Environment

Nike McCampbell pulled on her dry suit and air canister and walked down a concrete ramp to the edge of the water at Smitty’s Cove in Whittier.

She dove below the surface and swam about 80 yards from shore to collect water samples at different depths.

On shore, she said APU is studying how microplastics are transported through ocean currents.

“We’re going to see where microplastics are moving,” McCampbell said. “We’re going to see if there’s any sort of correlation in certain areas through certain time periods, if the wind and the waves are showing similar patterns and traits.”

McCampbell is part of a new team at Alaska Pacific University, or APU, in Anchorage studying microplastics — the tiny particles of plastic found in nearly every environment that can likely work their way into human tissues.

Last year the APU team got a $5 million grant from NASA to study microplastics in Alaska. In addition to their space program, NASA funds ocean research to better understand Earth’s environment.

Microplastics have already been found in the most remote corners of the state, so the university’s research aims to expand that understanding by looking at how microplastics enter all water sources, including oceans and rain. The researchers will also study the chemical properties of the microplastics they find, which can help scientists understand how the tiny particles might impact human health.

Kian Muldoon, a graduate student on the research team, said the ultimate goal of their work is to help reduce the harmful health effects of microplastics.

“We’re not so concerned as necessarily showing that they’re there, but knowing where they came from, and how they move, and hopefully using that research to either inform cleanup efforts or anything to try to mitigate harm,” Muldoon said.

Back at the APU lab, Muldoon and his colleagues will use new specialized equipment to help identify various microplastics in the samples.

The team has already collected samples from the summit of Denali, the Eklutna Lake watershed and Prince William Sound, where Smitty’s Cove is. That’s according to Dr. Dee Barker, a chemist and head of the research team.

Barker said with new instruments funded by the grant, the team can identify particles small enough to likely pass through human tissues and study the chemistry behind the microplastics they find.

“To find out what type of plastic is most likely to be found of a size that would enter into the human body, and then what size would transport through human tissues, and then the chemistry of that particle,” she said. “How does that interact with the chemistry of a human being?”

She said that analysis of chemistry is missing from much of the existing microplastics research.

Ultimately, Barker said, they aim to get their lab accredited for microplastics testing through the California Water Board. Dee said that would put APU’s lab among only three other labs worldwide that are accredited by the board to test for microplastics.

Once the lab is accredited, Barker said, Alaska communities can send in water samples to test for microplastics. Barker said some communities could pay for the testing but the grant funding will allow them to test water for free for communities who can’t.

“Why they’ve helped us get this instrumentation, is not only (to) do research, but also serve the community,” Barker said. “That’s the key piece in this.”

Graduate student Muldoon said the importance of this testing was shown when they processed the water of one remote community.

“Their drinking source was a natural drinking source, was extremely clean in terms of bacteria and coliforms, extremely clean in terms of heavy metals, extremely clean in terms of PFAs, but did have microplastics,” Muldoon said.

He said that could be surprising to communities who have seemingly pristine water sources, but microplastics can travel through the atmosphere.

Pam Miller, who directs Alaska Community Action on Toxics, said many communities they work with are concerned about microplastics in water.

“This effort is really critical, because our Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation has not developed a systematic way to look at microplastics in our drinking water,” Miller said.

She said it’s important to work toward prevention, too, by reducing plastics contamination on a policy level.

But for water that is already contaminated, Barker said it’s relatively easy to filter out larger microplastic particles. She said individuals can do that, even with a simple pitcher water filter at home. And she said testing water sources for microplastics is the first step in understanding how communities could protect themselves from the tiny plastic particles.

State officials have barred the import, transport and sale of two fast-growing invasive species that were once popular garden ornamentals but have now wreaked havoc on natural vegetation.

The Alaska Division of Agriculture on Friday said it issued a quarantine for the two species: Prunus padus, commonly known as the European bird cherry tree or mayday tree, and Prunus virginiana, commonly known as the Canada red or chokecherry tree.

The order went into effect Monday.

In essence, it will extend through the state a ban that was imposed in 2017 in Anchorage. The trees have become a particular nuisance in Alaska’s largest city, where they have proliferated in greenbelts and other spaces and crowded out native species like birch and spruce.

State and local officials have been trying to remove these non-native trees, and the new policy should help that effort, said Division of Agriculture Director Bryan Scoresby.

“This quarantine prohibits the importation, transport, and sale within the state of these two trees and their parts,” Scoresby said in a statement. “Many agencies continue to pursue control measures with the goal of eliminating these invasive trees. With this quarantine, the flow of trees into Alaska will stop, making this goal more attainable.”

The ornamentals quickly spread, displacing native vegetation, impeding animals’ access and upsetting natural food webs, according to the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service.

Their berries can be toxic to moose, causing cyanide poisoning that is sometimes fatal.

Along with those problems, the invasives might be spreading disease to other trees, according to the Division of Agriculture. A fungal disease called “Black Knot” was recently discovered on chokecherry trees on the University of Alaska Anchorage campus, making the invasive trees potential disease spreaders, the division said.

The two tree species are prime targets of annual Anchorage “weed smackdown” invasive-removal events. There is also a concerted effort to remove the trees from Fairbanks, including on the UAF campus, where officials have been methodically replacing them with native trees.

Eradicating the trees might require more than simply cutting them down because new trees can grow out of root systems below stumps, according to the Cooperative Extension Service.

For all the damage the two invasive tree species cause in Alaska, however, some people have found ways to benefit from them. The toxin in their berries can be neutralized and eaten by people.

Twenty-four-year-old Charitie Ropati is Yup’ik and Samoan, and has roots in the Bering Sea coastal village of Kongiganak. She said that the community has inspired her.

Following a flood event in 1966, many members relocated from the village of Kwigillingok to higher ground, a settlement which would become known as Kongiganak. Now, the permafrost under the village is thawing and Kongiganak is facing its own set of climate impacts.

“It really started with the story of my community,” Ropati explained. “And it’s because of that story of survival, I think, that brought me to where I’m at now.”

“Now” for Ropati means working in New York City as an engineer designing public housing infrastructure for Indigenous communities across the country. Ropati has also started her own nonprofit education organization called LilnativegirlinSTEM and was recently named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list.

Ropati said that she was back in Alaska, driving around Anchorage with her mom and her partner, when she got the news that she’d been selected as a youth climate advisor to the United Nations (U.N.)’s secretary general.

“It really meant a lot to be there, especially with my mom where these stories of survival really originated from her and specifically that story of relocation,” Ropati said. “Just our ability as Yup’ik people to do these type of things. Not only for survival, but for the love of each other and community.”

As a youth climate advisor, Ropati will be part of a cohort working with United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres to provide “practical and outcome-focused advice, diverse youth perspectives” around climate action, according to a press release from the U.N.

The youth advisor roles are pretty new to the U.N. In 2025, the number of selected advisors doubled from seven to 14. According to the press release, that’s to help support young people who don’t often have a seat at the table. Ropati is one of the first Alaska Native youth to be appointed as an advisor.

“I think this is a huge win, especially for youth in the Arctic,” Ropai said. “Because I don’t think we’ve ever been given this type of platform before.”

It’s a big year to be involved. The United Nations’ annual climate conference will take place this November in Brazil. Also this coming year, countries in the U.N. are required to submit new climate plans.

The plans will follow the Paris Agreement, a commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to keep the global surface temperature below 1.5 degrees Celsius. It’s a figure the U.N. has emphasized as a tipping point for damaging climate impacts, a point Ropati said affects the human rights of Indigenous people in the Arctic.

“We know that if that happens, and if our world does do that, that’s going to have devastating impacts, not only on these nations or states, but it’s going to have devastating impacts on Indigenous peoples, and especially on us, on Yup’ik, on Inuit, on Inupiaq, on all of us in our state,” Ropati said.

Ropati said human rights form the foundation of her climate advocacy. She said that Indigenous people on the front lines of climate change are often left out of the discussion when it comes to climate solutions. But she said they’re a group well-equipped with answers.

“When we talk about the climate work we’ve been doing, this is work that has been carried on through generations,” Ropati said. “This is work that didn’t start with me. It started with my great grandfather, to my grandmother, to my mother, and now me.”

Ropati said that climate conversations in the Western world often involve looking for quick fixes. But in Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta villages facing relocation, Ropati said that it’s understood that climate solutions can take generations. The recent relocation of the village of Newtok to a new site, Mertarvik, was one that was decades of planning and discussions in the making.

“It’s not just up to our youth to do this, and it needs to be intergenerational,” Ropati said. “I think this is something we as Indigenous people have always understood and continue to do, especially in our communities.”

In her capacity as a U.N. youth climate advisor, Ropati will work for the next three years alongside appointees from around the world, including Kenya, Sweden, and Indonesia.

Ropati said that she’s looking forward to bringing Indigenous perspectives to the forefront of the international climate discussions.

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The Roadless Rule protects more than half of the Tongass National Forest from road development, and it’s on the chopping block again. Tribes and environmental groups are strategizing to keep it in place. 

A host of Alaska Native communities in Southeast Alaska, which rely on the Tongass National Forest for their food and culture, say they want to make the Roadless Rule permanent. 

Tlingit advocate Xaawk’w Tláa Yolanda Fulmer presented one tactic at the Southeast Tribal Environmental Forum in Juneau this week. She explained how a bill that was reintroduced to the U.S. House of Representatives this summer called the Roadless Area Conservation Act, or RACA, could codify the Roadless Rule once and for all.

“The current situation is a political struggle between the proposed repeal of the Roadless Rule and the introduction of RACA,” Fulmer said. “The outcome of RACA will determine the future protection of vital national forest lands, including the Tongass.”

She said that if the bill passes into law, it could end the political ping pong between promoting extractive industries and preserving traditional foods and practices in National Forests. 

“Road construction often leads to logging, mining, forest fires and development — development which fragments ecosystems,” she said. “The Roadless Rule helps maintain intact forests, streams and shorelines where traditional foods thrive.”

The Roadless Rule has flip-flopped multiple times since it was established to protect undeveloped lands in 2001. It was rolled back during President Donald Trump’s first term before being reinstated in 2023 by former President Joe Biden. 

The proposed rollback aligns with Trump’s executive order earlier this year to end a ban on constructing roads in undeveloped areas of the forest. The USDA’s announcement comes on the heels of Representative Nick Begich’s visit to Juneau, where he said that he supports the expansion of logging in the Tongass National Forest. 

“This is something I hear from folks from Ketchikan all the way up to Yakutat on a regular basis,” he said. “How do we bring timber back?”

Tribal leaders at the forum in Juneau spoke to the value of keeping the forest ecosystem intact. Joel Jackson is President of the Organized Village of Kake, an Alaska Native tribe based on Kupreanof Island. He said it’s vital to keep the forest healthy, in part because the salmon that feed his tribe rely on it. Old growth trees shade the streams, making the water cold enough for salmon to swim up.

“If the stream isn’t cool enough, those fish aren’t going to be able to spawn,” Jackson said.

After the fish spawn and die, their decaying bodies feed the forest with nutrients they gathered at sea — and the cycle continues.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday that the public can comment on the proposed rollback from Friday through Sept. 19. 

“This administration is dedicated to removing burdensome, outdated, one-size-fits-all regulations,” said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins in a press release. 

Nathan Newcomer advocates for the Tongass with the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council. He worries that the USDA won’t listen to the public’s wishes to keep the rule in place. 

“We know what they’re going to do,” Newcomer said of the department. “They’re not going to listen to anybody, but we still need to get on the record and make it sure and clear that people in Southeast Alaska and across the nation want to see the Roadless Rule kept in place.”

When the first Trump administration rolled back the Roadless Rule in 2020, people had about 90 days to comment and nearly all of the public comments were in favor of keeping the rule.

Newcomer said that he’s organizing quickly since the federal government has expedited the public process to allow for less than a month of public comment. 

Kate Glover is an attorney at Earthjustice, an environmental law firm that has challenged past rescissions of the Roadless Rule on behalf of tribes, conservation nonprofits, tourism and fishing groups. She said a few weeks is not enough time for a meaningful public process.

“It doesn’t allow time for the agency to meet its obligation to consult with tribes on a government-to-government basis,” she said. “Typically, at least 120 days is needed for that.” 

Glover said she had not seen such short comment periods before this administration.

Juneau’s Back Loop Bridge is back open for traffic two weeks after suffering damage from Juneau’s record-breaking glacial outburst flood. 

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities announced Tuesday that the emergency bridge work is complete. Engineers say the bridge is safe for the public. 

The department closed the bridge as a precaution before the annual glacial outburst flood, which eroded the riverbank nearby and damaged an abutment wall. Hundreds of homes along the Mendenhall River were spared from damage because of the temporary levee the city installed this spring and summer. Several homes still saw significant damage. 

According to the department, there will be a gravel approach to the bridge in place for a short period. They say to expect potential intermittent lane closures and crews on-site as they begin asphalting and paving the area as soon as next week.  

The department says there will be more permanent river work and bank stabilization surrounding the bridge in the coming months.

Alaska State Troopers are asking Kenai residents to be on high alert after a bear attack left a jogger seriously injured on Tuesday morning.

The attack occurred in a neighborhood near the intersection of Chinook Drive, just west of the Kenai Spur Highway. According to a trooper dispatch, a 36-year-old woman was attacked near her driveway at around 5:45 a.m. She was later found by a neighbor and flown to an Anchorage hospital.

Officials with the Kenai Police Department and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game assisted troopers in searching for the bear. Troopers say the bear has not yet been found, and will continue to search the area. It is unclear what type of bear caused the attack.

Troopers say residents should be cautious when going outdoors. They recommend supervising pets and children, and securing attractants like trash or food. If you see a bear, troopers say keep a safe distance and do not approach it.