KUAC - Fairbanks

Denali National Park is still melting out from its snowiest winter season in 99 years of record keeping. The unusually heavy, lingering snow is affecting park wildlife.

Summer operations resumed on May 20, but park public affairs officer Sharon Stiteler says conditions along the Park Road are lagging behind the calendar.

“It definitely looks like winter when you’re out at about mile 10 and you’re looking into the tundra. I mean, it’s still very snow-covered,” she said.

The Park Service headquarters got 176 inches of snow this winter, besting the 1970-71 record of nearly 174 inches. As of May 15, there were still 33 inches of snow on the ground at Park headquarters — by far the most on record so late in the season.

But Stiteler says the onset of warmer temperatures this week has accelerated melting.

“There are more areas to be able to walk along the sides of the road, but we still have places where drifts are quite high or where we’ve had snow plowed. I’m 5 foot tall, and some of those drifts are higher than me,” she said.

Stiteler says the heavy snowpack dented some agency truck cabs and damaged a pedestrian bridge at Savage River. More important, it’s stressed wildlife, resulting in more animals on the Park Road this spring.

“Bears are using the road, as are moose,” she said. “Last week we did have a moose on the Park Road who gave birth to twins.”

Stiteler says the two calves have since died, noting that moose are generally very weak from the deep snow. But with so much still on the ground, it’s not clear how many moose have been dying.

“We’re anticipating more carcasses coming through as the snow melts, and we’re keeping a close eye on it — especially if some of those carcasses are along the Park Road or in areas we know visitors are going to frequent,” she said.

Meanwhile, a portion of the park road in the Sable Pass area has been closed to cyclists due to bear traffic.

“We’re having more and more bears show up along that stretch of roadway because that’s one of the spots where they can go to dig up roots right now and get food,” Stiteler said. “We don’t want to habituate the bears to bicycles, and we definitely don’t want anyone encountering a curious bear while they’re out bike riding.”

Park shuttle and tour bus operations resumed this weekend, but they’ll only be traveling as far as mile 43, where the road is closed due to the Pretty Rocks landslide. The park’s visitor’s center will be open to the public for the first time since 2019, and sled dog kennel tours are resuming for what is the kennel’s one hundredth anniversary year.

The University of Alaska Board of Regents has taken unilateral action to increase salaries for its full-time faculty, despite ongoing federal mediation with the faculty’s union on a new collective bargaining agreement.

“This is an unusual step for sure,” said UA President Pat Pitney about the unprecedented action approved by the regents during a special meeting Monday.

Pitney said mediation has failed to bring the university and United Academics, or UNAN, significantly closer together on the terms of a new three-year collective bargaining agreement.

“And so last Friday we declared that we were at impasse,” Pitney said.

With time running out to get a new contract approved and funded by the Legislature before the session ends, Pitney said the university feels compelled to act.

“It is the eleventh and a half hour,” she said.

UA faculty have only received a 1% raise over the past 5 years, and among provisions in the faculty contract submitted to the Legislature is a 3.5% salary hike for the new fiscal year which starts July 1, followed by 2.5% and 2% raises the following two years. Pitney said the increases are consistent with those in other UA employee agreements before the Legislature.

“UNAC”s compensation and benefits position by contrast was more than 4 times the level the university is offering, unsustainable by any standard,” she said.

Tony Rickard is a professor of mathematics education at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and chief negotiator for United Academics. He said the union has adjusted its proposals to try to reach an agreement and wants to keep talking.

“This a very puzzling action by President Pitney and the Board of Regents,” said Rickard. “They seem to think that the mediation is over, and it’s not. We mutually agreed to a session that we have yet to have.”

Rickard said UNAC will be at the third and final mediation session scheduled for Wednesday.

“And we expect the university to be there too,” Rickard said.

It’s unclear if the university will attend, but UA lead negotiator David Eisenberg told regents on Monday that declaring an impasse only means the university is not legally required to keep negotiating.

“That said, obviously we are going to receive and consider any reasonable proposals from the union,” said Eisenberg.

There’s some speculation that a UA faculty contract could be considered by the Legislature outside the regular session, but Pitney said a special session is unlikely in an election year.

Some Manley Hot Springs residents are frustrated by a lack of guidance and assistance as they begin recovering from last weekend’s major ice jam flood in the Tanana River community at the end of the Elliot Highway.  

“You know, people have come out and did a lot of talking, but everything is so slow moving,” said resident Kobi Purdy. “And it doesn’t feel like anything has been done yet, and everybody has all these contaminants in their yard and in their house.”

Purdy, her husband and their three children are among about 50 people displaced by flood damage to their homes in Manley Hot Springs, a small community west of Fairbanks. Purdy said there’s uncertainty about how to proceed with clean up and repairs. She listed fuel oil, gasoline, antifreeze and sewage among contaminants in the flood waters.

“We’re scared to go over and try to touch anything, because we don’t know what’s on that ground or what is on everything,” she said. “I mean, we’ve found dead fish in the middle of the road.”

Purdy, who is trained in oil spill response, says there’s no plan so far for dealing with fuel-tainted flood waters.

“They wanted us to just go and pump out our basements. That’s what they wanted us to do, and like, I’m not pumping that out into the environment,” she said.

Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation staff were expected to arrive in Manley Hot Springs this week, and the Alaska National Guard is also deploying to the community. 

The initial focus has been on making sure people are safe and on restoring essential services, said State Department of Emergency Management spokesperson Jeremy Zidek. The next major task is damage assessment, he said.

“The damage assessments will be conducted first and foremost by leadership in the community, working in conjunction with an emergency manager that’s been dispatched from the state emergency operations center, in conjunction with the Tanana Chiefs Conference and others, like the American Red Cross,” he said.     

Gov. Mike Dunleavy declared a disaster for the Manly Hot Springs area over the weekend, and Zidek said assessments are a prerequisite for leveraging disaster assistance programs. 

“Once we get an assessment of what the damages are there in Manley, we’ll know which programs we can activate and then the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management will begin to implement those,” he said.  

Zidek emphasized that owners of flood-damaged homes and businesses do not have to wait to begin clean-up and repairs, but should meticulously document flood damage and everything they do to address it.

“Take pictures, take video of the damage, make lists,” he said. “If you make any repairs, and have any expenses, keep receipts for those expenses.”    

Zidek said the potential for federal assistance will hinge on the overall severity of Alaska’s break up flood season.

“There will come a time when we’ll be able to evaluate the damage that has taken place statewide from these floods and see if we have enough damages to request a federal or presidential disaster declaration, and that will activate FEMA on the disaster recovery side,” he said.

The state is also monitoring and responding to flooding in other locations round the Interior, including at Circle on the Yukon River and at McGrath, Sleetmute and Red Devil on the Kuskokwim.

Water began receding in the Interior Alaska community of Manley Hot Springs Sunday afternoon after the release of an ice jam led to major flooding over the weekend.

The jam on the Tanana River happened Saturday. National Weather Service hydrologist Ed Plumb flew over the area that day with the Civil Air Patrol as flood waters rose.

“Maybe 90% of the community was inundated with water, at varying depths,” Plumb said. “Most of the roads had water over them. Many structures and homes had water either around them or under them, and it was hard to tell from the air how many were impacted with water actually inside the homes.”

Manley resident Sabrina Jervsjo estimates that about 40 homes were affected by the flood in the community west of Fairbanks.

“Our home is probably a total loss, along with many other homes in Manley,” she said.

Jervsjo said there’s damage from the water, and even worse, fuel spills.

“I think everybody in Manley Hot Springs purchased heating fuel before the cost went up, plus their summer’s gas, and it stinks so bad like fuel,” she said. “It’s just a sheen across everywhere.”

Jervsjo said a majority of the community’s 80-plus residents evacuated to higher ground, and many are staying at the Manley Hot Springs Resort property.

“They just called us and told us, ‘Everybody just go up there and sleep, as many people as you can into the cabins.’ And a few people brought campers,” Jervisjo said. “Pam Redington opened up her home, and she has a couple other cabins that she opened up. And people with dogs — she opened up and let people put dogs in kennels.”

Jersvso said the evacuees are so far well-supplied.

“We’re all great on the food and water department where we are staying up here at the resort. The owners just brought us a truckload of food,” she said.

As of Sunday, the community’s power, phone lines and cell service were still down.

The Tanana Chiefs Conference and the state have responded to Manley Hot Springs to provide assistance. Gov. Mike Dunleavy has declared a disaster for the area and visited the community with a food delivery Sunday.

Plumb, of the Weather Service, said the ice that jammed below Manley has flushed downstream toward the village of Tanana.

“At this point it doesn’t seem like its going to be enough water to cause any sort of flooding, and also the ice that was backed up behind that ice jam was really small little chunks and pans,” Plumb said. “By the time it gets down to Tanana, it’s probably going to be even smaller pieces, so we are not anticipating that to cause any significant flooding.”

Tanana is located where the Tanana River flows into the Yukon River. There’s still concern about ice jam flooding on the Yukon. Meanwhile, cooler temperatures and mixed rain and snow have moved into the broader region.

The breakup front moved past Circle early on Monday.

Alaska’s first case of a highly pathogenic avian influenza strain has been confirmed. According to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, the virus case was in a non-commercial flock of chickens and ducks in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.

The virus is highly contagious among birds. According to the CDC, over 35 million birds have been affected in more than 30 U.S. states, but the risk to people is low.

In a DEC release, State Veterinarian Dr. Robert Gerlach says the Mat-Su case confirms that migrating birds have brought avian influenza to Alaska.

A U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service post says samples from Mat-Su flock were confirmed at the agency’s labs in Iowa. It also says state officials quarantined the affected premises, and birds on the property will be “depopulated to prevent the spread of the disease.”

Dr. Gerlach says the state is relying on bird owners to watch for and report signs of the illness, including nasal discharge, sneezing and coughing, respiratory distress or the sudden deaths of multiple birds.

Precautionary measures for bird owners include preventing contact with wild birds and ensuring the virus is not transmitted between domestic flocks on shoes, clothing or tools.

The CDC reported the first confirmed human case of the avian flu strain in the U.S. on Thursday — a person in Colorado who worked culling poultry infected with the virus. The CDC says the patient’s only reported symptom was fatigue for a few days and that the individual is being isolated and treated with an antiviral.

The CDC says it’s the second known human case of this specific group of H5 viruses. The first occurred in December 2021 in the United Kingdom. The agency says more than 880 human infections with earlier H5N1 viruses have been reported worldwide since 2003.

University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists are studying water on the moon — it’s origins, where its located and how much may be there. The water could be valuable to development of a moon base.

UAF Geophysical Institute associate professor Gunther Kletetschka led a team that looked at one source of moon water, the moon’s impact with hydrogen and oxygen ions during its passages through the tail of earth’s magnetosphere.

Kletetschka said his group studied “how the water would get from the earth to the moon, using this periodic passage of the moon through this magnetic tail, and how much water would be able to be transferred.”

According to an article about moon water on the Planetary Society website, lunar missions have confirmed the presence of water, most prominently as ice in sun-shaded craters at the moon’s poles. To try to better locate and quantify the water, Kletetschka and his team used data from a NASA lunar orbiter to locate gravitational anomalies that indicate deep-water deposits.

“We have this gravity field technique which allows us to locate exactly where the water would go if it’s deposited in the polar regions of the moon, and we find that there was a distribution of this kind of a water indicator around impact craters,” Kletetschka said.

Researchers estimate that the moon’s poles could contain 840 cubic miles of water — about as much as Lake Huron, the Earth’s eighth largest lake.

Better understanding the moon’s water resource is important to NASA’s Artemis Project, which aims to establish a sustainable human presence at a base at the moon’s south pole. The moon’s ice and water could be sourced for drinking water and air and also used to create a fuel for space vehicles.

Kletetschka’s team’s research was published in the journal Scientific Reports in March.