Alaska
Caribou herds in Arctic Alaska tundra areas are on opposite trends • Alaska Beacon
The Western Arctic Caribou Herd, once the biggest in Alaska, is faltering, having fallen from a high of 490,000 animals in 2003 to only 152,000 as of 2023. But to the east, the Porcupine Caribou Herd appears to be thriving, with an all-time high of 218,00 animals recorded at the last census. That makes it, rather than the Western Arctic herd, the state’s largest.
Why are the herds following opposite trends? An answer, Alaska scientists say, is found in what is growing on the ground – and the way the warming climate has changed those plants.
Woody shrubs and even trees are spreading rapidly over Arctic regions of Northwest Alaska, the area where the Western Arctic herd ranges, said Roman Dial, a professor at Alaska Pacific University. But that plant transformation, which scientists refer to as “shrubification,” has been much slower on the eastern side of Arctic Alaska, the range for the Porcupine Caribou Herd, he said.
For caribou, growth of woody plants like alders and willows means problems. Caribou depend on tundra plants like lichen and mosses; the shrubs and trees taking over the terrain are reducing the availability of that food favored by the animals.
Dial has studied changes in Alaska plant growth for several years and has been traveling in the Brooks Range since he was a teenager in the 1970s.
Even though his recent years’ work in Arctic Alaska has been focused on plants, he said encountering willows and other woody plants covering what used to be open tundra west of the Dalton Highway made him think right away of animals.
“A lot of caribou trails were getting overgrown and disappeared, and you’d find really old antlers that were in skulls that were kind of buried in the tundra, so caribou hadn’t been there for a long time,” he said. “Right away it was, like: ‘Wow, caribou are changing their routes.’ And you could see it.”
The overgrown state of caribou trails that had been etched into tundra terrain over multiple years of migration was instructive, Dial said.
When he presented his studies during the December annual meeting of the Western Arctic Caribou Herd Working Group, the advisory panel representing villagers and others dependent on the herd, Dial described what might be a caribou’s view of the plant takeover, and he used a brief video from the field to illustrate his point.
He does not like walking through willows that can be eight feet tall, “and I don’t think caribou like going through willows either,” Dial told the working group. “If my antlers were all tender and velvet, I wouldn’t want to go through a bunch of tall willows. And also, when you go through willows, there’s bears in there.”
Changes in caribou habitat are linked to reduced Arctic sea ice, which itself is a direct result of accelerated climate warming in the Northern Hemisphere, Dial said.
Open water leads to more snowfall, he said, as there is more moisture sent into the atmosphere to fall as precipitation, More snowfall insulates the ground, keeping soil temperatures warmer through the winter, he explained. Warmer soil temperatures encourage plant growth and the spread of woody shrubs and trees. More woody plants on the ground make life harder for caribou, both by displacing their usual tundra food sources and by creating new obstacles to movement.
Open water does not affect Alaska’s western and eastern Arctic tundra regions equally, and the results are seen on the ground, Dial said.
Sea ice retreat usually forms later and melts earlier in the Chukchi Sea, which lies off the northwestern coast, than in the Beaufort Sea, which lies off Alaska’s northeastern coast. Utqiagvik – the nation’s northernmost community – is the point where the two Arctic seas meet. Relatively warm Pacific Ocean water flows into the Chukchi through the Bering Strait, making ice there more seasonal, meaning it forms and melts earlier each year. In contrast, an ocean circulation system called the Beaufort Gyre sends old multiyear ice from north of Canada into the Beaufort, making the freeze there a little more resilient. While ice retreat has been significant over the past decades in both seas, the characteristics of the Chukchi make it particularly vulnerable, and it has lost both the thickness and extent of ice at a faster rate than almost any marginal sea in the Arctic, according to climate scientists.
Both the Western Arctic herd range and the Porcupine herd range have become warmer in summer and snowier in winter, according to records kept by the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. But the summer change has been more intense in the western range, particularly in coastal areas off Nome and Kotzebue, according to the data.
The work by Dial and his colleagues to track the changes involved an old-fashioned method: walking the ground.
The idea to do that was inspired by studies of shrub growth that is spreading up to higher elevations around Anchorage – and made necessary by the COVID-19 pandemic, which shut down National Science Foundation-funded air travel in 2020, Dial said. Some of the Alaska Pacific University students who were working with him on studying vegetation were enlisted to go north to be part of the Brooks Range expeditions.
In 2020 and 2021, they walked hundreds of miles of the terrain, smartphones in hand, looking down and recording changes in the plants growing on either side of the Dalton Highway. “It kind of added a new dimension to hiking,” he said. A study published in June details the findings from their treks in 2020.
A separate but related study, published about a year ago, examined tree rings to show a correlation between growth and proximity to open Arctic water. The study, which Dial did with Patrick Sullivan of the University of Alaska Anchorage and other scientists, focuses on white spruce trees from 19 different sites along the Brooks Range. Those trees were small, ranging from ankle to chest height, indicating that they were recent arrivals, Dial said.
The on-the-groundwork by Dial, Sullivan and their colleagues adds to past research that tracked the northward spread of woody plants by more distant methods. A 2018 study by scientists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, UAF and other organizations, for example, used 50 years’ worth of aerial photographs to identify shrub and tree expansion into the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Alaska, where the Porcupine herd ranges. The study found that shrubs had spread into the refuge’s tundra regions over the half-century period, but they had done so at a slower pace than in other Arctic Alaska tundra regions.
The growth of woody plants in Arctic tundra regions affects more than caribou.
In northwestern Alaska, where the growth has been most dramatic, it has attracted a proliferation of beavers, for example. And as beavers colonize the landscape, they are transforming it with thousands of new dams that pool water that, in turn, speed thaw of permafrost and feed into the cycle of shrub expansion.
Broader climate change impacts
Climate change impacts on the Western Arctic Caribou Herd go beyond the spread of shrubs displacing tundra plants.
Warm winter conditions in 2005 produced two days of rain in the herd’s winter range, creating a thick layer of ice that encased the tundra plants that the animals eat. A large die-off followed, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
Wildland fires that are becoming more common as conditions warm can also affect caribou by destroying the slow-growing lichen and other tundra plants the animals eat. That has long been known to be an issue for caribou in more southern and boreal regions, such as Interior Alaska’s Nelchina herd. Now wildfire has emerged as a threat to the Western Arctic Caribou Herd’s habitat.
The Western Arctic herd’s declines are part of a circumpolar trend.
Tundra caribou populations across the Arctic have declined by 65% over the last two to three decades, according to the 2024 Arctic Report Card released in December by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Alaska’s Western Arctic Caribou Herd was one of those identified as having the most dramatic declines.
“Warmer summer and fall temperatures, changes in winter snowfall, and an increasing human footprint collectively stress Arctic caribou, altering their distribution, movements, survival and productivity,” the report card said.
The Porcupine herd, in contrast, was cited in the Arctic Report Card as one of the major herds with a stable or increasing population, thus going against the dominant trend. The 218,000 total last counted was an increase from 197,000 in 2013. Because the last full census of the Porcupine herd was completed several years ago, in 2017, that population is classified as stable rather than increasing.
For the Western Arctic herd, changes go beyond its sliding population numbers. The herd has also A key metric measured by federal and state biologists who study the herd is the date when southward-moving caribou cross the Kobuk River, a waterway that flows west from the Brooks Range into Kotzebue Sound. Over the decades, most collared caribou spend summers north of the river and winters south of it, though in five years since 2016, fewer than half of the collared animals went that far south in their fall migration, according to the data.
At the December meeting of the Western Arctic Caribou Herd, National Park Service biologist Kyle Joly said the average river-crossing date in 2023 was notably late: Nov. 8. “It was the latest-ever average time that they crossed. I actually had to extend my graph here because the number didn’t fit,” Joly told working group members.
Caribou that do cross have also shifted the location of where they do so, and where they spend the winter. There has been a notable lack of caribou on the Seward Peninsula in the western part of the traditional range, according to the data from collared animals. None were tracked into Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Joly said.
On-the-ground observations match the data, he said. “Twenty-five years ago, Unalakeet was a great place to see caribou,” he said. Residents haven’t seen caribou there for several years, he said.
While the Western Arctic and Porcupine herds are following opposite trends, both face challenges from industrial development or potential development.
The biggest development project envisioned for the Western Arctic herd’s range is the Ambler Access Project, which would construct a road about 200 miles into the Brooks Range foothills to an isolated mining district. The Biden administration rejected a plan for road construction, but the project could be pushed forward by the incoming Trump administration.
Also in the area is the Red Dog mine, one of the world’s largest zinc producers. The 52-mile road that connects the mine site to the Chukchi Sea port used to ship out processed ore has already been shown to hinder caribou movement for at least part of the herd. The mine operator, Teck Resources Ltd., just won federal approval for exploratory work at what would be an expansion into a different zinc deposit, which would include an extension of the mine’s road.
There is also expanding oil development in the National Petroleum Reserve, on the eastern edge of the Western Arctic herd’s range, a planned graphite mine north of Nome on the Seward Peninsula and assorted smaller projects that are underway.
The encroaching development worries members of the Western Arctic Caribou Herd Working Group. The group has repeatedly expressed official objections to the proposed Ambler road, as well as concerns about the cumulative effects of multiple projects.
Those concerns were repeated at the December meeting.
“It seems like development is taking over. We’re living in a different time,” said Michael Stickman, a member from Nulato, an Koyukon village on the Yukon River. “We don’t want to lose our way of life.”
The Porcupine herd’s territory, in contrast, has been largely protected from development. But there are looming plans that would bring oil drilling rigs to the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the place where the herd usually masses in summer to give birth to and nurture young calves.
Two congressionally mandated lease sales, one in 2021 and one held this month, failed to generate industry interest. Most of the bidding in the first sale, which resulted in no on-the-ground development, was from an Alaska state agency, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority. This month’s sale attracted no bids.
However, President-elect Donald Trump has touted the refuge’s potential for producing oil, falsely claiming that it has the potential to hold more oil than Saudi Arabia. More lease sales, with more industry-favorable terms, could be held in future years in the new Trump administration.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.
In exchange for living in what is perhaps the country’s most beautiful state, Alaskans sometimes have to do without: professional sports teams, Trader Joe’s and, well, sunlight for half the year. But we make up for it with the Iditarod, reindeer sausages and chasing the aurora borealis. In other words, we often have to make our own fun. And by “fun” I mean “beer.” Those words are interchangeable, right?
Beer is a big part of life for Alaskans. We hike with it, camp with it, boat with it, cook with it and pair it with foods like the stuffiest of sommeliers. We throw it monthly birthday parties like the First Tap events at Broken Tooth Brewing Co. (otherwise known as Bear Tooth Theatrepub and Moose’s Tooth Pub & Pizzeria), complete with national musical acts like Modest Mouse, Clinton Fearon, and Norah Jones. We even occasionally do yoga with it (at downtown’s Williwaw Social). In other words, we take it everywhere and we take it seriously.
Beers from the state’s biggest brewery, Alaskan Brewing Co. based in Juneau, might already be in your refrigerator if you live in one of the 25 states where it’s available. Established in 1986 by Marcy and Geoff Larson, it was the 67th independent brewery to open in the country. With a steady line of signature brews, including their most recent “Wildness” beer, it’s the most well-established of all the state’s breweries. Expect seasonal specialties that incorporate ingredients like cranberries, raspberries, locally roasted coffee, locally grown white wheat from the Matanuska-Susitna area and even Alaska spruce tips. Ubiquitous around Alaska, this is our Papa Beer, if you will (I’ll show myself out).
But Alaskan Brewing is just one out of the more-than 50 breweries, distilleries, meaderies and cideries in the state (for an excellent list visit brewersguildofalaska.org). And while almost half of them are in Anchorage or within a short drive of our state’s largest city (including the relatively populous communities of Girdwood, Eagle River, Palmer and Wasilla), some of our most remote ports of call and tiniest towns are also in on the brewing action (I’m looking at you, Cooper Landing Brewing Company in Cooper Landing, population 231).
The ever-expanding Denali Brewing Co. in Talkeetna (population 997) may be a small-town hero, but it’s anything but small. Their four signature beers — Mother Ale, Chuli Stout, Single Engine Red and the ever-popular Twister Creek IPA, as well seasonal brews like Slow Down Brown and Flag Stop Milepost #3 — are year-round mainstays of summer barbecues and winter bonfires around the state.
This brewery is also home to the more recently established Alaska Cider Works, Alaska Meadery (featuring “Razzery,” a mead made with raspberries, sour cherries and apples) and Denali Spirits (featuring vodka, gin, whiskey, and “smoke” whiskey), because when you’ve fermented one, why not ferment them all?
(Denali Spirits’ canned cocktails, especially their blueberry mojito, have been so popular in Anchorage that at one time there was a Facebook page largely dedicated to tracking them down. Luckily, supply has since caught up with demand.)
Some breweries are even more remote. Ports of call and island hopping here can be one way to get your fill of hops. Breweries can be found in Ketchikan (Bawden Street Brewing Co.), Kodiak (Kodiak Island Brewing & Still, Double Shovel Kodiak Cidery, and Olds River Inn), Homer (Homer Brewing Co. and Grace Ridge Brewing Co. for beer, and you can also check out Sweetgale Meadworks & Cider House for hard cider and locally sourced meads featuring ingredients like nagoonberry), Sitka (Harbor Mountain Brewing), Seward (Seward Brewing Co. and Stoney Creek Brewhouse), Valdez (Valdez Brewing and Growler Bay Brewing), and Skagway (Klondike Brewing Co. and Skagway Brewing Co.).
Of course, many trips to Alaska begin and end in Anchorage. And if, during your travels, you’ve foolishly left some beers untasted, you can make up for lost time in our state’s biggest city which boasts — let’s face it — a ridiculous number of exceptional craft breweries.
Downtown’s Glacier Brewhouse specializes in oak-aged English and American West Coast-style beers, 13 of them, from blondes to stouts. Beneath the floor of the Brewhouse is a “Wall of Wood” comprised of casks of special release beers that are conditioned in oak barrels once used to age wine and bourbon. The history of the oak imparts “mother tongue” flavor characteristics, like vanilla and coconut, into these limited edition brews. Opt for one of these unique beers or choose from their flagship choices like raspberry wheat, oatmeal stout, imperial blonde, Bavarian hefeweizen or a flight that includes them all.
Down the street is 49th State Brewing Co., which expanded into Anchorage from its original location in Healy, at the edge of Denali National Park and Preserve. If you are unable to visit their flagship location, where you can sip beer while playing bocce or horseshoes on the lawn, you can catch up with them here. There’s a unique selection that includes beers like Smok, a smoked lager, as well as seasonal offerings like the Tiger’s Blood Sour, an homage to shave ice described as ”ferociously fruity.” Or there’s “Apple Fritter Ale,” with hints of cinnamon, icing, caramel, and vanilla. This location also boasts some of the best views in Anchorage and an expansive outdoor rooftop patio.
Just about all of the full-service restaurants in downtown Anchorage proudly feature some variety of Alaskan beers. In the heart of downtown, Humpy’s Great Alaskan Alehouse prides itself on a huge selection of beers, both international and local. Tent City Taphouse offers a diverse and carefully curated list of 24 rotating local brews, including their house beer, Tent City Tangerine IPA brewed by Glacier Brewhouse. Tent City regularly hosts “Taste of the North” beer dinners featuring Alaskan brewers. One, in collaboration with Grace Ridge Brewing Company, featured smoked salmon canapes with Black Pepper IPA, classic beef Wellington with an Oystercatcher stout and roasted honey lamb chops with a Winter Cranberry Ale.
If you have transportation around the city, treat yourself to a brewery tasting-room tour. Found in unassuming little side streets in the more industrial areas of Anchorage, some of our best beers can be sipped and savored at the source. Finding these funky little spots can feel like being invited to a secret party. And it’s a glimpse into Anchorage’s most authentic beer culture.
In midtown, Onsite Brewing Co. has unique, small-batch brews in a funky relaxed environment. Further south, King Street Brewing Co., Turnagain Brewing, Cynosure Brewing, Magnetic North Brewing Company, Brewerks, and one of our newest, Ship Creek Brewing Company are all within a stone’s throw of one another. If you’re lucky, you might run into one of Anchorage’s popular food trucks parked outside, so you’ll have something to wash down with your flights. Depending on the day, you might find reindeer sausages, pad Thai, cheesesteaks or pupusas. On the weekends, Anchorage Brewing Company features a top-notch in-house pop-up restaurant, called Familia, with a rotating menu featuring local Alaskan ingredients.
One of the newest and furthest south breweries, while still in the Anchorage bowl, is Raven’s Ring Brewing Company, which is a brewery/winery and meadery. From a traditional IPA to a Concorde grape wine called Grape Juice to a rotating Vintner’s pour like Sweet Peach Jalapeno mead, this ambitious operation is challenging the notion that you can’t please everyone.
Other Anchorage points of interest for non-hoppy but still home-grown adult beverages include Anchorage Distillery, Zip Kombucha, Double Shovel Cidery and Hive Mind Meadery.
If your travels are over and you still haven’t had your fill, check out the Silver Gulch Brewing & Bottling Co. inside Terminal C at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport on your way out of town. An offshoot of the flagship Silver Gulch brewery in Fox, Alaska (about 10 miles north of Fairbanks), this location has a bar and restaurant, and a retail shop carrying growlers of their own brews as well as those of other Alaskan brewers and distillers. Last-minute souvenir shopping never tasted so good.
Before you start your great Northern beer safari, bear in mind that tasting rooms often have limited and varying hours, so always double-check before planning a visit.
Whether your travels take you to fine-dining restaurants, low-key alehouses or even rustic cabins in the woods, make like an Alaskan and fuel your adventures with one of our beloved, home-grown brews. When in Alaska, drink as the Alaskans do.
Mara Severin is a food writer who writes about restaurants in Southcentral Alaska for the Anchorage Daily News.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Coast Guard announced Thursday that the first two Arctic Security Cutters will be homeported in the State of Alaska. Anticipating delivery of the first Arctic Security Cutters by the end of 2028, the Coast Guard has begun planning to ensure necessary infrastructure and support are in place to receive two icebreakers. Ensuring these vessels are supported by trained and ready crews, and ready homeport facilities including housing, will be essential to delivering full, enduring operational capability required to meet emerging Arctic security challenges.
“Homeporting these two Arctic Security Cutters in Alaska is a decisive step forward in securing America’s Arctic frontier,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin. “I want to thank President Trump for his bold leadership and vision in directing this critical investment, as well as Senator Sullivan and the entire Alaskan Congressional delegation for championing the funding that made these icebreakers possible. These vessels will deliver the enduring operational presence our nation needs to protect sovereignty, deter foreign adversaries, and safeguard vital resources for the American people..”
The homeporting of the first two Arctic Security Cutters in Alaska builds on the historic expansion of the Coast Guard’s icebreaker fleet and underscores an unprecedented investment in the Arctic. This announcement marks a national milestone in U.S. Arctic capability, following contract awards for up to 11 Arctic Security Cutters. Fueled by $3.5 billion in funding in the Fiscal Year 2025 Reconciliation Bill and facilitated by a groundbreaking Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the United States and Finland in October 2025, the acquisition of Arctic Security Cutters will fulfill President Trump’s directive to rapidly deliver America’s newest icebreaker fleet.
“Homeporting Arctic Security Cutters in Alaska underscores the United States’ leadership as a maritime power in the Arctic,” said Adm. Kevin E. Lunday, commandant of the Coast Guard. “By strategically positioning these state-of-the-art icebreakers in Alaska, the Coast Guard will maximize our ability to defend our northern border and approaches, while reinforcing America’s maritime dominance in a crucial region of strategic importance.”
Through contract awards to Rauma Marine Constructions Oy of Rauma, Finland, Bollinger Shipyards Lockport, L.L.C., and Davie Defense, Inc. of Vienna, VA, the U.S. will immediately benefit from our Finnish partners’ icebreaker expertise while coordinating the onshoring of that expertise and shipbuilding to the United States. Under the MOU, Finland will construct up to four ASCs for the U.S Coast Guard. U.S. shipyards will build and deliver up to seven additional ASCs. Delivery of the first Arctic Security Cutters is expected by the end of 2028.
Arctic Security Cutters will form the backbone of a revitalized U.S. icebreaker fleet, strengthening American maritime dominance in the Arctic. Fielding specialized capabilities, these icebreakers will defend U.S. sovereignty, secure critical shipping lanes, protect energy and mineral resources, and counter foreign malign influence in the Arctic region. A robust icebreaker fleet will enable the Coast Guard to control, secure and defend U.S. Alaskan borders and Arctic maritime approaches, facilitate maritime commerce vital to economic prosperity and strategic mobility, and respond to crises and contingencies in the region.
Acquisition of Arctic Security Cutters supports the Coast Guard’s ongoing modernization, through which the Service is transforming into a more agile, capable and responsive fighting force.
Memorandum on ASC Homeporting
###
Alaska
‘We never forgot her’: Friends, family of longtime Alaska teacher gather for 100th birthday celebration
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Phyllis Sullivan has certainly led a life worth celebrating.
Born in 1926, Sullivan moved to Alaska with her husband and three children in 1959 to teach, first in the village of Kwethluk in Western Alaska and later at Wendler and Mears Middle Schools in Anchorage.
All the while, she left strong impressions with countless students and acquaintances, some of whom gathered in the basement of Anchor Park United Methodist Church in Anchorage Saturday to celebrate Sullivan’s century of life.
“Education has been the primary thing in her entire life,” her son Dennis Sullivan said. “She’s always been a school teacher and she’s been one of the sweetest people in the entire world.”
As a slideshow featuring vintage photos from her life and time in Alaska played, Phyllis, wheelchair-bound but high in spirit, stopped to chat with every new person who entered the room, some of whom she hadn’t seen in years.
“It’s impressive that this many people are here,” she said. “That’s very encouraging. Makes me think maybe I did something right along the way.”
Aside from family members, most visitors were there because of the impression Phyllis Sullivan left on them during her many years in the classroom.
“She gave us this one assignment: to memorize a poem,” former Mears student Tina Arend recalled. She said Phyllis Sullivan was her 8th grade English teacher.
“And when she gave us the assignment, she said, ‘I’ve had students come back many, many, many years later and recite the poem to me.’ And we actually still remember the poem,” Arend said of her and her husband, who was also in attendance. They both went on to become teachers at Mears as well.
Matthew Nicolai, whom Phyllis Sullivan taught in Kwethluk, has similarly fond memories.
“The Bureau had ordered that teachers do corporal punishment for speaking Yup’ik,” Nicolai remembered. “Even though we spoke Yup’ik, she never did that, never cracked our hands. Other teachers did, but not her. That’s why we never forgot her.”
In addition to teaching, Phyllis Sullivan also found time to open her home to those in need. She and her husband once took in a family with seven kids who had been displaced by flooding in Fairbanks in 1967.
“It touched our heart because they bought us a lot of stuff that we needed because we lost a lot of stuff during the flood,” David Solomon, one of those seven kids, said. “We stayed there for over three years.”
Phyllis Sullivan said she is enjoying life and is doing fine.
“My mother made it to 103,” she said. “So, I’ve got a while yet.”
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