Alaska Fish & Wildlife News
May 2010

BioBlitz
Explores and Celebrates Nature

Flying squirrels, meadow voles and water shrews are among the elusive and undocumented mammals suspected to inhabit Douglas Island in Southeast Alaska. Those critters are likely to get their official documentation in June during the BioBlitz, when teams of biologists and citizen scientists take to the forests, meadows and beaches in an intense 24-hour scrutiny of life on the island.

The BioBlitz is a carefully organized assessment of the plants, animals, fungi and insects – all life – in ...   BioBlitz ArticleContinued

SONAR Sees Kenai River Kings

“One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish…”

This title to the popular Dr. Suess children's book is more than just a rhyme, it can also be considered a fairly accurate description of what ADF&G is trying to accomplish at the Kenai River Chinook salmon sonar project. ADF&G has been estimating Chinook salmon passage on the Kenai River using sonar technology since the late 1980's. Part of the challenge of estimating Chinook salmon passage on the Kenai is the presence of smaller, more abundant ...   SONAR for Kings ArticleContinued

Quest for Fire
Planning a Prescribed Burn

Plans for a prescribed fire this spring to improve moose habitat near Fairbanks have some picturing a raging inferno, with wind-driven flames leaping from tree crown to tree crown in the spruce of the boreal forest.

Biologist Dale Haggstrom has a different picture: A ground fire consuming last year's dried grass and leaves on the greening slopes above the treeline in foothills of the Alaska Range, hopefully scorching subalpine willow stands enough to promote new growth.

“Some ...   Quest for Fire ArticleContinued