Poppy Benson – Page 2 – Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges

Floating to the Hunt on National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska

This meeting was held on Tuesday, September 17, 2024, 5-6 pm AKDT
The recording of this event can be found below:

Presented by Barry Whitehill
Yukon Flats Deputy Refuge Manager (Retired)

Ivishak River in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

From the mountains to the lowlands, rivers can take you to wilderness hunting. Floating has been Barry Whitehill’s primary vehicle for accessing national wildlife refuges in Alaska in order to hunt moose, sheep, and caribou. He also just loves rivers. Barry’s love of rivers was honed through a career with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service which enabled him to traverse remote Alaskan rivers for work. His retirement in 2009 as the Deputy Refuge Manager at the 8.6 million acre Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge in central Alaska gave him the time and opportunity to undertake extended personal float trips. He has floated over 1000 miles of Alaska’s rivers in one summer! Barry knows Alaska rivers.

Feast or famine is often the dynamics of Alaska’s ecosystems. As a hunter in that setting, the difference between success and failure can be the ability to tap into the natural rhythm of the land. Barry considers floating to the hunt a great way to match the pace and terms of the Alaska landscape. Barry will share with us lessons learned in over thirty years of floating to these Alaska hunts. He will talk about some of his favorite rivers primarily on the Arctic, Kanuti and Yukon Flats refuges all accessed out of Fairbanks. He will also share tips for planning a float, logistics and gear.

Barry Whitehill’s biography in his own words:

I grew up in eastern Washington and considered myself fortunate to have public lands close at hand. Starting with my first elk at age 14, it became obvious to me that dropping into deep, dark holes and undertaking challenging floats on public lands consistently brought success as a hunter. Also, rivers and wild places rejuvenate my soul. Later, I found this true when living in Idaho, northern Nevada, and, since 1992, in Fairbanks, Alaska. I am a Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges member and on the Board of the Alaska Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers. Both organizations do much to support our national wildlife refuges and our opportunities to float and hunt and enjoy these public lands.

Kanuti River on the Kanuti National Wildlife Refuge.

Background on Hunting on Refuges

Some of you may be surprised to learn that hunting is one of the “Big Six” priority wildlife dependent recreational uses of national wildlife refuges along with wildlife viewing, wildlife photography, interpretation, education and fishing. These were established as priority recreational uses in the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997. Some lower 48 refuges are closed to hunting to protect species where the populations are not large enough to support hunting or where hunting would conflict with other priority uses. All national wildlife refuges in Alaska are open to hunting except for very small areas adjacent to visitor facilities and the Skilak Loop Road on the Kenai Refuge where wildlife viewing, wildlife photography and small game specialty hunts (youth, bow, and falconry) are the priority uses. Protection of species is accomplished through game regulations usually set by the state. Many Alaskan households utilize wild meat as a big part of their diet.

Subsistence hunting for rural residents is also one of the purposes of all national wildlife refuges in Alaska as established by Congress in the Alaska National Interests Lands Act (ANILCA) of 1980.

Riverside camp on the Ivishak River, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Friends partnered for this program with the Alaska Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, a group dedicated to “ensuring North America’s outdoor heritage of hunting and fishing in a natural setting, through education and work on behalf of wild public lands, waters, and wildlife.” They have been advocates for refuges, wilderness and wildlife including taking positions opposing the Ambler Road and defending the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge during the 2016 takeover and occupation by the Bundys.

Meet Marcy! Our New Program Director/Festival Coordinator

By Mike Schantz, Finance Committee Chair

“I’m so happy to be joining Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges and to be leading the planning for the Shorebird Festival! I’ve always felt a deep connection to Alaska’s wild places, and I’m excited to work with such a passionate group of people who care about our wildlife refuges. I’m really looking forward to meeting more of the community and continuing the great work that Friends has already been doing!”

Friends is pleased to welcome Marcy Melville as the Program Manager for Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges (Friends) and as the new coordinator of our signature event, the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival. Marcy is a passionate advocate of all things outdoors and brings extensive nonprofit experience to the organization. Highlights of her long list of nonprofit work include establishing the Surfrider Foundation Kenai Peninsula chapter and coordinating an annual film festival for Teton Climbers’ Coalition.

Given Marcy’s focus on nonprofit fundraising and event planning and her keen interest in working with charities that have a public land nexus, the fit with Friends is perfect. She has already supported our community and refuges in that she has coordinated local beach cleanups and has organized the Frozen Coast Film Festival coming to the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center soon. Marcy grew up in San Diego, so her stewardship for all things beach comes naturally. The fact that she has exchanged the beaches of southern California for those of the peninsula is great for us.

Marcy will be our only employee in a part- time (20 hours/week) position for 9 months of the year (Sept. through May). This will encompass our season of meetings, newsletters and Festival planning but it isn’t much time to support our work with 16 wildlife refuges. It is just all the staff time we can afford now.

Please join us in warmly welcoming Marcy as she works with Friends and the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge to continue the sustained excellence of the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival. Remember to save the dates of May 7-11th, 2025 for the 33rd edition of the shorebird festival!

Friends’ Volunteers Flock to Tetlin

Due to staff shortages and the demands of two visitor centers on the highway, Tetlin Nationl Wildlife Refuge really needed our help this summer and our members responded. Eight volunteered to band ducks, one to work a month in their border visitor center and one was so invaluable they hired him. Read what they shared about their experiences.

Nothing like Leaping into Retirement with a Month of Volunteering at Tetlin Refuge!
By Jackie Smith, Soldotna Friends member

To be honest, I had no idea how far out the Tetlin Refuge Visitor Center was – almost to the Canadian border and 70 miles beyond Tok. But my pup Mia and I settled in to refuge housing at Northway Junction 15 miles from the visitor center where I would work. It’s hard to call the time at work “work” because everyone we met was so happy to be there – excited to get information about where they were headed or to share their experiences (especially with road conditions!).

We gave directions, reviewed maps, sold souvenirs and gifts including Native baskets and beadwork, and showed a video of the details of the refuge and its Alaska Native background. The swan exhibit, a collection of animal pelts and a display where visitors can make footprints of the various refuge inhabitants were popular and great fun for the kids! I was most impressed with how the local Native culture is such a big part of the exhibits. The two Athabascan staffers even demonstrated beading.

I loved having the chance to work with these ladies from the village of Northway and learn about Athabascan culture. Sylvia Pitka, Cora Demit and Marilyn Paul with a visitor on the visitor center deck with the beautiful refuge view.

I met most of the headquarters staff and many of the summer folks working on the refuge and in Tok, and bonded with Bill and Mary (we’re all nurses!) who came from Florida to be the hosts at the refuge campground at Deadman Lake. Including side trips to pick blueberries on the Denali Highway and visit Beaver Creek, Chicken and Dawson City, I am now able to truly appreciate smoothly-paved roads! The only thing I missed out on was the duck banding, so I might have to go back! Thanks so much for the opportunity to see eastern Alaska and the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge. It was all quite an adventure.

Duck Banding at Tetlin Refuge is more than Just Banding Ducks!
By Lin and John Kennedy, Soldotna Friends

Lin Kennedy with Deputy Refuge Manager and Duck Whisperer Ross Flagen. PC Lewis Westwick

It’s the getting there, and the camping, and the people. As the trip to the refuge’s Deadman Lake campground is over 500 miles from Soldotna, we tood two days to enjoy and photograph the beautiful scenery, with time to stretch our legs and exercise our dog. On our arrival Sunday afternoon, we checked in with the campground hosts, Bill and Mary, who we knew from the year before, found our “reserved” campsite and set our trailer up for the week.

Mallard, Pintail, Green Winged Teal and Wigeon ducks were all fitted with bands throughout the week. The process generally runs fairly smooth, but there are always some bumps in the road. It was Duck – 1, Lin – 0 when I applied a band not realizing the pliers were locked open, failed to close the band, and the duck got away with the band falling to the bottom of the boat with a loud clang. As Ross Flagen, Tetlin Deputy Refuge Manager, says “It happens to everyone.”

Our mornings and early afternoons were spent at Deadman and Yarger lakes checking the duck traps and working through the ducks that were trapped. Ducks that were already banded were released and the newbies were held in bright orange crates waiting for their turn to receive their beautiful new ankle bracelet. John Kennedy releasing banded duck. PC. Lewis Westwick.

By midafternoon we were usually finished and free to explore and enjoy Tetlin Refuge.  Deadman Lake campground offers quiet, large, spaced-out sites, canoes complete with paddles and PFDs free to use, free firewood and a short boardwalk complete with a viewing platform on the lakeshore. Blueberries are abundant in season for picking and spicing up the morning pancakes.

The Seaton Roadhouse site, east of Deadman Lake on the AlCan, offers panels with historical information, trails with viewing decks and benches, and a beaver pond with many ducks and even a pair of swans the afternoon we visited.  And of course, a visit to Tetlin Refuge would not be complete without a visit to the visitor center. The staff was very friendly. The deck of the visitor center offered wonderful valley and mountain views.

We experienced beautiful sunshine and blue skies most days, with a chill in the air in the mornings that could only mean one thing: fall is on the horizon. Before we knew it our week at Deadman Lake ended and it was time to head back to Soldotna.

I frequently comment, “we are not birders.” After two years of participating in this worthwhile project, perhaps we are.

The Refuge’s Lakeview campground on Yarger Lake just west of Deadman is smaller but has a great viewing blind. PC Poppy Benson

In addition to the Kennedys, Dan Musgrove, Soldotna; Barbara O’Donnell, Fairbanks; Lewis Westwick, Danny Moss, Susan Moeller, and Deborah Vandruff, all of Anchorage also volunteered for a week of duck banding.

Indispensable Dan
From Volunteer to Employee
By Poppy Benson, Vice President for Outreach
One of Friends most hard working, most cheerful and all around good guy volunteers is Dan Musgrove of Soldotna. These Dan characteristics were not lost on the Tetlin Refuge staff particularly Deputy Manager Ross Flagen. Dan had volunteered three times for the Tetlln Refuge – two weeks of duck banding and other duties as assigned and a winter gig via snowmachine to chop wood and get remote cabins ready for the summer. So Ross knew Dan could work. When the frustrating government hiring system failed to find candidates for all the summer positions Tetlin needed, Ross figured out a way to hire Dan as a 30-day emergency hire. This retired oil field worker put on the brown uniform and became a ranger! Dan did mostly maintenance work for that month but he still wasn’t tired of Tetlin. He returned in August to volunteer for another week of duck banding. Now that is helping out a refuge in need!

A Brit on the Kisaralik: Friends Discovery trip to the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge

by Peter Thompson, London Friends Member

Eight Friends from London, Colorado, Homer, Fairbanks and Anchorage all dressed up with nowhere to go . . . . . .until the weather clears.

A man can only really play so much cornhole, you know. So, when Alaska skies are low and you’re stuck in a hangar with bags on the plane – you do what you can. Mike and I couldn’t resist a plea from two young lads in another group, “you guys ready to lose?” Ready – yes. Lose – no. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Mike lose at cornhole. But when the pilot burst in and said “We’re trying again, let’s go,” we left the cornhole and the vanquished youngsters behind.

I was on this trip as a new Friends member courtesy of my best pal Mike, who is on the Friends Board and my guide to Alaska for a long time. Alaska doesn’t see enough of me and vice versa and this float on the Kisaralik was a special chance to go somewhere I knew little about. Not to mention I am now the first international member of the Friends – so something of a celebrity – with a very small ‘c’!

London has been my home for 23 years so although I’m very familiar with low, white clouds, I was delighted to see them breaking as our floatplane headed southeast from Bethel. What was my first impression of the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge from the air? What a great place to be a duck – or a moose! We were lucky enough to spend the prior afternoon at the Refuge offices with Refuge Manager Spencer Rearden and some of this staff who gave us a real sense of the challenges they face in managing such a vast area on very limited resources. But their commitment and love for this land was unquestionable – they are true public servants and that left a real impression.

A perfect morning on Kisaralik Lake at the start of our float.

We joined Marty Decker and his fantastic group of guides, including his daughter Emily, that afternoon at Kisaralik Lake and even landed a few lake trout before dinner. Many things about Alaska have kept me in awe over the years, but I keep coming back to the simple scale of the place to an average and somewhat displaced lower 48er like me. Damn, it’s big. The Kilbuck mountains framed it for us at the lake and a perfect sunrise gave us their mirror image around the campfire the next morning. What a start!

The river journey itself evolved as the days passed, from the high plateaus and natural berms of the upper stretches to the alder, cottonwoods and conifers as we lost elevation. Clear, cold, fast water that carried us effortlessly while reminding us of its power and the hydraulics of submerged rocks and downed trees, along with the ability of its channel to wander – leading us to often beach our boats to reconnoiter the route ahead. The ability and care of our guides was constantly on display and for one not used to being ‘guided’, they were worth their weight in gold. And so much life to see – a dramatic silhouette of caribou along a high river ridge and a golden eagle with two chicks nesting on riverside cliffs were highlights. But outside of one overly curious black bear near our camp one night, we did not see any brown bears and wondered if this was an effect of the state-run predator control program, as those that had previously floated the river had seen them frequently.

Sadly, our trip did have a before and after moment that reminded me of the stakes visitors face in what can be an unforgiving environment. The party in front of us lost a boat and its occupants over the Kisaralik Falls which took the life of one of those three. We found them the next day further downriver – a lesson to us all of human tragedy and the awesome, destructive power of nature.

As always, Alaska showed me great new beauty with a reminder that those that come here and seek that beauty and its wilderness must be ready for it. A big thank you to the Friends and our intrepid guides for a truly remarkable trip. Needless to say, I’ll be back!

This was the second in a series of Discovery Trips to the off-road refuges. Next year’s trip will be to the Alaska Maritime Refuge. Plans are still being developed but the trip should be ready for booking soon. Watch our newsletters.

Chickaloon Flats: A Hidden Gem on the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge

By John Morton, (retired Kenai Refuge Supervisory Biologist) Within sight of almost half of all Alaskans lies a little-known tidal estuary. Perched along Turnagain Arm on the northwestern Kenai Peninsula, the 27,000-acre Chickaloon Flats is the only part of the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge that touches marine waters. It represents 7% of the total estuarine area in Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound, the two water bodies that form the peninsula. As such, it’s a small but important part of the Pacific Flyway for migratory shorebirds and waterfowl.

Yellowlegs and other shorebirds foraging in a tidal pool on Chickaloon Flats.

But how important? Sadie Ulman, before becoming a biologist at Arctic Refuge, did her graduate research on shorebird use of Chickaloon Flats in 2009-2010. The last part of her thesis, which addressed that question, was published recently in the journal Waterbirds. Sadie documented that 23 of 37 common shorebird species breeding in Alaska use Chickaloon Flats during migration. With peak daily shorebird population estimates of 23,000 in the spring and 95,000 in the fall, this stopover site hosts a lot of birds for short periods of time. But Sadie took it another step, using stable isotope analysis of feathers to determine where six of those shorebird species spend their winter. Feathers maintain an isotopic signature of what was eaten during the relatively short period of feather growth. This allows individual shorebirds to be sampled during breeding to estimate the geographic origin of their feather growth during the previous nonbreeding season. A combination of values from three stable isotopes (d2H, d13C, and d15N) are used to infer feather molt origin on a broad geographic scale because predictable spatial patterns of d2H occur in precipitation on a continental scale, and d13C and d15N are then used to further distinguish if the feather was grown in a terrestrial versus marine environment. Sadie used drop nets and decoys to catch (and band) migrating shorebirds that stopped over on Chickaloon Flats, from which she pulled feathers. What did she find? Greater Yellowlegs using Chickaloon Flats likely molted in southwest Alaska, and Short-billed Dowitchers in southcentral Alaska. Lesser Yellowlegs likely molted in western Alaska and a latitudinal band across Canada, and wintered throughout the Lower 48. Least Sandpipers wintered from Oregon and south in North America but showed an isotopically similar possibility in Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela. Long-billed Dowitchers molted primaries across the western U.S. and Canada. Pectoral Sandpipers using Chickaloon Flats likely molted near the Rio de La Plata in southeastern South America!

Sadie Ulman looking for shorebirds on the Chickaloon Flats. Amazingly, this tidal wetland, hidden in plain sight from Anchorage (15 miles from Potters Marsh), has significant value as a stopover for many shorebird species breeding in Alaska. Belugas and brown bears also forage for silver salmon in the Chickaloon River and other parts of the estuary are used as haulouts by harbor seals. The good news is that Chickaloon Flats is conserved within the Kenai Refuge. The bad news is that it’s not protected from natural disasters. During the 1964 Great Alaskan Earthquake, the entire estuary dropped in elevation and was inundated by mud. Even today, Chickaloon Flats really does tilt downward to the east and south. However, as Sadie showed in a 2019 article in Northwest Science, the marsh is slowly recovering.

My Spring Volunteering with the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge

By Barbara Ryan
Pompano Beach Florida Friends Member

It certainly was my pleasure to serve as a volunteer this spring at the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center. Their summer seasonal employees had not yet started work and the Refuge asked Friends for help with this shoulder season. I started off helping with the spring break Bear Awareness Program for families, which provided educational hands-on kids stations to teach children bear awareness through age-appropriate scavenger hunts, collage making, coloring events, and face painting. Over seventy-five participated.

Bear awareness is an important subject on an island which is home to 3500 Kodiak bears, the largest subspecies of brown bears. Helping with this was my first task.

Providing visitor information was a big part of my job and included information on the gray whale migration around Kodiak Island, where to go tide pooling, how to find beach glass, assisting with hunting and fishing regulations, explaining the road and river systems and abundant hiking trails, birds and species reference lists and where to find them on the road system. I also registered participants for the Kodiak Refuge Science and Salmon Camp Program which continues to be hugely popular year after year.

Kodiak Refuge Visitor Center is a vibrant resource providing meeting space for trainings such as an Alaska Oil Spill Response Conference and community events such as an Alutiiq sponsored Native bead bracelet making workshop. The refuge visitor center is centrally located amidst several museums, the town of Kodiak Visitor Center, the Alaska Marine Ferry Terminal and cruise ship docks, all within walking distance.

The Visitor Center store on a busy cruise ship day.

Because the spring season is not as busy as summer, I had time to experience the history and fascinating culture from Kodiak archaeology to the cultural heritage of the Alutiiq/Sugpiaq people, and provide a memorable tour of the visitor center to visitors.

The staff was a delight to work with and I have made some new friends from this Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges experience.

Nunivak Island: Home on the Range

By Kyra Neal, Wildlife Biologist, Yukon Delta Refuge

About 30 miles offshore from where the Kuskokwim River meets the Bering Sea, nestled in Shoal Bay, there is a small island village called Mekoryuk, home to around 200 mostly Yup’ik and Cup’ik people. In this place, the mayor is the same person who takes the trash trolley to the transfer station, the city office workers are the same people who teach kindergarten, the reindeer caretaker is the same person who jump started your ATV, and the elders stop by the roadside to share wisdom of their years growing up and to welcome you to their community on Nunivak Island.

Data gap plot on the western side of Nunivak Island in the Bering Sea.

Nunivak Island is also home to 700 muskox and 3,000 reindeer. Grazing has occurred on Nunivak Island for hundreds of years, first by caribou until they were extirpated in the late 1800s and then by introduced reindeer and muskox in the last century. The condition of their range was evaluated intensively in 1989 with 10 trend plots involving 40 quadrats and two transects for each location.
Kyra Neal pulling fall dandelion near the Mekoryuk sewage lagoon road.

Since 1989, Nunivak Island has become increasingly connected to mainland Alaska with more flights, boating, muskox hunting, and tourism. Consequently, Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge partnered with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in 2022 and 2023 to reevaluate the range condition and survey the island and village of Mekoryuk for invasive species at two different spatial scales. One is a fine-tooth comb and the other is more of a broad-stroke brush.

Reindeer at the facility in Mekoryuk
Let’s start with combing the luxurious locks of the tundra. Arriving at each plot via an R-44 helicopter, we applied the same methodology to evaluate range that was used in 1989. Within these 40 20×50 cm quadrats, we estimated ground cover for each species including lichen, shrubs, forbs, grasses, bare ground, rocks, and even scat. In 10 of these quadrats, we measured production by a double sampling clip and weigh method. Changes in ground cover and productivity will tell us how grazing has affected the range. Certain lichens are favorites of reindeer and can be depleted to bare ground exposure when overgrazing occurs. For invasives, we scouted disturbed areas in Mekoryuk by foot and in our monitoring areas, combing the tundra for anything out of place. Roads, barge ports, ATV trails, airstrips were all observed by foot in search of non-native species and plots with a high percentage of bare soil.

Pulling out our broad-stoke brush, range was surveyed between the established transects. Using NRCS reconnaissance methods, we scored range conditions based on evaluating the amounts of lichen, bare soil, presence of grazing and scat on two acres between transects. For our invasive species broad brush, we evaluated bare soil vectors for invasive species to get to the interior of the island. We used aerial imagery of ATV trails and disturbed areas to help us identify potential hot spots for introduction of non-native plants to the ecosystem.

One of our 20×50 cm quadrats used for sampling ground cover to assess the condition of the range.

What did we uncover? Well, good news and bad news. The good news is there are no invasive species on the Yukon Delta Refuge. The bad news is we did find some fall dandelion on the road leading to the airport and up to the sewage lagoon in Mekoryuk. We removed as much of the fall dandelions as could be done by hand and notified the village council president of our finding. Our range evaluation showed that the western side of Nunivak was heavily grazed, but the rest of the island has high quality grazing range for reindeer to enjoy!

Plot transects laid out by Karin Sonnen and Katie Schmidt (L) while Blaine Spellman collects data (R) on an established transect. All three work for the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

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