LEO Network

About the LEO Network
The LEO Network is a worldwide network of observers and experts that share their observations of environmental change.
Continue

Observations

After September storm, Newtok residents are desperate to relocate
Melting permafrost and severe erosion have plagued the community for decades. The most recent storm brought waves so fierce, the water claimed roughly half of the 80 or so remaining feet of land that stands between the back end of the school and the edge of the Ningliq river.
Newtok, Alaska, United States
KYUK

Winds down but high water just starting as ‘exceptionally strong storm’ batters Northwest Alaska
Forecasters say they are expecting significant coastal erosion from Utqiagvik to Unalakleet from the second severe-weather event to hit the region in three weeks.
Utqiaġvik, Alaska, United States
Anchorage Daily News

Slide buries highway, strands residents
Two heavy rainstorms caused flooding and landslides in the upper valley last week, damaging infrastructure and leaving two residents temporarily trapped in their vehicle.
Haines, Alaska, United States
Chilkat Valley News

Saxitoxin detected in regional clam
By Diana Haecker
Savoonga, Alaska, United States
The Nome Nugget

False long-horned beetle (Stenotrachelus aeneus)
Black insect never seen by a Yupiit of Andreafski Tribal member at his home in St. Mary's.
St. Mary's, Alaska, United States
Bambi Alexie, Derek Sikes, Charles Prince, Elizabeth Graham, Eric Alstrom

Sea otter lunch for bald eagle
Two dead otters (one recent) on Kasitsna Bay side. We also found another one yesterday on the Kachemak side.
McDonald Spit, Alaska, United States
Angela Doroff, Michael Opheim , Barbara Mahoney, Rose Masui, Mike Brubaker, Kris Holderied, Stephen Payton

Dead sea otter
Walked two miles of spit and did not see any others.
Seldovia Village, Alaska, United States
Barbara Mahoney, Stephen Payton, Mike Brubaker, Michael Opheim , Kris Holderied

Wild Rose October Bloom
We typically see them blooming in June and most of them have been without blooms for months.
Galena, Alaska, United States

Salmon struggle to spawn amid record-setting drought
Record-setting drought conditions have left many of B.C’s streams and waterways too low for salmon to swim up to spawn. Heiltsuk First Nation leaders say hundreds of fish were found rotting in a creek in Bella Bella, B.C., usually teeming by fall with migrating pink and chum salmon.
CBC

Severe Erosion in Newtok
A site visit to Newtok on September 30, shows severe erosion from impacts of storm (typhoon Merbok). The images show both severe permafrost melt and river erosion.
Newtok, Alaska, United States

Lots of dead krill washed up on Sarichef Island
Die-offs of krill are in some cases associated with hypoxia (low oxygen) excess sediment suspended in the water column and changes in water temperature. There were recent reports of high levels of Alexandrium in water samples in the areas, and Norton Sound Health Corporation is performing some testing of krill samples (see below). There was also an unprecedented storm event only a week ago, unusual for the storm surge and early season.
Shishmaref, Alaska, United States
Gay Sheffield, Brandon Ahmasuk, Dean Stockwell, Racheal Lee, Jacqualine Schaeffer, Anahma Shannon, Sadie McGill, Emma Pate

Fish die off near Kotzebue
Ali Ralson was riding her 4 Wheeler towards Cape Blossom and came upon a beach full of fish. It appears that most of the fish are stickleback although there may be other species involved too. This would suggest an environmental issue that would impact multiple fish species rather than a pathogen. One potential cause could be harmful algal toxins.
Cape Blossom
Gay Sheffield, Carmen Daggett, Joanna Barton, Ted Meyers, Jacqualine Schaeffer, Jayde Ferguson, Dean Stockwell, Bruce Wright

City set to begin cleanup after landslide
The City and Borough of Juneau on Tuesday began the multi-day process of cleaning up after a Monday night landslide in the area of Gastineau Avenue.The landslide damaged three homes and displaced residents, but there were no injuries reported.
Juneau, Alaska, United States
Juneau Empire

Aquaculture: Oyster and mussel growers on Prince Edward Island calculating losses from Fiona
James Power doesn’t have a final tally yet on how much post tropical storm Fiona cost Raspberry Point Oysters Ltd., but the damages are likely to be in the ...
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada

Mystery leaks hit Russian undersea gas pipelines to Europe
European countries on Tuesday raced to investigate unexplained leaks in two Russian gas pipelines running under the Baltic Sea near Sweden and Denmark, infrastructure at the heart of an energy crisis since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Baltic Sea
CNN

An Influx in Taraxacum Officinale or the Common Dandelion in Iqaluit, Nunavut
Over the past five years, there has been a steady increase in the number of dandelions spread throughout the surrounding area of Iqaluit.
Crystal Two, Nunavut, Canada

Yukon's North Klondike Highway opens to single lane traffic after crews clear landslide debris
Yukon's North Klondike Highway is open to single lane of traffic after multiple landslides closed the road in two sections for days.
CBC

Unalakleet’s boil water notice extended as work on main water line continues
The City of Unalakleet now has a working generator to power its local water plant, but the community plans to be on a boil water notice for an extended period of time.
Unalakleet, Alaska, United States
KNOM Radio Mission

Fiona updates: Much of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island without power as Fiona hits Canada
Fiona, now a post-tropical cyclone, made landfall in Canada Saturday morning. Some two-thirds of Nova Scotia and all of Prince Edward Island are without power.
Nova Scotia, Canada
ABC News

Chevak rallies to repair storm-damaged subsistence gear
During a community meeting, Chevak residents said better emergency planning should be a long-term priority. For now, though, assessing damage is the focus.
Chevak, Alaska, United States
Alaska Public Media
Emily Schwing, special to Alaska Public Media

Kivalina neighbors banded together to save a house from falling into the sea amid last week’s storm
Kivalina has long dealt with climate change-driven erosion. While the village didn’t feel the effects of heavy flooding, residents are wary of a future with heavy autumn storms.
Kivalina, Alaska, United States
Alaska Public Media
Kavitha George, Alaska Public Media - Anchorage

Unregulated ships cruise over speed agreements
“Our shipping monitors clocked another cruise ship going at excessive speed near Pond Inlet,” posted Baffinland Iron Mines on their Twitter account Sept. 22. While the maximum speed was agreed at nine knots in some passages used by the cruise ships, one ship in particular, The Hanseatic from Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, was clocked at almost 16 knots, nearly twice the velocity. It’s the second time this month the cruise line has been clocked in excess of the speed limit agreement.
Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada
NUNAVUT NEWS
Felix Charron-Leclerc - Local Journalism Initiative reporter

After decades of dwindling runs, sockeye salmon return to Yukon fishing village in droves
The number of sockeye returning to Klukshu, Yukon, to spawn began to drop off in the 1990s. This year, hundreds of the bright red fish line the small creek that winds through the village. Neither the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations nor Fisheries and Oceans Canada are sure why the fish have returned after decades of steady decline.
Klukshu, Yukon, Canada
CBC

Alaska's newest lakes are belching methane
Permafrost is ground that stays frozen year round; the permafrost in interior Alaska also has massive wedges of actual ice locked within the frozen ground. When that ice melts, the ground surface collapses and forms a sinkhole that can fill with water. Thus, a thermokarst lake is born. At first glance, Big Trail looks like any lake. But look closer and there's something disturbing the surface: bubbles.
Fairbanks, Alaska, United States
Phys.org

‘Some of them just disappeared’: Essential pieces of life in Nome were lost in the storm
Nome's landscape is physically altered, with raw material scattered wildly, the coastline reconfigured, and camps that anchored generations of subsistence either flattened or gone.
Nome, Alaska, United States
KTOO

As the storm raged, a mad rush to keep the power on in Hooper Bay
The storm could have threatened the town’s winter subsistence stock if not for the work of local power plant operators.
Hooper Bay, Alaska, United States
KTOO

Beaver Burrows in Nuna River Bank
"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."
West Branch Nuna River

‘Stebbins is resilient,’ Eastern Norton Sound communities recovering from storm damage
Several communities in the Norton Sound are struggling with contaminated drinking water days after the significant September storm hit the region.
Stebbins, Alaska, United States
KNOM Radio Mission

Storm Merbok causes erosion to cemetary
The erosion of the Old Russian Cemetery from the impacts of the storm Merbokis also an unfinished process. The earth is actively moving, falling onto the beach bit by bit and sometimes in large chunks every day, to reach a state of stabilization after the storm.
St. Michael, Alaska, United States
Tom Wolforth, Michelle Snowball, Darlene Chiskok

Up river effect from Typhoon Merbok
The heavy rains and high water from storm Murdok today and Monday are contributing to the erosion of the old landfill and river bank.
Noatak, Alaska, United States
Richard L Thoman Jr, Jeffrey Luther, Joy Britt

Makut negairuut, Nunapicuarmi negat amllerluteng, Spider webs cover vast area
*The spiders are usually in multiple form in most areas, but it has not been witnessed in this form.* This is described as a spider "ballooning" event, the term used when spiders launch themselves in to the air. These events might be happening more frequently as warming Arctic temperatures has been associated with increases in the population of some spider species such as the wolf spider (see Spider Baby Boom in Warming Arctic), and spiders moving further north and also having more then one hatch per season.
Nunapitchuk, Alaska, United States
Santina Gay, Lauren Divine, Jacqualine Schaeffer, Theodora Nicholai, Russell Cameron , Joey Billy, Derek Sikes

Storm unearths ancient tusks
The aftermath of Typhoon Merbok left fuel tanks floating and home flooded, but locals also saw an opportunity.
Newtok, Alaska, United States

‘Half of Golovin underwater,’ residents shovel sand out of homes
GOLOVIN RESIDENTS ARE IN CLEANUP MODE as their community works to restore power, phone service and clear debris. After the flood waters receded from the weekend’s severe fall storm, some locals are left with feet of sand in their homes. “At my place we’ve got three feet of sand we’re still shoveling out with the crew here, trying to get the sand out of the living area so we can get the sheetrock to go ahead and dry off,” Alaska Senator Donny Olson of Golovin said.
Golovin, Alaska, United States
KNOM Radio Mission

Support

Observation Template