When Westin Nelson of Skagway became the first Alaska hunter on record to harvest a mule deer, he may have been doing the state a favor.

Mule deer, better known as inhabitants of the Rocky Mountain and Great Plains regions, have been expanding their range northward, including into Alaska. As they do so, they are expanding the risks of parasites and some contagious diseases.

The most concerning issue is the winter tick, or Dermacentor albipictus. It has yet to be documented in Alaska, but it has wiped out much of the moose population in New England and started causing problems for moose populations as far north as Canada’s Yukon and Northwest Territories.

In recent years, nearly half of the mule deer examined in the Whitehorse area were found to be tick-infested, said Dr. Kimberlee Beckmen, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s wildlife biologist. That is ominous for Alaska, she said.

“All it takes is one mule deer with one female tick on it to come into Alaska, and that would completely devastate our moose population,” Beckmen said.

Mule deer have been well-established in the Yukon Territory since at least the 1980s, and in Alaska, people have been spotting them on sometimes fleeting occasions for a little over a decade.

Most sightings have been in the northern part of the Southeast Panhandle, but some were as far north as Interior Alaska. Three mule deer were reported in 2013 near Delta Junction, one was photographed near the Fort Knox mine outside of Fairbanks in 2016 and one was struck by a vehicle and killed in North Pole in 2017, according to the Department of Fish and Game.

Though they are related to the Sitka black-tailed deer that live in territory stretching from the British Columbia rainforest to the Kodiak Archipelago, mule deer are different from their Alaska cousins.

The contrast is striking, said Nelson, the Skagway hunter.

“These deer are big, maybe twice the size of Sitka black-tailed deer,” he said. “Mule deer have enormous ears. They have ears like a mule.”

Adult Sitka black-tailed deer generally weigh 80 to 120 pounds, according to the Department of Fish and Game, while adult mule deer often weigh more than 200 pounds.

Nelson said he has seen mule deer occasionally in the Skagway area over the past few years. He had a light-hearted competition with a friend about who would be the first to hunt one. It was not until April when circumstances came together to result in a successful hunt — right in that friend’s yard.

“I just happened to kind of get lucky,” Nelson said.

The rules for hunting mule deer in Alaska, where the species is non-native and considered “deleterious,” are liberal. There are no seasonal restrictions and no bag limits. Even though it took until this year for Nelson to become the first hunter on record to harvest a mule deer in Alaska, state officials first authorized mule deer hunting in 2019.

The caveat for mule deer hunters is that the Department of Fish and Game wants them to submit tissue samples for testing. That is to screen for signs of tick infestations and for numerous problems like brain worm, also known as “moose sickness,” chronic wasting disease, different types of hemorrhagic diseases, bluetongue, worm infestation and other diseases or parasites.

Nelson provided abundant samples to the department: the hide, head and neck, liver, heart, lungs, spleen, lower colon and two lower legs with the hooves attached, according to officials with the Department of Fish and Game.

Importantly, Beckmen with the department said, there were no signs of hair loss or breakage in the hide, indicating that any tick infestation during the past winter was unlikely.

Nelson said he has been reading up on mule deer and the state’s concerns about ticks and other dangers. But he downplayed any contributions he might have made to state wildlife safety. “I wouldn’t say I’m super-noble or anything. I just wanted to get one,” he said.

Climate change, along with factors like road-building and agricultural development, have allowed mule deer to thrive in new territory even as some habitat is lost to development, according to the Department of Fish and Game.

Climate change is also helping spread the winter tick northward and westward.

The ticks do not travel on their own. Rather, they grow from eggs that are laid on the ground in the spring that grow into larvae that climb up plants in packs to latch onto passing hosts in the fall, a process known as “questing.” If they stay attached all winter, they develop into adults that repeat the cycle by dropping from their hosts in spring to lay eggs. Shorter winters and later snowfalls are increasing opportunities for successful questing by the ticks, scientists say.

In New England, moose have been found with tens of thousands of winter ticks embedded in their skin. The blood loss they cause can be fatal, especially to young moose. In Maine, for example, biologists in 2022 found that 86% of the moose calves they had collared died from tick infestations. In New Hampshire, the moose population now is only about half of what it was in the 1990s, according to state biologists there.

While mule deer can become infested with winter ticks, they also are able to get rid of them fairly effectively through self-grooming.

Moose lack those grooming skills. That results in moose rubbing and scratching off so much of their hair that they are called “ghost moose” because their bald spots make them look white.

Mule deer are not the only species expanding their range to Alaska.

Another such species is the mountain lion, also known as cougar. The Alaska Board of Game early this year approved a first hunting and trapping season for mountain lions. It is set to start on Aug. 1 in parts of Southeast Alaska.

Originally published by the Alaska Beacon, an independent, nonpartisan news organization that covers Alaska state government.

Officials with the University of Alaska have tapped the commander of the U.S. Army 11th Airborne Division’s Arctic Aviation Command as the new permanent chancellor of the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Col. Russell “Russ” Vander Lugt was selected from four finalists after an eight-month search process. He will be the top executive of Alaska’s leading research institution, which describes itself as “America’s Arctic university.” He will replace interim chancellor, and former U.S. Ambassador to the Arctic, Mike Sfraga, who succeeded former chancellor Dan White who announced his retirement in May of last year.

Vander Lugt is a senior U.S. Army officer, an Arctic scholar and UAF alumni, with over two decades of executive leadership experience, according to a university announcement on May 27. He has served as commander of the 11th Airborne Division’s Arctic Aviation Command at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks since Aug. 2024.

“I’m humbled to be selected to lead the University of Alaska Fairbanks during this pivotal time,” Vander Lugt said in a statement with the announcement.

“I look forward to leading through trust, transparency, and teamwork as we see Alaska and the Arctic transformed through education, research, and public service. I’m committed to building on the strong foundation Chancellors Sfraga and White have established, and working closely with university leadership and governance to support and advance UAF’s mission,” he said.

Vander Lugt will step into the permanent chancellor role on Sept. 8. Sfraga’s last day was Friday, and university officials have selected Larry Hinzman, director of the UA Arctic Leadership Initiative, to serve as interim chancellor through the summer.

Vander Lugt has had a long career with the U.S. Army in various roles in Alaska, where he is stationed in Fairbanks, and across the U.S. His resume lists deployments to Europe and the Middle East.

He served in executive leadership roles that include the Alaskan Command, a division of the U.S. Northern Command, the 601st Aviation Support Battalion, and the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat team. He also taught history and military leadership as an assistant professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and was a professor of military science and department chair at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona.

He holds a master’s degree and doctoral degree in Arctic and Northern Studies, which he completed in 2022 at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Vander Lugt’s hire is the latest in major leadership changes in the University of Alaska system — former UA President Pat Pitney retired last month and former university attorney Matt Cooper was named as her successor. Cooper will begin as university president in early August, and Michelle Rizk, vice president of university relations and chief strategy, planning and budget officer, is serving as interim president. Cheryl Siemers was appointed permanent chancellor of the University of Alaska Anchorage in March, after serving as interim chancellor since the retirement of former chancellor Sean Parnell last year.

Vander Lugt’s base salary will be $309,000, according to the university’s announcement.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks serves roughly 7,500 students. It employs more than 800 faculty and nearly 2,000 staff across urban and rural campuses in Fairbanks, Kotzebue, Nome, Bethel and Dillingham.

Originally published by the Alaska Beacon, an independent, nonpartisan news organization that covers Alaska state government.

WHEREAS, on June 3, 1942, six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, World War II arrived in Alaska when Dutch Harbor on Amaknak Island was bombed by Japanese – the first aerial attack by an enemy on the continental United States; and

WHEREAS, the Japanese pilots expected little resistance; but because of an intercepted message three weeks earlier, the installation was on high alert, and Navy and Marine personnel were prepared with anti-aircraft defenses; and

WHEREAS, encountering unexpected resistance at Dutch Harbor, installation, Japanese forces shifted their focus to the Margaret Bay Naval Barracks, where the attack claimed the lives of 25 servicemen; and

WHEREAS, following the initial attack on Dutch Harbor, Japanese forces launched additional assaults on Dutch Harbor, Adak, Kiska, and Attu, resulting in the Aleut people being evacuated and held in internment camps in Southeast Alaska for three years, through which many did not survive; and

WHEREAS, the brave soldiers of the United States Armed Forces and allied Canadian Forces fought valiantly for more than a year to reclaim the remaining Aleutian Islands. The battle of Attu stands as one of the most costly American assaults in the Pacific, with hundreds of servicemen making the ultimate sacrifice to liberate Alaska; and

WHEREAS, on the 84th anniversary of the bombing of Dutch Harbor, we remember and honor all who were affected by the attack, paying tribute both to the military personnel who served and died to defend our Nation and to the Aleut people who died while imprisoned.

NOW THEREFORE, I, Mike Dunleavy, GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF ALASKA, do hereby proclaim June 3, 2026, as:

Dutch Harbor Remembrance Day

in Alaska and encourage all Alaskans to join with the people of Dutch Harbor, Unalaska, and the Aleutian Islands to honor all who were lost in Alaska during World War II, and I order the Alaska State Flag to be flown at half-staff in remembrance of those who perished.

Dated: June 3, 2026