Finding Refuge: Alaska Refuges’ Gifts to Your Mind, Body and Spirit

Presented by Matt Conner, Kenai National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Services Supervisor

This meeting was held on Tuesday, March 18, 5 pm Alaska Daylight Time

Soldotna – Matt Conner in person at Kenai National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center, Ski Hill Road. Reception follows talk.
Homer – Watch Party at the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center, 95 Sterliing Hwy.
Anchorage – Watch Party at REI Community Room, 500 E. Northern Lights Blvd.
And Around the Country on Zoom

Matt Conner crossing Skilak Lake on the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge in his drift boat.

It is a stressful time. Many of us struggle with less than optimum health. Join Ranger Matt Conner of the Kenai Refuge as he describes how refuges can improve our mind, body, and spirit. Matt went through a personal transformation as the result of a health crisis and is now a certified personal trainer eager to incorporate health benefits in management activities. He was instrumental in adding outdoor exercise equipment to the Kenai Refuge Multi Use Trail with the exercises tied to animal adaptations so that wildlife appreciation and exercise can go hand in hand. Interpretive panels pair the unique abilities of Alaskan wildlife, like balance and core strength, with the same physiological traits in humans. Combining his passion for nature and wildlife and a new found love of fitness training, Matt brings these two themes together in his talk.

He will also discuss the importance of nature and refuges for both physical and mental health. He is knowledgeable in the research on the effects of nature on mental health. Learn about how refuges are a source for whole foods as well as a source for mental and spiritual connection.

Skilak Lookout Trail on the Kenai Refuge provides an aerobic workout as well as stunning views and wildlife watching opportunities.

Biography

It was all because his mom would not let him have a BB gun. That is why Matt said he got into the outdoor field. He was only allowed to have a bow and arrow. By age 13 he was competing on the national level in archery. A family friend took notice of his proficiency and invited him bow hunting starting a lifelong interest in hunting and the outdoors. Matt has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in the human dimensions of forestry from the School of Forestry at Southern Illinois University. He worked at several national parks, the White River National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas and the Fish and Wildlife Service Prairie Wetlands Learning Center before coming to the Kenai Refuge in 2014.

Three years ago a medical crisis changed his life. Matt utilized his scientific background to investigate the ideal lifestyle of exercise and diet to turn his health around. Along his journey he earned certifications as Personal Trainer, Nutritional Counselor and Correctional Exercise Therapy from the National Association of Sports Medicine. In addition to managing the large recreational program at the Kenai Refuge, Matt also works in his spare time as a personal trainer and volunteers at Central Peninsula Hospital in the Behavioral Health Division teaching group classes in fitness and nutrition. His life style changes have reversed his medical problems leaving him symptom free. He is a strong proponent of a healthy life style of which exercise and immersion in nature are key components.

Matt is an avid fly fisherman and hiker and loves to spend his falls harvesting free range protein by stick and string!!! (bow and arrow and fly rod). He lives in Soldotna with his wife and has two grown children.

Winter recreation offers serenity plus a good workout. Skiing across Dolly Varden Lake to the Dolly Varden public use cabin on the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. pc. Lisa Hupp/USFWS

PC for lead photo: Joseph Robertia courtesy of the Redoubt Reporter

Volunteer, Volunteer, Volunteer

By Poppy Benson, Vice President

Want to do hands on field work? Share your enthusiasm for refuges with visitors? Be a campground host at a very lovely spot? Eight refuges have submitted their wish lists for volunteers and they are now posted on our Current Volunteer Opportunities webpage. Add some wildlife to your summer. Check them out, check your calendar and apply!

There are some intriguing multi week field projects including hare monitoring on Yukon Flats Refuge and biological monitoring and maintenance at Kanuti’s remote cabin. Both these will require some training so talk to them right away to arrange this. Izembek is looking for black brant survey team members but this year they want two. Friends will pay airfare Anchorage to Cold Bay. And that always fun project of banding ducks at Tetlin Refuge for a week is back for a 5th year. Alaska Peninsula Refuge wants help with their visitor center and summer events for the whole summer but two people could split the summer. Airfare, food allowance and refuge housing are provided. Izembek also wants visitor services help but we don’t have money to cover airfare although lodging would be provided. Kenai Refuge needs a campground host at Hidden Lake.

One day or afternoon projects include three big outreach events – the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival, Seabird Fest and the Kenai Sports and Recreation Show; help with fencing the banks of the Kenai to prevent erosion during the salmon runs; and cleanups on the Alaska Maritime (April 19) and Kenai (date TBD). Friends cosponsors the Shorebird Festival, May 7 – 11 in Homer and volunteers are needed for staffing the Friends Outreach Table and the Birder’s Coffee and for helping the refuge with Festival events. You can sign up for either or both Friends and refuge work. The Festival is our biggest project and traditionally our best source of new members and, it’s really fun! Come on down to Homer and help out. May 3 and 4 is the Kenai Sports and Recreation Show in Soldotna and May 30 – 31 is Seabird Fest in Seward. Friends are needed to help the refuges with activities and education at these events.

You can find all projects listed here including who to talk to for more information. Applications are needed for most projects and you must be a member for most projects. You can join or renew here. In addition, refuges with visitor centers – Kodiak, Kenai, Yukon Delta in Bethel, Alaska Peninsula in King Salmon and the Alaska Maritime in Homer can always use help. Contact those refuges if you live in the area.

Volunteering at the Friends Outreach Booth at the 2023 Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival. We need at least 25 volunteers to cover all 5 days of Festival events and outreach.

I was surprised we got as many projects as we did given the DOGE induced chaos at the refuges – uncertain job futures, stripped staff, credit card use suspended making acquiring field supplies impossible and no budget yet for this fiscal year. Should government uncertainties resolve, I think we would get some more projects so stay tuned to our volunteer current opportunities page.

Flying Wild Alaska: Aerial bird surveys give a bird’s-eye view of refuges and waterbirds

Presented by Heather Wilson, Fish and Wildlife Service Pilot/Biologist

This event was recorded live on November 19, 2024 in Anchorage, with other participants at watch parties and on Zoom.

“I think of the Cessna 206 as a Swiss army knife. It can do so many things well…and that makes it a very useful plane for aerial survey work” Heather Wilson as quoted in Vogue magazine. Heather flying the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Cessna 206 over the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge. PC Erinn Springer, Vogue.

Heather Wilson has said that if she could have one animal adaptation it would be flight! She’s been featured in Vogue, Outside, and Smithsonian magazines and now she will be here with us on the 19th to share her unique dual-function position of both pilot and wildlife biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Division of Migratory Bird Management. Learn how aerial bird surveys are conducted, the logistics of flying and surveying in some of the most remote parts of Alaska, and the research and management implications of the survey data she collects. Heather’s work takes her to ALL of Alaska’s National Wildlife Refuges and her surveys determine hunting regulations and management actions for an array of common and threatened species.

Heather is currently the project lead/pilot-observer for:

Population surveys for winter and fall brant at Izembek & Maritime National Wildlife Refuges
Breeding pair surveys across the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Coastal Zone, Arctic Coastal Plain, Copper River Delta, Kenai and Kanuti National Wildlife Refuges
Molting goose surveys and captures in the Teshekpuk Lake Special Use Area and Innoko Refuge.

She touched on these, as well as other waterbird surveys and field work past and present across the state.

Counting Cackling Canada Geese by eye on the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge flying only 125 feet AGL (above ground level). PC Tim Bowman/USFWS

Biography

Heather Wilson’s interest in conservation (and aviation) developed from growing up and working in the mountains, rivers, and forests of northern California. She holds a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and a B.A. in Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. After several years of working as a field biologist in North, Central, and South America (focused on neo-tropical migratory birds and bats), Heather moved to Alaska in 2001. Within a year, she became a private airplane pilot, adding commercial, instrument, and float ratings in 2008.

Heather has said what she likes most about her work is the autonomy and challenge of aerial surveys in Alaska and getting to blend biology and piloting. She also enjoys visiting the vast lands that Fish and Wildlife Service manages across Alaska, seeing all the animals from above (100 ft), and working with a great group of people, “biologists and pilots are salt of the earth”. Although Heather is Anchorage based, she flies bird surveys throughout the state on National Wildlife Refuges, and beyond. Most of her aerial surveys serve as the primary population indices for setting hunting regulations through the Pacific Flyway and Alaska Migratory Bird Co-Management Council, as well as assisting in conservation of Threatened species. When not in the work plane, Heather is busy compiling data and preparing for more surveys.

In her off time Heather enjoys hiking, skiing, hunting/fishing, playing music with her family and flying in the family’s Piper Super Cub. Heather Wilson with her children in the Super Cub.

See some great footage of bird flocks and learn more about her work as a Wildlife Biologist/Airplane Pilot in these short videos.

Mission Unstoppable TV show – How Biologists Count Birds: Biologist/Pilot Heather Wilson

LifeOnTERRA film – Chasing Birds in Beringia

2024 Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival! May 8-12

The annual Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival in Homer, Alaska is co-sponsored by Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges and the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and made possible by the staff and many volunteers! Thank you to all the sponsors, speakers, guides, instructors, and volunteers who helped make the 2024 Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival a success, and thank you to all who attended. Looking forward to 2025! View/Download the 2024 Bird Species List The Red-necked Phalarope, chosen as the featured bird for the 32nd Annual Festival, breeds across the Arctic. They winter at sea in the open ocean, where they are most common in the Atlantic in the currents along the west coast of Africa from Morocco to Namibia. They are also found in the Pacific in similar currents off California and Peru.Kachemak Bay (near Homer, Alaska) provides miles of shoreline and inter-tidal habitat for migrating birds. Kachemak Bay’s unique ecology, easy accessibility to beaches, and the scenic landscapes of Homer make this a prime location to experience this annual migration. Kachemak Bay’s 320 miles of shoreline and 30-foot tidal range create the substantial inter-tidal areas that attract shorebirds. The shoreline of Kachemak Bay is a prime stopover to keep them fueled for the next phase in their journey. If you’re interested in volunteering, providing a tour or activity or have any questions, get in touch: kachemakshorebird@gmail.com See you in May 2025!

It Takes a Village: To Articulate a Moose!

by Lee Post

This year, Friends gave $1000 to help Innoko Refuge bring “boneman” Lee Post to McGrath to articulate a moose skeleton with the local school. Lee is well known for his work and has articulated a grey whale skeleton for the Kodiak Refuge Visitor Center and has done numerous other projects with parks, colleges, museums and schools.

As a boneman, my fantasy was to fly to the interior village of McGrath and jump into working with local students walking them through the construction of a moose skeleton. Not a free-standing skeleton, due to time constraints, and missing bones, but a “Moose on a Half-Shell”. This is half a moose taking one side of the skeleton and fastening the bones to a plywood panel cut in the correct anatomical shape of a moose. In this way, students get to do an art and science installation and learn where and how all the bones fit. The finished skeleton could be outlined, mounted to a wall, and finished in a couple of days.

The reality of this morphed into, let’s have the bones fastened to three panels on a wheeled stand such that each panel can come off and be transported. This way the finished moose could be moved to various places around town. When I got there late on a Wednesday afternoon, the students had yet to see the bones, the stand was still being constructed, and there was only a day and a half before the weekend. The next day students came in waves. Group after group. I tried to give them a quick introduction to bones and got them sorting the bone puzzle and drilling holes in the vertebrae. But no sooner did I get them really started when they had to leave and another group came in. I had hoped the oldest students would get enthused and come in for the weekend. They didn’t, and suddenly it was the weekend and we had two days to get the moose walking as I was scheduled to fly out on Monday.

Two super students, Eva Welch and Kierra Egrass, did the touch up painting of the repaired and the replacement bones of the “Moose on the Half-Shell”. pc: Lee Post

Over two long days, the village came together to get the project done. John Gray, the local fix it guy, brought tools and parts and fancy fasteners and stayed to make jigs and slice the bones to fit flat on the panels. Tim Yoder, carpenter and Fish and Game employee, finished construction of a wonderful three panel stand. The upper half of the moose was cut out of the plywood in silhouette. The skeleton got articulated in sections that fit onto the panels without overlapping such that the panels could be removed with the bones. We learned a few things such as: a moose is a big animal, and old buried moose bones can be surprisingly delicate. We repaired many of the broken and chipped bones and broke a few more ourselves. The skull came broken in half and was coming apart. Clarence, a teacher, brought in a skull with antlers, but it was too big and heavy to use for this. John brought in another, younger skull that was a better fit. Kellie Peirce from the Innoko refuge, had saved replacement bones from a moose she harvested. We all met and heard from Ephrem and Angela Andrews how they found and collected the bones five years ago over a couple of rainy days from under the silt and sand of the river. It is still not clear to me what motivated them to work so hard in the river in the rain probing for bones under the water.

The whole school and some community members turned out to celebrate the completion of the moose articulation. Bone finders Ephrem and Angela Andrews are in the back row under the moose ribs. Boneman Lee Post is under the American flag and Innoko Visitor Services Manager, Kellie Peirce, is on the far left.

The project got finished, thanks to all. It did take a village, starting with the collection of the bones by the Andrews and one person, Francis, from the Sally Jo Collins Museum in McGrath with a dream to do something with them. Kellie Peirce, Innoko Refuge Visitor Services Manager, applied for the funding, created partnerships and became the mother of the project from there to completion. WELL DONE!

“I’ll just make some Native engineers.” ANSEP – Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program

By Poppy Benson, Vice President for Outreach

Engineer and professor Herb Schroeder,while working on sanitation projects in bush villages, was shocked to find there were no Native engineers. Outsiders were coming in and making all the decisions in these villages. Herb thought, I’m an engineering professor at UAA so why don’t I just make some Native engineers. That was the beginnings of ANSEP – Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program – which was designed to funnel Native kids into STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). Schroeder soon learned that it was a complicated task to recruit village students from graduating classes of 5 or 10 taught by a revolving door of young, inexperienced, non-Alaskan teachers and from families where no one had gone to college and turn them into successful college students. Attracting them to the STEM field was only the first step as they also had to successfully apply to college, be ready for college level work and be culturally and socially supported in the University environment that was so different from their home villages. ANSEP grew to address those issues expanding to a pathway and support system that starts in elementary school and goes all the way through a PhD. Watch this heartwarming short video about ANSEP.

As an ANSEP partner, Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) contributes paid internships plus $50,000 annually to the scholarship fund. Karen Hyer, FWS subsistence office, who works with students at the Anchorage campus, said “Our target audience is rural kids. They have the skill sets we want.” She went on to say kids from the Delta speak Yupik, have field experience and frequently want to live and know how to live in rural areas. She was quick to say that as a federally supported program, ANSEP is open to all kids but the majority of students are Native. About a half dozen former ANSEP students are now permanent FWS employees. Meet two of them.

Randall Friendly said in an interview when he was in college “My family has lived in the Yukon Delta for 10,000 years. I love Alaska’s natural beauty and want to preserve its wildlife and resources for future generations. ANSEP is helping me achieve my career goals, which will help protect the land I love.

Randall Friendly, our October meeting speaker, came out of Tuntutliak on the Yukon Delta from a graduating class of 5. He is the first in his family to go to college. He is the first in his family to go to college. He got involved in ANSEP’s Acceleration Academy as a junior in high school and now is about to receive his Masters of Science from University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) having successfully defended his thesis on how wintering conditions for threatened spectacled eiders affect breeding success. He just started his first permanent job as waterfowl biologist for the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge. His recorded talk, Working with Waterfowl on the Yukon Delta Refuge, is online hereand listen to a podcastwhere he talks about his career.

Keith Herron says he wanted to be a fisheries biologist because “I want to be a part in making sure they are always around so others can have the opportunities I have had. I have always had fish in my life”.

Keith Herron is a fisheries biologist and tribal liaison with the Fairbanks FWS Field Office. Keith grew up from Bethel to Wrangell to Kenai but always around water and fishing. Keith heard about ANSEP his senior year from a refuge employee. He signed up for ANSEP’s Summer Bridge (to college) program. Keith is finishing his masters in fisheries biology from UAF. His work with Ichthyophonus, a fish parasite contracted by Chinook salmon, puts him in a hot spot in a region where fisheries have been closed or greatly limited for four years causing significant hardships to the communities of the Yukon River. His research hopes to shed light on whether this parasite is responsible for less fish reaching Canada than expected. He is hoping what he learns about this disease will help better inform crucial fishery management decisions. Read more about his work here.

Karen Hyer noted that change is slow but ANSEP is a bright light with excellent student outcomes. It is bringing to the FWS competent young Native professionals who will “normalize” fish and wildlife careers for the kids coming up behind them.

The boat shaped ANSEP building on the UAA campus is a home base providing a supportive environment for studying and cultural events. Keith Herron said the best part of ANSEP is “You are not doing school alone. You are part of a community”

The Most Amazing Refuge You’ve Never Seen: Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge

September 23, 2023
Presented by Jeff Williams, Deputy Refuge Manager

This presentation was recorded. Watch below:

In Homer and Soldotna – bring sides or desserts to the soup/chili after gathering or just come. Refuge staff will share upcoming winter events and volunteer opportunities.

Remote. Difficult to access. Harsh weather. Thousands of Islands. Millions of Birds. Erupting volcanoes. You’ve heard about it, but few people have actually had the privilege of visiting this spectacular refuge. Spanning in extent from southeast Alaska, west to the end of the Aleutian Chain, and north above the Arctic Circle, a distance equivalent to that from the East Coast to the West Coast of the lower 48, the 4 million acre refuge is comprised of several thousand islands. It’s also home to 80% of all the breeding seabirds in North America – we guess that is over 40 million birds, but our tally counters don’t go that high. Oh, and don’t forget the hundreds of thousands of seals, sea lions, and otters too. Remote field camps on uninhabited islands and the largest ship in the Fish and Wildlife Service, the 120 foot R/V Tiglax, carry out the work of the refuge. The Refuge’s Islands and Ocean Visitor Center is in Homer at refuge headquarters. Jeff will provide an overview of the unique scenic beauty of the refuge and give you a look into the current refuge projects from the biological program to tribal engagement, ship operations and more.

Most of North America’s seabirds nest on this one refuge and crested auklets are some of the coolest. PC USFWS

Jeff came to the Alaska Maritime Refuge in 1990 when the refuge was only 10 years old. He has worked for this refuge probably longer than anyone else working his way up from Biological Technician, to Biologist, to Refuge Operations Specialist, to Assistant Manager and now Deputy Refuge Manager. Jeff says he remains passionate about the refuge after all these years because the work is always new, people and projects are interesting, and the refuge is a spectacular crown jewel in the refuge system. He even met his wife working for the refuge. In his current position, Jeff oversees the day-to-day operations of the refuge and staff, serves as supervisor and scheduler for the R/V Tiĝlax̂, and wishes he could do more surveys in a skiff. Jeff was based in the Adak office for 12 years and moved to the Homer office in 2001. Jeff enjoys spending time with his family, reading widely, working in his shop on projects and woodworking.

Jeff Williams on Segula Island in the Aleutian Islands. pc: USFWS

30 Years Later: Are Spectacled Eiders still a Mystery?

Presented by Dan Rizzolo, Endangered Species Biologist.

Tuesday, April 18, 5 p.m. – 6 p.m. AKDT
Dan’s presentation was recorded. Watch below:

Spectacled eiders were in rapid decline in the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge in 1993 when they received the protection of the Endangered Species Act by being listed as a Threatened species. They were a mystery then. Western science knew very little about this sea duck species with the spectacled plumage. We knew they made their nests in the coastal tundra along the Bering Sea and Arctic coasts of Alaska and Siberia, but not where they molted their feathers or spent the winter. How many were there? What did they eat? And, importantly, why were they in such rapid decline? In the 30 years since they were listed, we have learned much about this tough duck that winters among the pack ice in the Bering Sea. In this 50th anniversary year of the Endangered Species Act, join us for Dan’s review of what has been learned since listing, including how spectacled eiders are responding to changes in sea ice in the Bering Sea. But knowledge does not always bring recovery and with ongoing anthropogenic climate change, the spectacled eider continues to face an uncertain future.

Dan, Mist Netting birds on the river. pc Mark Lindberg

Dan Rizzolo is a wildlife biologist who works with a great team of biologists and support staff in the Endangered Species Recovery program of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, based in Fairbanks. He found his way to Alaska from the east coast for a summer job after finishing his undergraduate studies and has remained in the Great Land since, working as a biologist throughout the state, primarily with birds. Dan enjoys spending time in remote areas of Alaska, both for work and for play. In Fairbanks, you will often find him pedaling his fat tire bike up O’Connor Creek trail, or at local ice rinks cheering on his favorite hockey players, his wife Adrian and son Gavin.

From Aahaaliq to Ulu: Culturally relevant environmental education. 2/21, 5 – 6 p.m. (AKT)

Presented by Brittany Sweeney, Outreach Specialist, Selawik Refuge

Tuesday, February 21, 5 p.m. – 6 p.m. AKDT

What should environmental education be like on Alaska’s National Wildlife Refuges that are simultaneously public lands and homelands for Indigenous peoples? Iñupiaq residents in northwest Alaska have deep knowledge and longstanding connections to these lands that are now part of Selawik Refuge. In their environmental education program, Selawik Refuge centers cultural relevance, uplifting traditional stewardship, and building community partnerships. The annual Selawik Science-Culture Camp is a key example of this approach, but you can also see it in all of the refuge’s outreach and management approaches.

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Brittany Sweeney has lived in Kotzebue, in the homeland of the Iñupiat, since 2010, with her husband and two kids. Brittany grew up in Yupi’k communities around Alaska refuges, first in Stebbins on the Yukon Delta Refuge, then in Dillingham where she started working for Togiak Refuge as a college student in 1998.

Few Moose, Few Wolves: What is the Story on the Yukon Flats Refuge? 1/17, 5pm-6pm (AKT)

Presented by Bryce Lake, Wildlife Biologist, Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge

Speaker Reception with Bryce and light refreshments: Morris Thompson Cultural Center, 101 Dunkel Street, Fairbanks, or join others at Alaska Maritime Refuge Islands & Ocean Visitor Center, 95 Sterling Hwy or Kenai Refuge Visitor Center, 33398 Ski Hill Road or Kodiak Refuge Visitor Center, 402 Center St.

Doors open at with light refreshment at 4:30pm, presentation begins at 5pm at all 4 locations!

Bryce Lake with sedated wolf after the radio collar was attached. His red coat was a deliberate choice so the helicopter capture crew could easily find Bryce in the expansive landscape to deliver a wolf to him for collaring.

Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge is unique because wolves and moose occur there at some of the lowest densities in North America. With moose the only large prey available to wolves on the Yukon Flats, how does the low prey density change the wolves behavior? Do wolves eat fewer moose when moose are scarce (wolf kill rate)? How do wolves adapt to few prey (search behavior)? Join Yukon Flats Wildlife Biologist Bryce Lake to hear his stories about his four years of field work trying to answer these questions. He will share moose numbers, wolf numbers, and what he has learned about this unusual predator/prey situation.

Yukon Flats Refuge, a vast complex of wetlands, is the third largest refuge in the country.. pc: USFWS

Bryce Lake says the most rewarding aspect of his job is the inspiration he draws from interacting with and learning about the hidden ways of nature, some of which he will share in this talk. Bryce has been a wildlife biologist for the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge since 2008. He has broad experience in Alaska having spent 13 summers from 1998 to 2008 living in a tent and working as a field technician on the Copper River Delta, North Slope, Yukon Delta, and the Interior. He has had prior experience on other Alaska National Wildlife Refuges including Yukon Delta Refuge and as an intern at Kanuti Refuge. Bryce’s job as a wildlife biologist is to conduct biology to inform management decisions. This usually means aerial surveys to count wildlife, capture and radio collar birds and mammals, and band ducks. His latest experiment is using trail cameras to monitor furbearers, particularly lynx. You can read about surprising things that Bryce has discovered with his trail cameras in the Science Corner of our February 2021 issue of our newsletter.

Bryce holds a master’s degree from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. His thesis focused on how early environment shapes the growth of goslings. In his spare time, he enjoys all things outdoors, usually fishing, camping, hunting, and hiking with his two dogs. He also enjoys watching a close hockey or football game. Bryce lives in Fairbanks.

Moose and wolf research takes place during the lovely but often brutally cold winter with temperatures frequently below zero. pc: USFWS

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By Poppy Benson, Vice President for Outreach

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