Ambler

The potential impact on caribou and the way of life in Northwest Arctic if Ambler Mining District is opened.

"I had never seen burrows like this, and they were everywhere on the Nuna. What seemed to be elaborate tunnel systems dug where there was apparently no permafrost, and sometimes the burrows led up to the bench behind."

After significant rain and high water from the Kobuk River the Native Village of Kobuk is now flooded.

After he lost the trail, Jeff King stopped his dog team and draped his sleeping bag over his head to block the battering wind and blowing snow. He was somewhere between the villages of Ambler and Shungnak in the Kobuk 440 Sled Dog Race. Conditions ranged from howling to furious. King lay down with his team. He cuddled a dog named Twister and tried to sleep. That’s when a flaw in the plan rattled his bones. The work of getting there had caused him to sweat, dampness worsened by blowing snow that found its way inside his clothing.

The Arctic Sounder - Serving the Northwest Arctic and the North Slope

The Baldwin Peninsula near Kotzebue has seen a massive increase in beavers over the last two decades, according to new research from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Temperatures in July reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit, above the normal high temperature of 72.3 degrees.

Alvin Williams was reported missing on May 2. His body was found Sunday, troopers said.

The Arctic Sounder - Serving the Northwest Arctic and the North Slope

While public comment has been mixed, the issue of potential risk to subsistence lifestyles in many of Alaska Native villages along the proposed road have played a large part in testimony from Fairbanks community members, specifically at a public comment hearing in November of last year.

River Erosion

Chum salmon die-off in the Kobuk River.

5-30-13 Flooding Kobuk River - Kobuk, Alaska, USA

Beavers, on the other hand, leave a mark on the landscape that you can sometimes see from space.Swarming ponds, building dams and expanding waterways, beavers are moving farther and farther into the Arctic, and are changing what the region looks like.

The Western Arctic Caribou Herd in Alaska has continued to decline, with a 7% decrease in population from the previous year, prompting concerns about the need for harvest reduction to preserve the herd.

The U.S. Department of the Interior released a 1,200-page supplemental environmental impact study (EIS) on the proposed Ambler Access Road in Alaska, which reveals potentially greater social and environmental impacts than previously thought, including concerns about disrupting traditional hunting and fishing lifestyles and causing permafrost thaw.

The Western Arctic Caribou Herd continues to decline, now at about a third of its 2003 population, with hunting restrictions likely as part of conservation efforts.

Climate change and global fuel shortages are combining to make energy prices unusually high in rural Alaska. Seeking relief from high energy prices and unreliable supplies are fueling transitioning to renewable energy. ANTHC is developing alternative energy projects in Ambler and has reknewable energy projects in more then 80 communities across the State.

Ambler Elder Virginia Commack said that the borough's decision does not reflect the opinion of many Northwest Arctic residents. This month, almost 80 Northwest Arctic residents, current and former, signed the petition against the development of the Ambler road project. When the Alaska Department of Natural Resources held two public hearings last year, out of about 37 people who called, only two spoke in support of the project.

Alaska’s Western Arctic Caribou Herd population is lower than at any time in over four decades. Climate change is the leading cause of the decline in the herd.