As far as the Biden administration is concerned, a proposed Alaska mining road through a U.S. national park and adjacent federal land is kaput. Rejected. Case closed. Or so it was thought.
The climate crisis receives much coverage these days, mostly focused on extreme weather, sea level rise, and dislocation of people by climate-related stresses like drought and wildfire. Declining polar ice and its impact on polar bears gets some coverage, bringing the Arctic into the story, but few of us understand the scope of the impact climate change is having above the Arctic Circle or why we should be concerned about what is happening up there.
Sunday's guest on the National Parks Traveler's podcast has floated the Noatak River more than once and backpacked all over Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve. And Jon Waterman returned from those trips with incredible stories of the places he saw, the people he met, and the wildlife that came in range of his eyes.
Have you ever wondered what constitutes a unit and what each unit represents? Do you know what constitutes the difference between a national park versus a national monument versus a national recreation area? Traveler contributing writer Rebecca Latson decided to figure that out for herself and you.
A group of caribou get ready to swim across the Noatak River, heading south on their fall migration. This is a small portion of the Western Arctic Caribou Herd which numbers over 300,000.
"As one of North America's largest mountain-ringed river basins with an intact ecosystem, the Noatak River environs features some of the Arctic's finest arrays of plants and animals. The river is classified as a national wild and scenic river, and offers stunning wilderness float-trip opportunities - from deep in the Brooks Range to the tidewater of the Chukchi Sea."
Artist MK MacNaughton gets inspired during her artist-in-residence excursion to Copter Peak. Noatak National Preserve inherited a beautiful original oil painting from MK as a result of the program.
An Idaho man who illegally guided moose and bear hunts in Noatak National Preserve in Alaska in violation of the Lacey Act was sentenced to six months of home confinement and handed a $20,000 fine by a federal judge.