Updated: 50 minutes ago Published: 50 minutes ago

As we begin to approach the summer, it seems that our fellow animals cannot stop themselves from enjoying the best time of the year with us. Living in the state of Alaska, the transition from winter to summer presents us with a double-edged sword.

Instead of allowing us a smooth transition into our sunny warm days, Mother Nature forces us to deal with her nuisances of the spring season. Seemingly unable to deny her love for our state, she provides us with melted brown snow and her blessing of a variety of different animals — including the frightening bears, grazing moose, the geese, and their share of poop, it seems that Mother Nature loves to gift us with her wholehearted presence. Studying here at the University of Alaska Anchorage, it has become a common occurrence for students to run into animals, such as moose, during their casual walk in between classes. A friend of mine from the lower 48 commented, “Wow, these moose are really reminding me of all the stray cats at home.” As she was a Texas native, you can imagine the shock she must have felt when she realized our moose in Alaska are as abundant as the stray cats in Texas.

My friends and I began to participate in a game introduced by my friend from Texas, naming the different stray cats we encountered, but of course, we were naming moose doing our best to differentiate their identical brown fur.

Whether Mother Nature provides us with stray cats or stray moose, wandering bears, or geese poop, in our state of Alaska, the spring season is a time when we cannot avoid her presence.

It is only through this pesky time that we can transition from six months of cold dark days into our brisk three-month-long summer. This is Alaska’s charm at its finest and the existence of Mother Nature’s encompassing love.

— Yohan Whang

Anchorage

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The air was clear and smooth over the Lynn Canal between Juneau and Haines on Thursday, so there was no need to use the new technology installed in the Cessna Grand Caravan’s instrument panel. But when the clouds roll in, as they are forecasted to do next week, the updated avionics will allow pilots to fly this common route through conditions that could typically ground passengers, mail and cargo.

“We put all this in place and then we have had just gorgeous weather,” said Alaska Seaplanes’ Marketing Manager Andy Kline with a laugh.

The company has developed new approach paths and installed GPS equipment to make low visibility flights safer and more reliable.

For people who live in communities like Haines, with no jet or road access, travel in and out is mitigated by the weather and the ferry schedule. The comings and goings of the state’s ferries are so critical that they are announced on the radio with the weather. Locals typically build an extra night into their travel plans to account for canceled flights. “If you want to get there, take the ferry,” is a well-worn piece of travel advice that long-time residents dole out to newcomers.

“We have a goal of being as reliable as the jet,” Kline said of the small plane operator. “We’re not there yet. And even these new approaches don’t get us quite there yet. We’re still going to be on the ground sometimes when the jets are flying.”

To realize that goal, Alaska Seaplanes, the region’s most comprehensive carrier, has developed new approach paths and installed GPS equipment sensitive enough to allow instrument flights even in the challenging geography of the region. Haines, Hoonah, Sitka, Juneau, Kake, Wrangell and Petersburg flights will benefit from the upgrades, which were costly for the small carrier. Flight prices have gone up significantly in the last five years. A disadvantage for small companies is that they must go through the same approvals processes for new routes as major carriers, like Alaska Airlines, which is a time burden on the small staff.

Kline said it has already changed how often flights get out and the conditions travelers experience. “People who’ve flown to Hoonah have never flown through the clouds,’ he said. “So we’re actually having to brief our passengers before they get on board because people get really concerned.”

Most Southeast communities do not have airports with ground control and towers; they have airstrips. Pilots typically fly under a set of regulations designed around high visibility conditions, so they have lower thresholds for getting out in inclement weather. Instrument flights can be employed in low visibility conditions. They rely on GPS technology and Federal Aviation Administration approved flight paths. Seaplanes recently updated nearly all its wheeled aircraft — float planes were not part of the change — and just had its new flight paths approved for use.

A new approach years in the making

Alaska Seaplanes Assistant Chief Pilot Gregg Hake helped explain the changes at a community meeting on Thursday at the Haines library. The route between Juneau and Haines is one of the primary runs out of Juneau.

“How many of you have had a flight canceled?” he asked the crowd.

The room erupted in laughter as every hand went up. “Trick question!” called out former mayor Jan Hill.

Hake said in the week after the upgrades, he flew four flights using instruments that would have otherwise been canceled or delayed.

Flights that use what is called IFR, or instrument flight rules, technology are not new, but the sensitivity of the new equipment and the paths it allows the planes to take are new. Federal approvals took years.

“When you don’t have visual recognition in the clouds, it’s flying you on a very specific approach that keeps you away from mountains and keeps you at the right altitude and all those things,” Hake explained.

Water and mountains complicate the flight paths in Southeast Alaska. Cooperation is involved, too. Ground control is in Juneau, but the airspace over Haines and much of Southeast Alaska is controlled by a tower in Anchorage.

“The legendary status of Alaska as being a difficult place to fly in comes particularly true here,” he said. “We’re flying between mountains that come straight up out of the water, which complicates things like radio communication, complicates things like GPS reception.”

Hake said pilots are not able to use very many land-based navigational devices because the mountains block the transmission to the airplane.

There are other variables, too. He said magnetism from iron in the Chilkat mountain range can throw a compass 20 degrees off north. Luckily, that does not affect satellite navigation systems.

High visibility is a perk on a flight over seemingly endless icefields and glacier-carved fjords whose silt marbles the deep jade color of the water. But, for people who live here, the option to fly safely in marginal weather is important.

In a move to protect the fragile Alaskan wilderness, the Biden administration has blocked off land from oil and gas drilling and denied permission for a 211-mile industrial access road to a large copper deposit, citing pollution risks and ice destabilization among its top considerations.

The decisions hand major victories to environmental advocates and local communities, according to The New York Times.

The proposed Ambler Access Project aimed to construct a $350 million gravel road through the pristine Brooks Range foothills and Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve.

However, the Interior Department found that the road would disrupt wildlife habitat, pollute salmon spawning grounds, and threaten the traditional hunting and fishing practices of over 30 Alaska Native communities. The Biden administration also banned drilling across over half of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, “an ecologically sensitive expanse north of the Arctic Circle” that makes up 23 million acres, per the Times.

Kaleb Froehlich, the managing director of Ambler Metals, the company behind the copper project, called the decision “an unlawful and politically motivated decision” and urged the government to reconsider. However, by blocking this industrial road, the Biden administration is taking a stand for both people and the planet.

The decision safeguards the ecologically rich landscape that caribou and fish populations depend on while also respecting the rights and traditions of indigenous tribes who have sustainably lived off this land for generations.

What’s more, the move aligns with the urgent need to protect permafrost in the face of a changing climate. The Interior Department’s analysis found that constructing the road could accelerate the thawing of ice-rich soils, potentially destabilizing the ground, increasing flood risks, and releasing additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

David Krause, the interim executive director of the National Audubon Society’s Alaska office, called the decision to protect this wilderness a “huge deal,” emphasizing that the Ambler area is “one of the most ecologically intact and functional landscapes on the planet.”

Tribal leaders such as Julie Roberts-Hyslop, the first chief of the Tanana Tribe, have also voiced their support, noting that both caribou and fish populations are already struggling in the region and a new road would exacerbate these challenges.

While the mining company asserts that the road is necessary to access copper for clean energy infrastructure, there are less ecologically sensitive areas with larger reserves that can be tapped, according to the Times. By safeguarding this extraordinary wilderness, we’re ensuring a healthier, more resilient future for both Alaska’s communities and its irreplaceable ecosystems.

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