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.
Kyle Joly, a National Park Service wildlife biologist who long has studied terrestrial migrations in national park units in Alaska, discusses the longest land migrations in this week's show. Caribou and reindeer at the top of the long-distance travelers, but what about wolves? Contributing writer Kim O’Connell, fresh back from a visit to New Orleans, gives us a preview of her time at Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve.
It's a spectacle of the animal kingdom, one most of us don't see in person, but are amazed when it is shown on television. "It" is the crossing of the Noatak River far north in Alaska by hundreds of caribou.
Maija Katak Lukin, Maniilaq Association Tribal Environmental Manager and former mayor of Kotzebue, has been selected as the superintendent for the Western Arctic Parklands.