Tag: publiclands

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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.

 



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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.


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Conserving the Whole Lifecycle of Salmon: Gravel to Gravel in Alaska

Tuesday, April 16, 5-6 pm AKDT
Presented by Boyd Blihovde: Senior Advisor for Conservation, USFWS Alaska
This presentation was recorded.  Watch below:

Salmon have been in trouble in western Alaska and for a long time.  The people of the rivers who depend on salmon for much of their food resources and cultural identity are hurting.  Boyd Blihovde, head of the Fish and Wildlife Service’s new Gravel to Gravel Initiative, will share with us this situation and his hopes for what this new approach will bring.  Boyd, then manager of the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge,  was in the thick of it in 2022 when salmon conservation discussions reached a peak in the villages of Western Alaska and beyond.  Protecting Pacific Salmon’s entire lifecycle (from the spawning grounds to the ocean, and back to the spawning grounds) was not a new concept.

Yukon River smokehouse.  Putting up salmon for the winter.  pc  S. Zuray

However, during several hearings and listening sessions with villages and tribes, it became clear that rebuilding salmon runs across Alaska was critical for indigenous people and other rural subsistence users. Leadership from the Department of Interior heard this message from the Tribes and responded with Gravel to Gravel.  It is one of nine “Keystone Initiatives” in the United States that are being prioritized by the Department of Interior to focus agency attention and resources on priority conservation issues. The primary goal of Gravel to Gravel is, through tribal engagement and participation, to restore salmon streams and ensure food security to subsistence users within the lower-Arctic, Yukon, and Kuskokwim region of Alaska and into Canada.   However, Boyd added that “we hope our efforts just bring back salmon numbers for everyone and all users.”  Our vision is: “With Tribes centered, we unite to care for salmon, from gravel to gravel.


Fish drying racks and fishing boats are a key part of life in the salmon dependent villages of western Alaska pc USFWS

Bio: Boyd Blihovde is the Senior Advisor for Conservation at the USFWS Regional Office in Anchorage. He was the Refuge Manager at the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge based in Bethel, Alaska, from 2020 to August 2023. Prior to moving to Alaska, Boyd was the Refuge Manager at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, located in Los Fresnos, Texas.  He began his Service experience in 1989 as a GS-3, Youth Conservation Corp member at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge eventually moving on to the University of Central Florida, receiving a bachelor’s and master’s degree in biology.  Boyd studied and researched sea turtles on Archie Carr Refuge Canaveral National Seashore, and Puerto Rico and conducted research and wrote his thesis on the terrestrial behavior and site fidelity of gopher frogs.

More recently, Boyd and his wife Gisela have focused more attention on their twins (Ava and Taylor). Boyd writes “The kids have been a lot of fun and have changed our focus from work and self to family and fun.”



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April Advocacy Report

The mission of Friends is to support the 16 national wildlife refuges, which of course includes advocating for the wildlife that make these refuges their home. We are extremely concerned by the current predator control actions of the State of Alaska on state lands, which directly impacts adjacent federal lands and the animals that live on and migrate through wildlife refuges. 

Last year, the Alaska Board of Game expanded a plan for predator control in game units adjacent to Togiak and Yukon Delta national wildlife refuges to include wolves and both brown and black bears. The Mulchatna Intensive Management Operational Plan was developed in response to a very real problem: the collapse of the Mulchatna caribou herd.  It should be noted that the decline of the Mulchatna herd has continued despite the killing of over 450 wolves for predator control. Biologists are clear that the cause of the caribou population collapse is much more complex than the predator-prey dynamic and in fact, studies suggest a stronger link to forage quality and quantity resulting in lower pregnancy rates and higher caribou calf mortality.  These issues are compounded by higher incidence of brucellosis, causing higher abortions and stillbirth rates.  Despite these facts, an expanded predator control plan was implemented in 2023 with a plan to kill an estimated 15-20 brown bears. 

Sadly, in just the first year of the plan, 94 brown bears, including several year-old cubs and 11 younger still-nursing cubs, were killed.  This represents an estimated 74% of the brown bear population in the plan area, and significantly more than the planned take of 15-20 bears. In addition, five black bears and five wolves were killed.  While the control program may not have taken place on the refuges proper, bears don’t know boundaries and roam widely so it’s very likely that bears of Togiak and possibly Yukon Delta refuges were killed during this 17-day killing spree. 

In an opinion piece in the Anchorage Daily News on August `14, 2023, 34 retired Alaska wildlife managers and scientists including several of our members said they did not believe the Mulchatna predator control decision was underpinned by the best available science, nor was it adequately vetted with the public prior to implementation.

This expanded predator control plan is scheduled to continue through 2028. The wildlife of Alaska is its most precious resource and this indiscriminate killing can’t be allowed to continue. 

We urgently ask our members who are Alaska residents to contact your state representatives and express your outrage

  1. that the implementation of the Intensive Management plan for Caribou Units 9B, 17, 18, 19A and 19B has resulted in the deaths of nearly 4 times the projected number of bears in the plan and that the Board of Game should scale back the plan accordingly and:

  2. that Legislators ensure new members better represent the diverse interests of Alaskans and wildlife as the current Board of Game (BOG) is heavily weighted to hunting and trapping interests (the Governor appoints and Legislators approve all BOG members).  

You can read the profiles of the Board of Game members here.  There are no working biologists on the Board of Game. The opportunity to remedy this situation could lie with the two members of the BOG whose terms are up this June.  You can also express your concerns to Fish and Game Commissioner Douglas Vincent-Lang or ADFG Director of Wildlife Conservation Ryan Scott regarding the problems with this specific Intensive Management plan.



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Three Amazing Rivers of the Central Yukon Watershed with Refuge Manager David Zabriskie

Friends Membership Meeting
This event was held on Tuesday, March 19, 5-6 pm AKDT

  • Homer – Watch Party at Alaska Maritime Refuge Visitor Center, 95 Sterling Hwy.
  • Soldotna – Watch Party at Kenai Refuge Visitor Center on Ski Hill Road
  • Anchorage– Watch Party at BP Energy Center, Spruce/Willow Room, 1014 Energy Ct.

Three wildlife-rich refuges along the central Yukon River are named after the rivers that define them – Koyukuk, Innoko and Nowitna.  Ecologically speaking, these rivers are the heart and lifeblood of the three National Wildlife Refuges.   They are also the primary access to the refuges for the people of the central Yukon and beyond. Refuge Manager David Zabriskie who is the manager for all three refuges, will share with us his work to protect the Nowitna River, a National Wild and Scenic River, and more broadly the role all three of these rivers play in the lives of the wildlife and the people of the Central Yukon River Watershed.  For a preview of this beautiful river David will be sharing with you, check out this two minute video.

 

The Nowitna River with the Kokrine Hills in the background.  pc: USFWS

David Zabriskie’s Bio: After working as a U.S. Navy Aviation Electronics Technician for four years, David pursued his passion for conservation, completing a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in wildlife/forestry and began his Fish and Wildlife Service career through the Student Career Experience Program at Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge in Alabama. From there, he gained valuable experience working in the diverse landscapes of Mississippi, remote Pacific Islands, Tennessee, Alaska, and Arizona before returning to Alaska to work in Galena as the Deputy Manager and now Refuge Manager.  


David Zabriskie on the Selawik Refuge

David’s travels have provided him with the opportunity to work with diverse partners and communities across the country on amazing rivers like the Tennessee River and Colorado River. He has also led the Alaska Region’s first Comprehensive River Management Plan for the Nowitna Wild and Scenic River. In his spare time, David’s interests in photography and herpetology often lead him to remote locations around the planet for new discoveries.



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March Advocacy Report

by Caroline Brower, Vice President for Advocacy

Fish and Wildlife Service Funding Passed

Fish and Wildlife Service Funding Passed  and  Proposed Rule:  National Wildlife Refuge System; Biological Integrity, Diversity, and Environmental Health. Two big things regarding refuges have hit this week- news regarding federal funding for all refuges across the country, and our advocacy for a proposed rule change strengthening protections for biological integrity and diversity in the refuge system.  

Five months into the fiscal year, Congress finally passed a budget for the Department of the Interior last Friday night, and it was signed into law by the President on Saturday. This bill was not, however, great news for refuges. Friends  has lobbied for a significant budget increase for the Refuge System, for a near tripling of the current, ridiculously low budget that barely allows refuges to keep staff on the ground, never mind do the ground-breaking biological and scientific wildlife work the Refuge System is known for.

While funding for Alaska’s 16 refuges is still to be determined, we know that the National Wildlife Refuge System as a whole took a 14.5 million dollar cut, down about 2% from the previous year budget. This cut, combined with a 5.5% employee pay increase, stresses an already underfunded system of public lands. This dramatically underfunded system is at risk of being unable to accomplish its critical conservation mission.  

Sitting at just above $500 million in annual funding, Congress expects these monies to cover 570 units of the Refuge System across 95 million acres of land and 750 million acres of ocean. 80 million of the land acres are in Alaska, yet staffing and project shortages mean there are so few biologists and pilots that on-refuge research and wildlife surveys frequently do not happen.  

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently directed its staff to do a study of all refuge acres and come up with a realistic number for how much is actually needed to operate the Refuge System in a way that would maintain healthy lands and waters, robust wildlife populations, and recreational access for people. That number was $1.5 billion, triple the current funding. 

Senator Lisa Murkowski is the Ranking Member on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for Interior lands. She has the ability to assert her desire to see Alaska’s refuge lands funded. Her Anchorage office is (907) 271-3735. Friends are sure that if enough people call her office and ask for increased funding for Alaska’s refuges, she will follow through. 

Proposed Rule:  National Wildlife Refuge System; Biological Integrity, Diversity, and Environmental Health

Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges submitted comments in collaboration with other Alaska-based conservation groups in support of this proposed rule. We expressed our support for (1) policy updates to better protect wildlife species threatened by climate change, (2) a prohibition on predator control on refuges in Alaska and nationwide, and (3) a requirement for refuges to cooperate with and coordinate with tribal entities and local communities. You can read the entirety of our comments in the attached letter. 



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February Advocacy Report

by Caroline Brower, Vice President for Advocacy

For the last few months, we’ve outlined the funding challenges facing wildlife refuges in Alaska. Congress is now four full months into the new fiscal year (FY2024 runs October 1, 2023-September 30, 2024) and has yet to pass a full-year funding bill. The chaos caused by a failure to ensure adequate and timely funding to government agencies means that refuges and regional offices don’t know if they will be able to afford to fill vacant positions or complete refuge projects. 

Some deputy positions at refuges across the state have been filled recently, including deputy managers at Koyukuk, Alaska Peninsula, Arctic, and Selawik National Wildlife Refuges, but many biology, visitor services, and other positions remain vacant. Congress needs to act soon to avoid a government shutdown in March. 

On a local refuge front, news is quiet. Refuge staff are working through a supplemental environmental impact statement at Izembek Refuge, and we don’t expect to see anything from that plan until the end of the year. We are watching a lawsuit filed by the Alaska Industrial and Development Export Authority (AIDEA) to challenge the dismissal of their leases in the Arctic Refuge.  We will be in touch with Friends members in the next month or two when that suit starts moving through the courts. 

And finally, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has hired Karlin Itchoak, formerly with The Wilderness Society, as the new Chief of Refuges in Alaska. This position supervises all the refuge managers in Alaska.  We look forward to working with Karlin as he gets settled into his new role this week!

Thank you for your advocacy and your support for all of Alaska’s wildlife refuges!



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What We Think We Know: The Deep Past of the Ancient Unangan Aleut

Tuesday, February 20, 2024 5-6 pm AKT
With Archeologist and Author Debra Corbett

Friends Membership Meeting, ALL welcome.
The Zoom Recording of this event can be viewed below.

We ALL thank you so much Debbie for sharing your experience and knowledge with ALL of us.  It was great! 

Since then, exploring and trying to understand the ancient human history of these islands has been an all-consuming passion.  Along the way I worked with amazing people and experienced transcendently beautiful land and seascapes. The past and old ways lie close to the surface if you listen. Ever so gradually we learned about the people, the culture and the rich history tied to this place.  I will talk about my experiences working in the islands for 30 years and hit some of the highlights of our research. 


Debbie Corbett photographing a site on Hawadax in 2001. pc WAAPP

For 9000 years people flourished in the Aleutian Archipelago, a 1000-mile chain of islands stretching from mainland America nearly to Asia.  The rich marine environment supported 40,000 people before the coming of the Russians compared to a scant 8000 today.  In spite of this long human history and complex and interesting social organizations of the ancient Unangax, very little archeological work was done in the Aleutians perhaps because of the remoteness or the weather.  Debbie’s work was pioneering, and she is considered the foremost Aleutian archaeologist today.  Most all of the Aleutians are in the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.  

Debbie’s hot-off-the-presses book that she coauthored with Diane Hanson, Culture and Archaeology of the Ancestral Unangax/Aleut of the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, will be available for purchase and signing at the talk in Homer.  The book is available online from multiple sources. 

Biography by Debra Corbett

At age seven I decided I would be an archaeologist; no other option ever entered my mind.  I got my BA at the University of Arizona, and worked for a few years in Idaho and Arizona before heading north in 1983, to work for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).  The job was investigating historic sites claimed by the newly created Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, Native Corporations.

That summer BIA sent two crews to Adak Island.  Since I had actually been in a small boat, I was picked for one of the crews.  Of the 12 of us, ONE, not me, knew anything about the Aleutians and none of us had been there before.  My crew spent three months in a rat-infested cabin with an inflatable boat, in the Bay of Islands one of the most beautiful spots on earth.  I was completely enmeshed in the magic of the islands.

I worked for the BIA until 1989 then went on to get an MA in Fairbanks, studying–you guessed it–the Aleutian Islands.  One day my advisor approached me with a phone number on a scrap of paper and said “This crazy bird biologist in Kansas wants to find an Aleutian archaeologist.  Call him!” and my future was set.  After completing my degree, I went to work for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), largely because the agency manages the islands as part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.  Unusual for any agency, FWS allowed me to participate in a multi-year research project with the crazy biologist, Dr. Douglas Causey, and some of his colleagues.  From 1997-2003 we were the Western Aleutians Archaeological and Paleobiological Project (WAAPP).  Along the way we experienced the best and the worst the Aleutians have to offer, shipwreck, injury, laughter, frustration, fear, transcendent joy, and unbelievable archaeology.  

In December 2012 I discovered I was eligible for retirement and left the best job in the world so I could spend more time doing research and writing on the prehistory of the Aleutian Islands.  Long time friend and colleague Diane Hanson here at University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) talked me into writing a book on the prehistory of the Aleutians Islands.  We finished that book and here I am, to tell you all about 30 years in the Best Place in Alaska.





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January Advocacy Report

by Caroline Brower, Vice President for Advocacy

With the holidays wrapped up, and Congress back in session, talk has returned to the budget and potential budget cuts. We as Friends can’t do much about whether or not Congress argues itself into a government shutdown, but we DO have the ability to advocate and lobby– yes, lobby– on behalf of wildlife refuges.

Two budget deadlines are upcoming. The first is January 19, includes four of the twelve appropriations subcommittees, but it does not include wildlife refuges. The second deadline is February 2, and includes the remaining eight subcommittees, such as the Interior Department and refuges. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer agreed this week to a top-line budget number, or basically a cap of what can be spent government-wide this year. We have not seen an Interior-specific number yet. This top-line agreement is a good first step towards preventing a government shutdown, but it is no guarantee.

The biggest concern Friends have regarding the budget for the rest of this fiscal year (FY2024, which ends September 30) is that the House is determined to cut funding. Refuges are already badly understaffed and desperately in need of additional funding. The only way we can get more is to lobby for it. The House included a 10% cut to refuges in their FY2024 budget bill, which would hollow out the System and close dozens of refuges. The Refuge System did an examination of their 568 refuge units several years ago, and determined the true need of the Refuge System (nationwide, not just in Alaska) at $1.5 billion. Current funding is ⅓ of that– $541 million.

The best way you can help Alaska’s 16 national wildlife refuges in the next few weeks is to ask Senator Murkowski , Senator Sullivan , and Representative Peltola to keep refuge funding strong. Tell them a personal story about how important these refuges are to you and ask them to keep funding strong, at least equal to the current funding levels of $541 million. The links attached to each of their names will take you to the email form on their websites.

Thank you for your advocacy and your support for all of Alaska’s wildlife refuges!



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