire population of Pacific black brant, about 150,000 birds, stages for about eight weeks in the Izembek Lagoon Complex, Izembek’s Brant Age Ratio Survey provides an estimate of the age composition of the entire arctic and subarctic breeding populations. This survey provides the only measure of annual productivity for the brant and an index of recruitment as most first-year mortality occurs between hatch and fall migration.

The absolute best part was getting to work with an amazing crew of wildlife biologists, who know how to efficiently get the job done and still have fun while doing it. Everyone had such obvious and infectious enjoyment in the work and the beautiful wild Refuge, it made it easy to deal with the discomforts of field work in wet, windy, and cold conditions. I truly feel this was the trip of a lifetime, and appreciate the opportunity to explore the Izembek Refuge, learn about eelgrass and brant, see walruses and several life birds, and contribute something to this important study. My travel expenses were covered by the Friends, which made this trip possible; otherwise, it would have remained an unreachable dream. Thank you, Friends!

Wet, windy and cold. It was October out there! We only lost two survey days to extreme weather. I organized the refuge library on those days. PC Randall Friendly.

Collecting Puke and Weathering Storms: My Challenging but Rewarding Time in the Barren Islands

By Karyn Murphy, Homer Friends member and Alaska Maritime Refuge Liaison

During this past summer, I was given the opportunity to join with a biologist from the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and a grad student from Oregon to go to the Barren Islands for several weeks to work and live at the East Amatuli Island field camp. The seabird rich, uninhabited Barren Islands are about 60 miles south of Homer where Cook Inlet flows into the Gulf of Alaska. Our focus would be three-fold: check productivity plots of Fork-tailed Storm Petrel burrows and measure any chicks found; set up mist nets to capture petrels as they returned at night to feed their chicks and to collect the puke they regurgitated upon capture for later analysis; and setting up timelapse camera gear to monitor puffin colonies.

Fork-tailed Storm Petrel chicks are cute fluffballs! We recorded wing length, weight and amount of down all of which helps approximate age of the chick.

The data we gathered contributed to decades long records which indicate not just how well the refuge’s trust species are doing but also what the birds’ health has to say about the health of the ocean they feed from. Weather was very stormy and windy with a few lovely sunny days. The icing on the cake was getting picked up by the refuge research ship the R/V Tiglax for our return to Homer. What a challenging and rewarding opportunity! So grateful to have had this time at the East Amatuli Island field camp. I hope others are inspired to volunteer for opportunities within our Alaska national wildlife refuge system!

I’m not laying down on the job here. We were often up to our armpits reaching to the very back of the storm petrel burrows to find and gently extract the chick for measurements.

It was Alaska Out There! High Winds, Rain Wash out 2024 Walks for the Wild

By Poppy Benson, Vice President for Outreach

Forecast 50 mile an hour gusts canceled Yukon Delta’s Walk for the Wild in Bethel, wind-lashed rain across Homer Spit dampened enthusiasm for the Alaska Maritime Walk and buckets of rain resulted in no takers for 3 of the 4 guided Walks offered at Kenai Refuge. And if that wasn’t bad enough, high winds toppled a tree cutting power to the Kenai Refuge Visitor Center. The 15 that showed up for the Trails Discovery Room in the Visitor Center had to enjoy it by flashlight! Only the Anchorage Walk scheduled for a different day pulled off without a hitch in lovely fall weather. Between the four planned walks, only about 25 people actually walked and $790 was raised. Walk for the Wild is a national program to get people moving in nature and also raise money to support the work of Friends groups.

Ready to outreach but no one to outreach to! Becky Wick holds down the tent at the Kenai Refuge. Friends Marie McConnell, Tim Shipman, Dan Musgrove and Christina Paxman as well as Becky gamely turned out to run the event but no takers. PC Marie McConnell

But Anchorage was glorious. Meg Parsons (far right) led the Walk held at the Campbell Creek Science Center which preceded our Octobermembership meeting. PC Poppy Benson

Only the furry really enjoyed Alaska Maritime Refuge’s wet and wild Walk on the Homer Spit. Interpretive signs lined the 5K route. Carla Stanley and Kevin and Jeanne Walker helped on the soggy event which attracted only 7 walkers to our outreach table.

Selawik Summer: 4 Above the Arctic Circle

This past summer four Friends volunteered in different capacities with the Selawik National Wildlife Refuge in Kotzebue in far northwestern Alaska. Selawik had not asked for volunteers in many years but Brittany Sweeney, new to her position as Deputy Refuge Manager, saw an opportunity to augment their small staff. Here are our volunteers’ stories.

I Had Never Introduced Myself to an Entire Village Before: But here I was with a VHF radio in my hand.
By Saralily Stein, Anchor Point Friend

“Good morning Selawik! My name is Sarahlily, and my friend Lynda and I are here from the Fish and Wildlife Service. We’ll be leading nature crafts in the NANA building this afternoon from 1:30 – 4:30pm. Ages eight and up are welcome to join us.” I looked over at Adam, and he gave me a thumbs up. Phew!

This July, I spent nine days volunteering with Selawik National Wildlife Refuge. With the help of refuge staff and tribal administrators, I led three nature art workshops in the villages of Selawik and Buckland.

Two workshops focused on botanical ink making. Participants used local plants such as kikmiññat (cranberries) to make watercolor paintings. We had a great time experimenting with different leaves, berries, and flowers. In addition to the art side of the project, we tried to include both cultural and scientific components by incorporating the Iñupiaq plant names and using acids and bases to modify the colors of the inks. In Selawik, the ink workshop had only three participants. In Buckland, we had forty!

The other workshop focused on cyanotype printing. Also called sun printing, this craft uses light sensitive paper to make botanical prints. We took a plant walk to gather materials and then used those plants to make cards and socks.

In Selawik, I was joined by Lynda Knutsen, who was working at Selawik refuge on a detail. Refuge Information Technician (FWS Village liaison) Adam Ramoth picked us up from the airport, showed us around, and made sure we had everything we needed. We stayed in a funky little bunkhouse with creative plumbing, friendly neighbors, and a couple of opinionated outdoor dogs. Selawik is a boardwalk community. So, instead of driving cars around on gravel roads we rode around the wooden boardwalks on “Hondas” (four-wheelers) with a little trailer to carry our totes of art supplies.

In Buckland, refuge deputy manager Brittany Sweeney joined me, and the two of us stayed in the school building. Tribal administrator Sheila Washington helped us get the word out and corral the many enthusiastic kids during the workshop. I was so impressed by these kids! They were kind to each other, sharing the art supplies with one another and helping each other find what they needed. Making ink with them was a blast.

In between workshops, I stayed in Kotzebue at the refuge bunkhouse. Just across the Chukchi Sea from Russia, Kotzebue was a great “homebase” to explore, relax, and prep for workshops. In addition to managing the many logistics that go into village travel, Brittany went out of her way to welcome me, even inviting me and Lynda over to her home to try local sheefish.

A huge thank you to Friends for making this trip possible. A special taikuu (thanks) to Jerry Hupp who coordinated logistics, ordered the art supplies, and organized the budget. I hope to volunteer again in the future!

Friends secured a small grant from the Fish and Wildlife Service Retirees’ Association to fund Sarahlily’s travel and supplies.

Buckland Village children with the ink they made from plants and postcards created with the ink. PC Brittany Sweeney.

Two in Town: Bev and Louis first visit to NW Alaska

As told to Poppy Benson

“I’m grateful I went,” said Bev Cronen of the three weeks she and her partner Louis Dupree spent volunteering at Selawik refuge headquarters in Kotzebue. “It was interesting to just get a taste of what it is like to live off the road system,” she added. “I took pictures of prices in the store because I am sure my friends wouldn’t believe it. $14.87 for a loaf of Dave’s Bread!” Bev and Louis also got in on a community meeting when Senator Sullivan came to town. More than 50 locals attended and those that spoke expressed their concerns mainly about the Ambler Road. The prevailing sentiment was anti-road. Locals felt they did not have enough say in a road which would be disruptive to them and their way of life. Bev and Louis also enjoyed just walking around town observing people and their neighborhoods.

Bev and Louis answered the call to help with office work and a variety of small maintenance tasks. With no administrative staff at the refuge, the four full time and two part time employees have gotten quite behind on simple things like dealing with files, small paint jobs and shredding documents. Bev reported that the government housing was lovely, the staff very hardworking and working with Brittany Sweeney, Deputy Refuge Manager was a highlight. And the feeling was mutual. Brittany dedicated a Selawik Refuge Facebook post to the two writing the refuge owed them a “HUGE thank you . . . .. They assisted with anything and everything we asked, from maintenance tasks to mail runs, filing and more. Our office has never looked better than after their visit; these two avid sailors left us in ship shape!” Bev reported it was gratifying to help the staff and she would go back again.

Bev Cronen and Louis Depree of Homer at Selawik Refuge Headquarters in Kotzebue. PC. USFWS/Brittany Sweeney

Off to a Good Start: New Refuge Liaison Visits the Refuge

Our Friends refuge liaison positions were created so that each of the 16 refuges have one member that looks out for that refuge and its needs. It isn’t often however, that the refuge liaison pays their way out to a remote refuge to really get to know the refuge and the staff. Nancy Deschu of Anchorage did juist that in July traveling to Kotzebue. Nancy has a particular interest in rivers and fisheries being a retired hydrologist and spent time with refuge biologist Bill Carter with the idea of writing an article. She also got filled in on refuge concerns – new broad band towers proposed for the refuge, the Ambler Road, not enough staff and not enough money. Refuge staff wondered if Friends could help with grant writing, chasing soft money, volunteers for at least three-week stints and increasing public awareness of this little-known refuge. Both Brittany Sweeney, Deputy Refuge Manager and Nancy felt the trip was invaluable for getting Nancy up to speed on Selawik concerns.

Fall, Fun Staff, and Interesting Visitors: My Time at Coldfoot

By Gail Mayo, Fairbanks Friends Member

My first view of the Arctic Interagency Visitor Center was through a windshield splattered with mud. I had just completed, in pouring rain, the drive from Fairbanks to Coldfoot over the Dalton Highway. In spite of that grimy beginning my two week volunteer time was a beautiful experience. The southern edge of the Brooks Range was in full fall colors and the weather remained warm and often sunny. The South Fork of the Koyukuk ran clear, no ice.

The visitor center is an imaginative building with enticing exhibits that give visitors a good introduction to the vast wilderness reaching in all directions around them: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the northeast, Kanuti National Wildlife Refuge to the southwest, Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge to the southeast, Gates of the Arctic National Park to the northwest, and the Dalton Highway Corridor (BLM). It was very fun to interact with visitors who were trying to understand wilderness and how to experience it.

The staff representing the three agencies (Fish & Wildlife Service, National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management) were friendly, helpful and appreciative. Judy Brant and I were there to help with the final two weeks of being open to the public. There were several days when the visitor count was well over 100, and there were never any days without interesting visitors. One of our jobs was keeping count and never counting anyone twice. Sometimes this required group effort! Many visitors were tourists who wanted to experience the Dalton Highway. Others were hunters, miners visiting their claims and aurora watchers.

There is a Fish and Wildlife Service field camp a short distance north of Coldfoot with a variety of lodging possibilities from dry cabins to comfortable houses. Judy and I stayed in a house that had recently been upgraded. It was very comfortable and had indoor plumbing; a luxury in the far north. We both appreciated the convenient housing that gave us time to do some exploring.

Fall colors on the Dalton Highway. PC Randy Lewis

Chasing Answers in the Arctic: Researching the Effects of Climate Change on the Porcupine Caribou Herd

Presented by Heather Johnson USGS Research Wildlife Biologist and Paul Leonard Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Supervisory Biologist
Tuesday, Oct. 15, 5 – 6 AKDT

This event was held with in person speakers at Fairbanks and Anchorage, at watch parties in Soldotna and Homer and on Zoom.

The Porcupine caribou herd is currently the largest in Alaska and one of the largest herds in North America. Each summer, it undergoes one of the longest terrestrial migrations on Earth to birth calves on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. But what is the future of the herd given changing climate conditions? Join us to hear about how an innovative research project aims to discover whether and how a changing climate will impact the herd. Arctic Refuge Supervisory Biologist Paul Leonard will share with us the significance of the Porcupine caribou herd as a cornerstone of the ecological, cultural, and economic landscape of the Arctic Refuge, and as a vital part of the livelihoods and traditions of Indigenous peoples of the region, including the Iñupiat and Gwich’in. Lead researcher Heather Johnson of US Geological Survey (USGS) will discuss the research she is conducting on the Porcupine caribou herd in collaboration with partners including the refuge. Their research aims to understand the influence of changing climate conditions on summer habitat for caribou in the Arctic, the impacts of these changes on caribou behavior and population dynamics, and the implications for the future of the Porcupine herd. As part of the project, caribou wear video camera collars so researchers can ‘see’ life from a caribou’s perspective, footage we look forward to sharing with you!

Cow caribou carried video cameras which turned on every 20 minutes to takea 10 second video. This allowed researchers to see what they were eating, what habitat they were using, if they had calves and other important information.

This is a partnered program with the Campbell Creek Science Center serving as not only our monthly meeting but also their Fireside Chats monthly talk series.

Biographies

Heather Johnson is a Research Wildlife Biologist at USGS Alaska Science Center in Anchorage. Heather has a PhD in Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana, a Masters in Wildlife Science from the University of Arizona, and a Bachelors in Ecology from the University of California, San Diego. Heather’s research focuses on understanding how changes in climate and land-use are influencing the behavior and population dynamics of large mammals, and how management strategies can minimize impacts. In her free time, Heather loves doing just about every type of outdoor adventure, especially when it means playing outside with her son.

Paul Leonard grew up in the rolling hills of central Kentucky and spent most of his youth playing out of doors and being constantly curious about the living things around him. He came to Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in 2019 after finishing a postdoctoral fellowship at Clemson University in South Carolina. His research and ecological interests are focused on recognizing and quantifying the spatial patterns in the distribution of natural resources and understanding the reasons for those patterns. He strives to synthesize large, complex spatial data on land use change, climate change and other human caused impacts to develop decision support tools and conservation strategies for diverse communities at a landscape level.In his free time, he likes self-powered adventures in the outdoors via boat, bike, and foot. He also spends a fair amount of time studying, photographing, and reading about birds.

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