This past weekend I spent my Saturday night waxing skis. Sunday, I woke up before the crack of dawn, at 7:30 a.m., to make the… Continue reading
Winter is my favorite season here on the Kenai Peninsula. Everything is slower, quieter. You can just sense that the energy is calmer than the… Continue reading
As anyone visiting the Skilak Lake Wildlife Recreation Area or traveling between the Kenai Peninsula and Anchorage knows, construction has been underway on the Sterling… Continue reading
Who has ever poured over a list of possible baby names, highlighting favorites and writing them down for deliberation? Who has done the same for… Continue reading
My friend Joseph is a Scrabble savant by my standards and, I would think, by many other’s standards too. He excels at anagrams, staring at… Continue reading
It was minus 22 when we left for the Anchorage airport earlier this month. It was a sunny, beautiful drive north. The kind of bitter-cold… Continue reading
All summer long, you can find rowers, kayakers and more on Bear Lake just outside of Seward. Somewhere hidden on the west side, there’s a… Continue reading
A recent study published in the journal Nature Climate Change highlighted some work by Dr. Kyle Horton and his colleagues, who figured out how to… Continue reading
On June 8, 1897, Dr. Walter H. Evans of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Benton Killin, a retired lawyer and regent of the Oregon… Continue reading
I came up with a handful of good, meaningful New Year’s resolutions but by Jan. 2, I had failed most of them. My resolutions usually… Continue reading
Like true superheroes, every Alaskan has an origin story. The really cool origin story might involve being born a sixth-generation Alaskan from a sourdough ancestor… Continue reading
In 1975, as a freshman in Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin, I was required to take a weekly no-credit orientation seminar during my… Continue reading
I picked up my journal this morning, ready to start closing out another year in its pages. Instead, I found myself looking back at previous… Continue reading
It is the time of year for reflection, where we look back at the year and express gratitude for the many good things that happened,… Continue reading
“Welcome to Refuge Notebook. This is day one, page one of a new weekly column devoted to life and happenings on the Kenai National Wildlife… Continue reading
I’ve always been a planner. At age 4, you could find me bossing my father around a meticulously planned tea party — the water (you… Continue reading
I recently took a family vacation to my home state of Minnesota to visit family and friends. We arrived in time to help rake up… Continue reading
I find this a little depressing. A 2018 study published by the National Academy of Sciences estimates that by weight, 70% of all birds on… Continue reading
After this last summer’s lightning, fires and long drought, it should be obvious that our local climate is becoming warmer and drier than longtime residents… Continue reading
“Why don’t bats get dizzy from hanging upside down?” A second grade student at Tustumena Elementary School posed this excellent question to me. I stood… Continue reading
