Alaska is one of the only places in the world where peony flowers grow in the summer months. But the unusually cold, wet weather this year is delaying the blooms by weeks.
Scientists with the U.S. Forest Service believe that the blackheaded budworm, whose numbers surged over the past three years, is now in decline.
Twenty-three of the 25 fires so far this year were ignited by human activity. While this year’s heavy snowpack and cold spring pushed back the start to fire season in many parts of the state, climate change is generally causing an earlier snowmelt, said climatologist Rick Thoman.
Last summer’s unusually warm weather fueled an explosion in the western blackheaded budworm, leaving masses of browning trees in many areas of Southeast. The worm, which is the larval stage of the budworm moth, is known to feed on the new growth of trees, leaving them with a brownish-red appearance.
Carmichael pointed to a tree that fell across one of the riverside campground spots, taking out a fence. There’s another on the opposite side of the path, branches strewn across an open patch of snow. They’re among the 1,000 high-priority trees the city wants to remove due to safety concerns.
After a cold winter and spring, high temperatures around the Interior prompted birch tree buds to burst, sending record-setting levels of pollen into the air.
Some possible causes for late budding in berries include more precipitation when flowers bloom, which reduces pollination, an overall lack of pollinators, or sometimes animals and birds eat the berries during the winter.
One ecologist wonders, for the yellow cedar forests and the people who care about them, what comes after climate change and environmental loss in Southeast Alaska?
A wildfire north of Delta Junction has reignited. The more than 8,000-acre South Fork Salcha Fire was started by lightning earlier this month in a remote area about 70 miles southeast of Fairbanks.
For those who suffer from seasonal allergies, spring means red eyes, mucus and fits of sneezing. This year, the Lynn Canal has seen a remarkable spruce pollen bloom.
On another year, Christy might just now be finishing up the harvest. But today, the only flowers left from this season are stored in a walk-in cooler.
Moose and other species have advanced north with warming temperatures. University of Alaska Fairbanks assistant professor of water and environmental research Ken Tape said movement of boreal species into far northern Alaska has corresponded over the last century with earlier snow-melt and river ice out.
How will climate change affect health in Alaska? Dangerous travel conditions could cause more accidents, warmer temperatures could spread new diseases and the topsy-turvy weather could worsen mental health. Those are some conclusions from a new state report released Monday. Listen now
Golden Valley Electric Association crews are still working to repair damage to power lines caused by warm chinook winds that blasted the Interior over the weekend, especially around Delta Junction.
Early Tuesday morning, a rockslide crashed into Skagway’s largest cruise ship dock. It was the second slide event in less than two weeks and caused a pair of cruise ships to divert to other ports. Some Skagway residents are calling on the city and the private company that owns the dock to take action.
Hot, dry weather over the northern Interior is keeping wildfire season alive longer than normal.
“We really don’t know when the problem started and whether it was a long-term situation this winter, but the bottom line is that it appears that salmonberry and blueberry were affected by the amount of cold and the depth of cold that we had that killed the winter buds and killed the above-ground stems of those plants,” Pyle said.
An early melt-out date can make for an especially bad wildfire season, but this year, it’s right on schedule for much of the state. Listen now
A fungus that’s damaged trees in Southcentral and Interior Alaska has been discovered for the first time in Southeast. But there’s a chance its spread could be stopped.
Beetles that killed millions of acres of trees in the 1990s were a first sign of climate change. In a new flare-up, they continue marching north as Alaska warms.
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