One of the benefits of growing old is waking up and, despite having done nothing particularly noteworthy the day before, feeling as if you’ve been… Continue reading
A wet, sopping blanket of snow covered Seward this morning. Before sunrise, I could see the wisps of white pass my window, stacking onto the… Continue reading
This past summer, the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge saw the benefit from four additional trail crews provided by the Student Conservation Association. The SCA crews… Continue reading
Driving home the other day, my friend and I came across a big bull caribou chasing several cows down Kalifornsky Beach Road. One hundred yards… Continue reading
We don’t really have “seasons” where I’m from. It stays an amicable 75 degrees and sunny pretty much all year, even in January. A temperate… Continue reading
There is just the smallest sliver of light pink nail polish left on my two big toes. Each time I’ve cut my toenails over the… Continue reading
In 2019, I became a biology intern at the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge for the first time! Here I was met with forward-thinking and tradition-challenging… Continue reading
I was pretty spoiled as a kid. The chest freezer in our garage was almost always stuffed to the brim with real Alaska salmon, and… Continue reading
I ran my third Kenai River Half Marathon this weekend. I remember sitting in the newsroom at the Peninsula Clarion in 2017 and telling our… Continue reading
My first job as a field biologist in Alaska was working for the Tongass National Forest. I was stationed in Petersburg, but would be boated… Continue reading
By HEIDI HELLING Kenai National Wildlife Refuge What can we learn from the Swan Lake Fire that burned over 167,000 acres in 2019? Large areas… Continue reading
On my mother’s side I come from a long line of New Englanders, the kind of people for whom fall leaf peeping can be something… Continue reading
I recently learned that the opposite of deja vu is jamais vu, meaning “never seen.” Deja vu is the feeling that you’re experiencing something familiar,… Continue reading
As I contemplated a topic for this week’s Refuge Notebook article, I turned to a few of my trusted colleagues, throwing out a few ideas.… Continue reading
My partner’s family came into town recently. While the thought of hosting in-laws would make many people I know fearful of the rest of this… Continue reading
The Lost Lake Run was a long one. I ran over 15 miles, from Primrose to the Bear Creek Fire Station, with just two granola… Continue reading
By SANJA ZELEN Kenai National Wildlife Refuge It was 10 miles out in the backcountry, just off the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge’s Hansen Horse Trail,… Continue reading
The plan was for the family to meet in Colorado to try and summit one of the state’s famous 14ers, or mountains that rise higher… Continue reading
By SANJA ZELEN Kenai National Wildlife Refuge It was March 16 of 2019 when I first heard of the ecological phenomenon known as a “super… Continue reading
By MATT BOWSER For the Clarion When the weather deteriorates in the mountains, I head for those deepest green patches of forest at tree line.… Continue reading
