If there’s a partridge in a pear tree, birders in Haines will count it. The Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count–a conservationist twist on traditional Christmas hunts–may be the longest running citizen science project in the nation. According to Audbon, Alaskans have participated in the count since before statehood.
Science & Tech
Adding insulation to the outside of your home? Watch out for mold.
“Every summer driving through Fairbanks, I will see somebody adding this kind of retrofit to their home,” said research engineer Robbin Garber-Slaght.
Schools’ need for technology outpacing funding for faster internet
Alaska has a program that helps schools around the state pay for internet. However, the need for faster internet is outgrowing the program, and the divide is even wider for rural schools.
Arctic Report Card: 2018 was the Arctic’s second-warmest year on record
“This was the second-warmest year on record in the Arctic,” said Emily Osborne, a climate scientist with NOAA. “And to add to that, (the) last five years have been the warmest on record.”
As ocean heats up off Northwest Alaska, the fishing does too
This year’s commercial harvest of chum salmon in Kotzebue Sound was nearly 700,000 fish, breaking a record nearly four decades old. To the south, the value of the commercial salmon catch in Norton Sound was also the highest ever.
Science and traditional knowledge converge in North Slope Borough’s bowhead whale program
Scientists have spent the past few decades catching up to traditional knowledge, documenting scientifically what whale hunters already knew. Like the fact that the whales can smell, and that they can travel under sea ice.