Background Articles

The state’s rural areas lead the world in renewably powered microgrids. So if the grid of the future is being incubated in rural Alaska, can urban Alaska, like the Railbelt, benefit from some of these strategies and lessons learned?

With recent events between Musk ox, humans, and dogs, Nome looks for solutions to mitigate the problem. As they graze on patches of grass, often within city limits, the potential for dog conflict and even human interactions are becoming common.

Heat waves like the one that engulfed parts of parts of the South and Midwest and killed more than a dozen people are becoming more common.

Voles breed like crazy. They can have three or four litters of six to eight kits each summer. Babies are born hairless, but are weaned and on their own in less than three weeks. Females are ready to breed at 30 days.

Scientists say that rising global temperatures are causing collapsing mountains as ancient permafrost begins to thaw.

Kiwi crews exposed to radiation at Mururoa Atoll hold concerns for subsequent generations.

Scientists say worsening heat waves have a clear link to climate change. This year, a seasonal El Niño pattern will also be adding fuel to the fire.

Beluga whales in Cook Inlet have been in a long period of decline, about two percent a year. But a new population count points to a reversal. The latest numbers have led researchers to declare the population stable for the first time in decades.

A long-running television show, "Alaska Weather" unique to Alaska that provides detailed weather, aviation and marine forecasts across the state will stop airing at the end of June. Especially in rural communities where many residents rely on the show for weather and safety information that's vital to coordinating flights and planning subsistence hunts or commercial fishing trips.

A research project found that the Bering Strait is at least a meter deeper on the Alaska side than previously believed, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center. The project evaluated new and old bathymetric surveys, applying modern technology to the latter to more accurately pinpoint locations.

As the Fairbanks North Star Borough continues to tweak plans to improve air quality in its nonattainment zone, its wood stove change-out program continues to grow.

$513,000 was vetoed in state budget that would have looked into the origin of salmon caught by the Bering Sea pollock fleet.

As king salmon decline in the Bristol Bay region, changes to king salmon harvest include reduced bag limits, area closures, as well as the introduction of youth-only fisheries in the Naknek River.

Knik Tribe officials have found very high levels of the toxin which causes paralytic shellfish poisoning in samples from Southern Alaska mussels and clams — but they warn that parts of some fish, including king salmon, may also contain the toxin

A federal appeals panel issued a last-second ruling Wednesday that will allow this summer’s Southeast Alaska troll chinook salmon fishery to open as scheduled July 1.

The Bureau of Land Management, in partnership with the Salcha-Delta Soil and Water Conservation District and Trout Unlimited, are restoring mining-impacted streams along the upper Yukon River watershed. Projects will improve water quality and fish habitat along Nome and Wade Creeks.

It’s been a week since ice severed a fiber optic cable in the Arctic Ocean, cutting communications to several Northwest Alaska communities.

This film is for young people and anyone in the Northwest Arctic who is curious about how (and why) to siifish, and how to process the fish after catching.

Northern Europe is experiencing an unusual heat wave and drought, making the region more vulnerable to forest fires, with firefighters battling wildfires in Portugal, Spain, Croatia, and southern France, and temperatures expected to hit 86 degrees Fahrenheit in Finland, rare for a country straddling the Arctic Circle.

During the 1970's much of the Norwegian coastline was overfished. In the past, a kelp forest provided shelter and food for local sealife. Today, the seabed, along the Norwegian coastline is a sea urchin desert. Researchers, volunteers, and the "Kelp Keepers" in Tromso, are removing the sea urchins and rebuilding the kelp forest.