text:
The man pulls back the tarp, and I'm staring at a seal carcass. Two seal carcasses, actually. There are six smaller ones wrapped in tarps on the ground, but these are the biggest, 250 pounds apiece, laid out head-to-tail with a neat bullet wound through each head. Their congealed blood glows, drops of rubies on the blue tarp.
I've encountered a lot of seals in Alaska, but I've never seen one so close — or so dead. Where a knife has sliced through to bleed them out, the blubber is two inches thick. It'll be used to make seal oil (hard to come by in Anchorage these days), to be gobbled by the spoonful like peanut butter from a jar. The meat will be made into jerky, the fur into crafts. Wayne shows me pictures on his iPhone of masks and boots made from speckled seal fur. The creases of his fingers are stained with blood.
This is where I've come after being dumped. Hard. Instead of fleeing to a tropical beach or an artists' retreat, someplace warm and comfortable, I quit my job and joined what feels like a pilgrimage of heartbroken dreamers staggering toward Alaska. Why, I wonder, when our hearts are as raw as a piece of meat pecked at by ravens, are we drawn to one of the most unforgiving places imaginable? Do we crave a landscape as exposed and wind-scoured as we feel, or has Alaska simply always attracted such people?
Whatever the case, I met my friend, Kate, in Anchorage and drove as far south as the road would take us, to the end of the Homer Spit. In summer, the spit is packed with tourists, but now, in April, the storefronts are boarded up and the RV crowd still home plotting their vacations. There are a few scraps of paper on the bulletin boards from young men looking for work, and a lone moose wandering the alders. Brown marsh grasses whisper dryly. Yet the light dances from a sun that lingers late in the sky, hinting at the season to come.
Kate and I began talking to the three Native men because we needed a corkscrew. They gave us one, plus some bratwurst. I asked if they were fishing. No, the one named Wayne said: Hunting. Then he pulled back the tarp and showed us the seals.
Wayne answers my questions slowly, considering his words before he speaks. His camo jacket is too big; his hair hangs over the cigarette dangling from his lips. His two cousins are older and rounder, with thick hair and black mustaches. They tell us they're Eskimos from Nome, now living in Anchorage, and every April when the water is free of ice but the seals still have their winter blubber, they come here to hunt.
We drink wine from tin cups, and the endless twilight spirals on. The sun drops away but the metallic sky doesn't darken. The moon rises over snowy peaks. We're joined around our fire by a man with 26 sled dogs chained to a trailer. Fresh off the Montana mushing circuit and flush with cash, he impulsively drove to Alaska. He's been here two weeks now and may stay the whole summer. Anything is possible.
They've all befriended the two other men camping on the spit, both here alone in this strange season between snowmelt and summer. One is a cocky 30-year-old fisherman with a broken foot who's drinking away his workers' comp checks. The other is Mark. He lived most his life in Hawaii, is just about penniless and hasn't seen his daughter in 10 years, but he's filled with wonder to be living here in the clean, salty air. "Every day I live in awe," he says, tilting his face toward the sky: "Ahhhh!"
He walks with one stiff leg, swinging it out like a pirate's peg. His face is crevassed with wrinkles. His teeth are yellow, his beard a stained white, his eyes the same icy blue as his husky's. Limping around camp to throw wood on the fire or break up a dogfight, he bursts into song: "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," Bob Marley. We are all living in awe.
None of us, not even the Eskimos, are from here. We each came to this barren stretch of land for our own reasons, and yet we came for the same reasons: For the way the wind whips the sand, the way the stars pierce the slowly darkening sky; the surf crashing on the beach. For the stark white mountains and the cold depths of the sea and all the dreams and fears locked away in those secret places. For the freedom and promise and adventure of being at the end of the road, beyond the clogged highways and parking lots and climate-controlled offices.
There's all of that, and there's loneliness too, a loneliness that everyone, after a few cups of wine, begins to reveal. It's the one thing that binds us here on the spit, young and old, male and female, sitting around a driftwood fire, feeling the pull of Alaska and the weight of what we've left behind.
This story was originally titled "The solace of lonely places" in the print edition.]]>
In The Sanctity of Space, Ozturk and co-director, Freddie Wilkinson, retrace Washburn's expeditions in the high peaks of the Alaska Range. The work combines footage of their adventures, both on foot and in the air, with profiles of the locals they meet on the way. The film takes viewers deep into the heart of Alaska in search of the legacy of a nearly forgotten artist and mountaineer. HCN recently spoke with Ozturk about the film, which they hope to release by fall 2015.
High Country News Renan, how did you end up becoming both a professional climber and an artist?
Renan Ozturk It's a pretty unexpected combination. The last class I took in college was drawing. After graduating from (Colorado College), I gave away all my belongings and hit the road — pretty much your standard dirtbag-climber tale — except that I was also doing landscape paintings. Eventually, I gained a sponsorship with the North Face, which let me do these bigger trips around the world. From there, I started doing larger-scale murals in these far-off places. But I was finding it harder to tell the stories of these adventures just through painting, so I started cutting my paintings up and doing animation — until one day I just picked up a video camera.
HCN Will you describe your current project in Alaska?
RO I've been going to Alaska every year for a while now to do exploratory climbing with my friend, Freddie Wilkinson. We started looking for new objectives and came across an old Bradford Washburn photo — though we didn't know it was his photo at the time. The photo was of the "Moose's Tooth" massif, which is one of the most striking skylines in the Alaska Range, and we envisioned a climb that would traverse the teeth. There are a lot of teeth on this particular ridge — there's the Eye Tooth, the Sugar Tooth, the Broken Tooth. Some of them had not been climbed before and it took us a number of years to complete the whole traverse.
HCN And how does Washburn come into the picture?
RO Over the years we spent trying to climb this route, we learned more and more about Brad Washburn, who made somewhere around 70 expeditions to the Alaska Range to photograph the mountains from the air — which he took by squeezing himself into the open door of antique airplanes with his camera. He was also engaged in rich conversation with Ansel Adams, a close friend of his, about the nature of landscape photography and whether there should be people in it.
He was the first person to map Denali from the air. He also mapped Everest from the air for National Geographic. But unlike Ansel, who was famous for his mountain photography, Washburn is just this forgotten hero. So after we completed the climb, we went back to the range and photographed it from the air like Washburn, but with an aerial camera system called a Cineflex; it's a video-camera gyro mounted to a helicopter that we felt was very much in the spirit of how Washburn would have wanted to document figures on a landscape.
HCN What is it about that style of photography that speaks to Washburn's legacy?
RO The Alaska Range is so huge that Washburn felt unless you put a figure in the landscape, it's hard to perceive the scale. He really pioneered the use of aerial photography in the mountains of Alaska, which inspired hundreds of climbing expeditions and contributed to our understanding of this remote place.
So our goal was to connect Washburn's legacy with a broader exploration of this landscape that has inspired so many people. Alaska is this haven for misfits, so in addition to the story of our own climb, we wanted to bring in these other characters — bush pilots, homesteaders and the people from Talkeetna air taxi, the Alaska mountaineering school and the National Park Service that we've been working with.
HCN So you're weaving the story of your climb — inspired by a Washburn photo — with these other elements of Alaska's culture and history?
RO Exactly. It's really about celebrating the spirit of exploration. We go into the history of the area and the role of aviation. For instance, climbers and pilots worked together to make these technical glacier landings possible — where they're just barely hanging onto the sides of mountains. But Brad (Washburn) is really the cornerstone of the film.
HCN I'm curious about why he never came close to approaching Ansel Adams' fame.
RO I think he just did too much. He wasn't just a photographer — he was a mapmaker, a pilot, a museum director. He had more of a scientific mind. Even up until right before he died, he would never admit that he was an artist. There are some recordings of him getting drilled by an Outside magazine journalist who was writing an article about him. Washburn wouldn't admit that he was returning to these mountains over and over again to find the right light conditions for artistic reasons.
I think that's what makes him even more compelling as a character. He was drawn to the Alaska Range to create art — and he didn't even know it.
Sarah Tory is an editorial intern at High Country News. She tweets @tory_sarah.]]>
The environment wins a few, loses a lot more. North Dakota voters overwhelmingly opted not to dedicate oil and gas revenue to land and water conservation, and Nevada nixed raising the cap on mining taxes. In Alaska, though, a measure allowing lawmakers to block Pebble Mine if it's found to harm salmon won with 65 percent of the vote. And in California, Prop 1 — the $7.5 billion water bond that could fund a mountain of environmental projects but also build new dams — also won handily.
Overwhelmingly, though, the nation's abrupt lurch toward conservatism is not likely to help clean water, clean air or climate policy. James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) will likely replace California environmentalist Barbara Boxer to chair the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which has oversight over the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA's ability to prosecute environmental crimes has already been hamstrung by sequestration and a seemingly endless parade of lawsuits, but under Inhofe — who calls global warming a hoax — and new Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), its power will likely be eroded even further.
Even the Northwest couldn't stem the red tide. California billionaire Tom Steyer poured millions into state-level races in Washington and Oregon to secure Democratic state legislatures willing to help governors Jay Inslee and John Kitzhaber pass progressive climate and environmental policies. But even Steyer's money wasn't enough to turn Washington's red Senate blue. Oregon, on the other hand, turned out to be his saving grace: Democrats "gained at least one and maybe two seats in the Senate," reports The Oregonian. "In the House, they held on to their 34-26 lead and might well wind up gaining a seat."
Baked Alaska. Though Democrat Mark Begich hasn't formally conceded, returns show Begich out, Sullivan in, and Republican Rep. Don Young — quite possibly the craziest politician in a chamber with no shortage of competition — sailing to an easy victory. Nonetheless, the 49th state also legalized marijuana (along with Oregon), chose salmon over mining and showed a lot of love to Independent/Democratic gubernatorial mashup Bill Walker and Byron Mallot. It's unclear whether Walker and Mallot have beat incumbent Republican Sean Parnell, but the fact that they're currently winning signals a growing disgust for both partisanship and Parnell's coziness with the oil industry.
Doc and Henry's replacements. Congress' leading anti-wilderness voice, Republican Doc Hastings of Washington, and its most dynamic environmental supporter, Democrat Henry Waxman of California, will be succeeded by either Dan Newhouse or Clint Didier (both Republicans) and Ted Lieu (D), respectively. Though the newcomers come with neither the clout nor the charisma of Hastings and Waxman, they're also unlikely to stray far from the elder statesmens' politics.
Different climates on gun control. In the Northwest, Washington voters chose to close a loophole that let firearms be sold without a background check at gun shows and over the internet, plus defeated a measure that would've limited background checks. But in Arizona, even campaign money from the Super PAC formed by Gabby Giffords, the Representative shot in the head three years ago, may not keep keep her seat blue: Giffords' former aid Rob Barber is said to be losing an extremely tight race to Republican Martha McSally, who opposes most gun control. But a technical glitch means the final results may be days away.
Krista Langlois is an editorial fellow at High Country News. She tweets @KristaLanglois2.]]>
It wasn't anything the 81-year-old Young said onstage in Kodiak that got him in trouble; rather, it was his comportment behind the curtain. When 30-year-old Democratic challenger Forrest Dunbar patted Young's arm during a tête-à-tête before the debate, the Republican incumbent reportedly grew enraged. Recalled Dunbar to the Alaska Dispatch News: "He kind of snarled at me and said, 'Don't you ever touch me… The last guy who touched me ended up on the ground dead.'"
Was Young's barking merely an intimidation tactic? Probably. Still, the chance, however remote, that a U.S. congressman had killed a man for touching him understandably drew some media attention.
Most statesmen would have swiftly fallen back on a classic stratagem: Deny, deny, deny. But Young, who last year infamously referred to Latinos using a racial slur, has never chosen his words with tact. So when Capitol Hill news website Roll Call asked him about the incident, the congressman replied simply, "There's some truth to that," before an alert press secretary whisked the conversation along.
Here at High Country News, we've been covering threats to public officials; we're less accustomed to threats by public officials. But Don Young, who has brandished both knives and walrus penises at his political foes, has a knack for redefining what's plausible. Within the last few months, he's made clown faces on the House floor as a colleague talked about a slain Marine, twisted the arm of a staffer, and berated students while discussing their friend's suicide. As one columnist recently put it, "He has been obnoxious for years; now maybe he is crazy."
Often subsumed by Young's outsize personality are his politics, which, as you might expect from someone who's blamed Alaska's high suicides rates on the federal government, veer rightward. A stroll through the HCN archives reveals a consistently pro-states-rights, pro-development record: 11 attempts to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling; efforts to clear-cut old growth stands in Alaska's Tongass National Forest; and choice statements like, "I don't see any justification for the federal government owning land."
Young, who has held office since 1973, hasn't lately mellowed in his bashing of the feds. This summer, he called the Environmental Protection Agency's new power plant regulations "an economy killer," and termed the agency's attempt to redefine navigable waterways under the Clean Water Act "federal overreach."
While Young often criticizes largesse, he's drawn fire himself for grabbing pork. Remember the "Bridge to Nowhere," the $400 million connection to southeast Alaska's Gravina Island (pop. 50) that earned Young the 2004 Golden Fleece Award? Or how about Coconut Road, a $10 million earmark that would have upgraded pavement near golf clubs in Florida — clubs owned by a real estate developer who'd organized a fundraiser for, yes, Don Young?
One watchdog group recently named him one of 2013's most corrupt members of Congress — his fifth time on the list.
Despite his many imbroglios, Young has a reputation as an unusually effective deal-broker, which is perhaps why Alaskans have elected him 21 times. For a while, this year was shaping up to be more of the same. Young led Dunbar — a cleancut National Guardsman and Yale Law graduate with a passion for '80s music — by 15 points as recently as September. Focus was trained exclusively on Alaska's crucial U.S. Senate race, where Democratic incumbent Mark Begich finds himself locked in battle with Republican Dan Sullivan.
But then Young spent the month of October violating every nonpartisan standard of decent behavior. (He even found time to compare same-sex marriage to bull sex.) Suddenly, statewide media was flooded with calls for his ousting, and an election that was once a fait accompli now seems up for grabs. In fact, a poll released earlier this week suggested that Dunbar had seized a slim lead. "That's what happens when you really tick people off two weeks before an election," said local pollster Ivan Moore. (For its part, Roll Call still deems Alaska's House seat "Safe Republican.")
Those polls should be taken with a hefty dose of salt: Forecasting elections is notoriously difficult in Alaska. But if Dunbar does somehow manage to unseat the incumbent, a word of advice for the new congressman: Be careful shaking Don Young's hand during the transfer of power. Apparently he doesn't like to be touched.
Ben Goldfarb is a Seattle-based correspondent at High Country News. Follow @ben_a_goldfarb]]>
Oil production in the Powder River Basin, formerly one of the nation's hottest coalbed methane zones, has gone up from 38,000 barrels per day in 2009 to 78,000 per day earlier this year. An October report from the state's Economic Analysis Division says that after the economy was battered by low natural gas prices during recent years, the oil industry is helping bolster it, "backed by about twice as many applications to drill as the previous year."Yet the state's overall employment remains stagnant. The number of jobs in the mining and logging sector, which includes oil and gas workers, grew by a mere .9 percent since this time last year, and it was already low due to the devastating natural gas price slump.
Is a boom even a boom when it has no jobs? In Wyoming's case, the answer is yes, at least sort of. All of that extra oil production, which was sold over the last year at a high price, brought in enough severance taxes to offset the decline resulting from the natural gas slump, and then some. Sales taxes on oil drilling equipment also got a boost.
The Wyoming situation throws into question the notion that if you lower taxes or give generous tax breaks to mining or drilling companies, the jobs they will bring to the state as a result will more than offset the loss in tax revenues. That might work sometimes, but without a relatively strong policy for taxing oil and gas companies, Wyoming would be in the economic pits right now, watching empty-handed as companies siphon its oil across state lines in exchange for fat profits. Instead, the state's bringing in over $1 billion per year to fund schools, roads, conservation and a trust fund.
Jonathan Thompson is a senior editor at High Country News. Follow @jonnypeace Homepage image of drilling in New Mexico from Flickr user Drriss & Marrionn.]]>
Elections have become so expensive, in part, because of a landmark 2010 decision known as Citizens United, in which the Supreme Court argued that campaign contributions were a form of political speech. The court struck down limits on the amount of money wealthy individuals, corporations, unions and other special interest groups could spend on elections. Thanks to that decision, campaign spending jumped by nearly $2 billion between 2008 and 2012. That money, pumped into ad campaigns designed to influence voters' opinions about particular candidates, has come largely through two kinds of organizations — super PACs (political action committee) and tax-exempt nonprofits — which can spend whatever they want, so long as they don't coordinate directly with candidates.
But while super PACs must disclose their donors, the nonprofits do not, though many of them spend just as lavishly as their more transparent counterparts. The latter are often referred to as "dark money" groups — think Americans for Prosperity that's fed by Koch money — and overwhelmingly lean Republican.
Leading up to this year's midterms, the majority of outside spending has been funneled into the most contentious Senate races, which include Colorado and Alaska. And across the West, even the less high-profile battles are part of the spending frenzy.
The biggest spenders
This year's top-spending outside group is the left-leaning Senate Majority PAC, which has spent over $35 million funding Democratic candidates in tight races. The group's highest donors are San-Francisco-based billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer and Chicagoan Fred Eychaner, a powerful philanthropist and chairman of Newsweb Corporation. Coming in at number two and three, however, are the right-leaning American Crossroads/Crossroads GPS and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which have spent over $34 million and $28 million respectively in support of Republican candidates.
The heavy-hitting Crossroads consortium, co-founded by GOP strategist Karl Rove, attracts donations from industries like investment firms, and oil and gas companies. Other major donors include an executive search firm called Chartwell Partners and the American Jewish Coalition, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Although American Crossroads is a super PAC and must disclose its donors, the GPS branch does not, and nor does the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Meanwhile on the left, Steyer has pumped almost $36 million into his newly formed super PAC, NextGen Climate Action, which has spent over $5 million against Colorado Republican Cory Gardner, who's vying for Mark Udall's senate seat.
The most expensive races
The showdown in Colorado between Democrat Udall and Republican Gardner has become the most expensive senate race in the West (and ranks number two nationwide). The race is attracting the most outside spending in the region and is closing in on $36 million. Alaska's U.S. senate race is the second most expensive in the West, and fifth nationwide, attracting over $27 million in political spending. Put Alaska First, the super PAC in support of the state's Democratic incumbent, Mark Begich, tops the list for spending from any single-candidate super PAC in the U.S. Oregon's U.S. Senate race is in third place, with just over $2 million in outside spending so far — thanks in large part to the Freedom Partners Action Fund, a Koch-backed group that bankrolled a $1.6 million ad blitz against the state's Democratic senator Jeff Merkley.
The Arizona U.S. House race between Rep. Gabrielle Gifford's successor, Ron Barber, and his Republican challenger, Martha McSally, deserves an honorable mention for expensive House races this midterm season. More outside money ($2.9 million) has been spent in the battle for Giffords' former seat than in Senate races in Montana, Wyoming, Oregon and New Mexico, which has only seen $4,727. Meanwhile, Giffords has launched a blistering — and well-funded — attack of her own against anti-gun control candidates nationwide through her Americans for Responsible Solutions super PAC.
Stay tuned for more midterms coverage in our upcoming print edition.
Sarah Tory is an editorial intern at High Country News. Follow @tory_sarah. Homepage illustration of Mark Udall and Cory Gardner courtesy of Flickr user DonkeyHotey.
When a notification popped up on his screen saying an oil tanker was leaving the port of Valdez, bound for Yeosu, South Korea – 4,000 miles across the Pacific – Halling, who's monitored oil transport around the U.S. for two decades, thought, "Hmm, that's unusual." Oil production in Prudhoe Bay, on Alaska's North Slope, has been declining for years, so fewer and fewer tankers are leaving Valdez. Ships that do load up with crude here head mostly to a few refineries on the West Coast.
In general, oil produced in the U.S. is banned from export, but oil from Alaska's North Slope is one of the few exceptions. After production exploded in the 1980s, President Clinton decided in 1996 that it was "in the national interest" to lift the ban in Alaska. For awhile, South Korea was the biggest foreign buyer, but as the surplus supply dwindled and wells aged, exports stopped. Until last month, no Alaskan oil had been exported from the state since 2004.
Halling remembered that energy giant Conoco Phillips worked in Alaska, so he called them up to find out what was going on. He learned that the price Conoco could get selling Alaskan crude to energy hungry South Korea was much better than the price offered by buyers on the West Coast. Thanks to the energy boom in places like Texas and North Dakota, the lower 48 is awash in cheap oil. The result: Alaska needs new customers.
"Bit by bit we're seeing more North American crude being moved to other parts of the world," says Halling, adding that it's a sign oil production in the U.S. is starting to outpace domestic demand. A big question in U.S. energy circles right now is: Should the 40-year ban on crude oil exports be lifted?
When Congress passed the ban in 1975, the country was in the midst of an oil crisis. The goal was to conserve domestic reserves and protect American consumers from price shocks. But in recent years, the U.S. energy landscape has undergone a radical shift. New techniques like hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have opened up previously inaccessible sources of shale oil. The U.S. is now poised to eclipse Saudi Arabia as the world's largest producer of oil.
Arguments for and against lifting the ban have been mounting. Those who oppose dispensing with the ban – mostly independent refiners – claim that exports could mean more expensive domestic oil for them, and higher prices for American consumers.
Oil companies, and many independent experts, on the other hand, argue that the opposite is true: selling crude on the world market will spur more production and increase global supplies. That would lead to lower international prices and, ultimately, a small reduction in the price Americans pay at the pump.
Although Alaskan producers already have a way around the ban, lifting it would level the playing field with producers in the Lower 48, says Douglas Reynolds, an oil and energy economics professor at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. The domestic market would be less flooded, causing oil prices in the lower 48 to go up. That shift would pave the way for Alaskan oil – which is more expensive to produce – to re-enter the domestic market.
But in the meantime, at least Alaska has access to Asia, where demand is high. The benefits are significant, says Halling. Alaskan oil production, long the pillar of the state's economy, is declining. The 800-mile Trans-Alaska Pipeline, connecting the North Slope with Valdez is currently operating at 25 percent of its capacity, carrying 500,000 barrels per day instead of the 2 million it was designed to handle. So Alaskan producers are looking to squeeze every possible dollar they can from the oil they pump. Combine that with all the cheap oil flooding the U.S, and Halling says the Polar Discovery is probably not the last tanker that will depart Valdez for Asia in the months to come.
That may be true, says Reynolds, but he cautions that Asian markets alone won't result in a flood of new Alaskan production. Taxes have lot more impact on production than prices being a few percentage points higher or lower, he says. What would really increase production? According to Reynolds, "opening up ANWR – (the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge) – to oil drilling" would do the trick.
Sarah Tory is an editorial intern at High Country News.
Follow @tory_sarah]]>
Most reports — with the exception of a few ultra-conservative sites — decisively linked the record numbers of on-shore walrus to record low sea ice offshore, and overnight, the walrus became an international symbol of climate change. The New York Times called the situation a "walrus crisis," and NBC News reported that it was a " very visual sign of what wildlife scientists know and worry about: From the Arctic to Antarctica, some species are having to adapt, or die, in the face of the long-term threat of a warming planet."
But two walrus experts currently using a National Science Foundation grant to analyze recent, historic and prehistoric walrus samples to piece together the species' 4,000-year history say that we don't understand enough about "normal" walrus behavior to know whether the massive haul-out is, in fact, unusual. Nicole Misarti, a research professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and Lara Horstmann, a professor of marine biology, say that it's certainly not unprecedented: Massive haul-outs of walrus are annual events in Russia, and were recorded in Alaska in 1938. Just because the walrus haven't hauled out in this specific location in such large numbers during the limited time we've been studying them doesn't mean that the behavior is necessarily abnormal, or related to climate change.
Nonetheless, Misarti and Horstmann aren't ruling climate change out, either. There's no doubt that the trend of more and more walrus gathering on Alaskan beaches in recent years mirrors a decrease in Arctic sea ice, "but nobody knows enough about walrus to say whether it's a lack of sea ice or sea ice moving in a different direction or prey moving to different areas," Misarti says. "Those are the burning questions."
Plus, reports claiming that the haul-out is harmful to the walrus or is a "crisis" are overblown, the researchers say. "It's important that people realize it's not a mass die off and it's not a mass stranding," Horstmann notes.
"It's not like whales stranded on a beach. The walrus are purposely hauling out there — they're not helpless and the numbers of trampled young are actually quite low so far," adds Misarti.
Yet like most species, walrus numbers in Alaska have indeed decreased over the past several decades, and those that remain are vulnerable to climate change. Just as vulnerable, though, are the subsistence villages that depend on walrus. That's why Misarti and Horstmann are combing through historic interviews and analyzing trace hormones like cortisol (the "stress hormone") collected from bone and tooth samples to figure out how walrus populations responded to past climactic events like the Little Ice Age or the Medieval Warm Period. "We really don't know much about walrus, so pretty much any information we can give subsistence hunters or state agencies is going to be helpful," Misarti says.
Aiding their groundbreaking research is the fact that walrus teeth have growth rings similar to those in trees. "With a tree ring, you can look at an individual tree and how it's changed over time," Horstmann says.
"We're doing some of that, but we're also looking at groups [of walrus] over time.," Misarti explains. "It would be like looking at ten trees from 100 years ago, ten trees from 1,000 years ago, and so on."
Still, the lab work is slow and painstaking, and one year into a four-year study, the researchers don't yet understand how walrus react to environmental changes. One hypothesis behind the current trend is that larger haul-outs used to be more common in Alaska, but the introduction of snowmobiles and ATVs drove the animals farther to sea. Another is that perhaps clams have flourished recently in the area, and the walrus are simply following their favorite food source. And a third, of course, is that melting sea ice is driving more females and juveniles onto shore.
Again, no one knows, but media hyperbole that oversimplifies the threats walrus do face and plays into the growing tendency to relate any unusual event to climate change only gives climate deniers a stronger case for decrying all climate science as bunk.
Krista Langlois is an editorial fellow at High Country News. She tweets @KristaLanglois2.]]>
The reaction of the state Division of Wildlife Conservation? A little more tepid. Director Doug Vincent-Lang sees any attempt by the feds to usurp Alaska's wildlife management authority as overreach, and this new rule — which maintains hunting rights on Alaska's 22 million acres of national preserves but bans certain controversial practices — is overreach at its worst: "unfounded and unjust," he told Alaska Dispatch News.
The proposed rule is currently up for public comments, and will likely be implemented next year. It prohibits the baiting of brown bears, the killing of wolves and coyotes when pups are in tow, and the use of artificial light to kill black bears in their dens. It also pre-emptively prohibits any other practice "with the intent or potential to alter or manipulate natural predator-prey dynamics." In other words, killing predators to boost ungulate populations will no longer be allowed in Alaska's national preserves.
To understand just how big this is, it helps to backtrack to 2002, when former Republican governor Frank Murkowski took office. One of Murkowski's first actions was to remove five of seven members of the Board of Game — the body responsible for most wildlife decisions — and replace them with new appointees more supportive of "intensive management:" reducing predator populations to bolster the moose and caribou that many Alaskans depend on for food. Almost overnight, the state went from non-lethal management to gunning down wolves from the air.
In the dozen years since, Alaska's predator control efforts have only intensified. In addition to allowing aerial shooting, the board eliminated a 122-square-mile buffer protecting wolves around Denali National Park; allowed the baiting of brown bears, illegal since statehood; extended the wolf and coyote hunting season to months when the animals have pups (and their pelts are worthless); and approved "spotlighting," or using artificial light to rouse hibernating black bears to shoot them as they emerge.
Many environmentalists dislike such practices, but they accept that Alaska has the right to do what it will on state land. Yet because Alaskan agencies manage wildlife on both state and federal land, the board also tried to implement such practices on Alaska's national preserves, where hunting is allowed.
The issue drove a wedge between state wildlife agencies and the National Park Service. The Board of Game says it's only adhering to a 1994 food security law; the Park Service maintains that manipulating the predator and prey dynamic is antithetical to their very existence: "We're managing parks not as a game farm that produces high numbers of prey species, but as an ecosystem where you see natural gains and losses in predator and prey populations," says spokesman John Quinley. "That's based on (federal) law."
Since 2001, the Park Service has asked the Board of Game roughly 60 times to exclude certain practices from national preserves, to no avail. So each year, the Park Service goes through the complex, costly process of individually overriding each of the state hunting regulations in each national preserve. Each year, public notices and meetings are held around the state. They've become so routine hardly anyone bothers to show up any more.
That's about to change. The new rule will not only replace temporary, inefficient bans with a permanent, statewide ban, it'll also enable the agency to opt out of any future hunting regulations that could inhibit natural diversity. "We don't know what (the state) is going to come up with in the future," says Stratton. "If they decide they want to allow brown bear baiting in some place where they don't have it now, this gives the Park Service a way to push back."
Yet though the proposed rule will help the Park Service maintain natural conditions on the land it manages, it won't help predators that inadvertently wander beyond the agency's invisible boundaries. In the past several years, the state has responded to feds' temporary bans by dropping an agreement to spare wolves radio-collared for scientific research. Last year, roughly half of the wolf population of Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve were shot from helicopters when they left park boundaries, including the entire Lost Creek pack, which had been studied by Park Service biologists for 20 years.
Editor's note: For more on the new rule, check out Former governor Tony Knowles on Alaska's predator policies.
Krista Langlois is an editorial fellow at High Country News. She tweets @KristaLanglois2.]]>
Since he's left office, though, the state's predator control efforts have grown increasingly lethal. Knowles continues to push for a more moderate approach, chairing the National Parks Advisory Board and testifying against bear snaring. He spoke with High Country News this week about a new National Park Service proposal that will curtail predator control on federal lands. The following is edited for length and clarity.
High Country News How has Alaska's approach to wildlife management changed in the 12 years since you left office?
Tony Knowles The most disappointing thing is that the balance of views on the Board of Game has just disappeared. I tried to work with a balanced board that reflected subsistence hunters, sport hunters, guides and conservationists, but now the Board is made up of people who want to make hunting ungulates the priority for wildlife management. There's been a focused effort to dramatically reduce populations of wolves, coyotes and bears, and the methods and means they've used are both unscientific and unethical.
HCN Like what?
TK Bears. Even though bears are a predator both of moose and caribou, snaring them or killing sows with cubs in their dens to somehow, hopefully increase moose and caribou numbers just doesn't work. Grizzly bears have one of the slowest reproduction rates of all mammals. It's so easy to over-harvest them, and that's just never been part of the Alaska history. When the Board of Game proposed allowing snaring across Alaska, there was a group of wildlife biologists, scientists and researchers that protested snaring as unscientific because you can't target or differentiate between sows with cubs and male bears. And it's incredibly inhumane.
HCN Do you think the changes in state policy reflect an overall shift in the attitude toward wildlife in Alaska?
TK I think the vast majority of Alaskans have a respect for all wildlife and certainly the ethics of harvesting. I can remember Jay Hammond, one of the great Alaska governors, when he was a homesteader out in Lake Clark. There was a bounty on wolves, and he was the top bounty collector. But when he was governor, he appointed the first non-consumptive representatives to the Board of Game. People here have always respected that different views can help come to the best solutions on very complex issues.
HCN What would you change right now, if you could?
TK I think we can certainly return to the cooperation between state and federal agencies that worked for a generation. We can recognize that the state currently has predator control laws that are legal and apply to state lands, and that that the national parks system has its own statutes and regulations that protect the diversity of all species. Just because they're different doesn't mean we can't have collaboration.
HCN How will the new proposed rule by the National Park Service change things?
TK Sixty percent of America's national park land is in Alaska. I think most Americans would be in favor of prohibiting lethal predator control on national preserves, because it favors people who want to hunt caribou and moose over people who just want to enjoy the park in its natural diversity. I think most Americans would be surprised to learn that Alaska has tried to permit killing wolves and coyotes and their pups at a time of year when there's absolutely no value to the pelts. They'd be surprised that you can kill bear in their dens with artificial light, and bait grizzly bears with donuts and bacon grease, which has never been allowed anywhere. This proposed rule ends that.
Next year, when we'll be celebrating the centennial of the national park system, I think this rule will serve as a reaffirmation of the values that are so important to our big landscapes and national parks here in Alaska.]]>
"His mom is around here someplace," he says, wrinkling his brow, looking and not finding her. "He's sick. He needs a mom." That, I think, is undoubtedly true.
Just last year, this cove was full of sea stars. We saw them in every damp crevice, heaps of them, the purple stars, Pisaster ochraceus, and mottled stars, Evasterias troschelii, not only purple, but green, red, brown, orange. This year, my grandson and I come across only two or three, here and there, splayed on the shingle. The ones that remain are wasting away — a hideous process. Lesions form. Tissues around them decay, so the sea star flattens and falls apart. An arm may crawl away, but soon it too turns to mush. Around our boots, torn arms and the wispy scraps of wasted sea stars float on the incoming tide.
I don't know if this is a result of the warming sea, as some research suggests, or if it's a pathogen, or most likely both together — I guess no one knows. And which one is worse, I don't know either. But these days so many local catastrophes are linked to the planetary catastrophe — a world getting hotter and hotter — and I am afraid for the small child at my side.
Leaning over, he pries up a large rock. The bottom is plastered with baby sea stars, no bigger than his thumb, and they are firm to the touch.
"Not sick," he says, and looks up at me with a 3-year-old's grin, which is the most winning, the most beautiful grin in the history of creation, a grin for the triumph of the babies. I don't know about the prospects of the young ones. I imagine that these sea stars, smaller than a dime, are destined also to waste away to a lace of flesh that folds, refolds as small waves push it to shore — just as sea stars are dissolving all along the Pacific Coast, Mexico to Alaska.
If only there were a mom around here who could shelter the babies and comfort us all. But what would such a mother do? How could she bear the sadness? I can't think of anything worse for a mother — or a grandmother — than to feel helpless, as pieces of her child's world break off and quietly go away.
A warning from Stanford scientists has badly shaken me — that unless we take immediate action, by the time today's children are middle-aged, the life-support systems of the Earth will be irretrievably damaged. I am holding the hand of a small child in a yellow raincoat and orange bib overalls. His little boots have long ago filled with water. His hair is damp and smells of salt. And I am staring at my boots and thinking of what it could possibly mean to this child, to live on a planet whose life-supporting mechanisms have frayed and fallen apart.
He sucks in his breath. "Hey! Guys! Come close and look. Come close and look." Under a blade of rainbow kelp, he has found the red, orange-spiked, gooey sea animal called the California sea cucumber, Parastichopus californicus. How beautiful it is, and how beautiful is the human impulse to be astonished.
But there's this: Yesterday, on a beach only two miles from this one, sea cucumbers by the hundreds washed up, dead. I'd never seen anything like that before. Gloriously colored animals sagging under the sudden weight of the world, they rolled in with the tidal detritus, tangled in seaweed and slime.
What does this mean for our children, yours and mine, this dying? Can children thrive in a world where other species are vanishing as they watch? I just don't know. And what does it mean for us, the parents and grandparents who desperately love these children?
People ask me: Why do you try so hard to stop the fossil-fuel industries that are over-heating the oceans and the air? You are just one person, and the dying has already begun.
My only answer is this little guy in the yellow slicker, who is just now squatting to touch a pair of rock blennies that are flicking around the damp sand. "Look," he says, "This baby fish is still happy, and this one feels good, too."
Kathleen Dean Moore is co-editor of Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril and an advocate for a fossil-fuel free future. She writes from Columbia Cove in southeast Alaska.]]>
In the remote northwestern corner of British Columbia, next to Alaska, plans for large mining and hydropower projects have sounded alarm bells on both sides of the border. Critics, mostly environmentalists and tribes, warned that Canada's resource rush threatens rivers that support a vital wild salmon fishery in both countries, and that the race to expedite projects was weakening environmental laws ("A Mining Rush in Canada's Backcountry Threatens Alaska's Salmon," HCN, 12/24/12).
In August, a tailings pond from Imperial Metals' Mount Polley Mine ruptured, spilling millions of gallons of waste into Canada's Quesnel Lake Region in northwestern British Columbia. No one seems to know the exact concentration of toxic chemicals now leaching into the upper Fraser River, but millions of already endangered sockeye salmon are now headed up the river to spawn. For more, see hcne.ws/mountpolley]]>
So who will Begich be facing in November's general election? Yesterday, primary voters chose former Alaska attorney general and natural resources commissioner Dan Sullivan over Tea Party candidate Joe Miller and Lieutenant Gov. Mead Treadwell. Sullivan, a graduate of Harvard and Georgetown and a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps Reserves, ran the most well-funded campaign (he's the one Rove and Bush threw their weight behind), and pledges to fight federal overreach in Alaska and beyond.
If you're still wondering why you should care about an obscure race in a distant place, though, here are three reasons: the outcome could affect Native American justice, the environment and public lands across the West.
That's because while Begich is by no means a staunch liberal — he supports Keystone XL, Arctic oil exploration and voted alongside Alaska Republican senator Lisa Murkowski 80 percent of the time — he was also one of the few major politicians to come out against Pebble Mine, the controversial copper mine proposed for the headwaters of one of the world's most prolific salmon fisheries. Begich is also openly concerned about ocean acidification and climate change, and he supports repealing the "Alaska exemption" in the Violence Against Women Act that limits protection for Native Alaskans. ....
Sullivan, on the other hand, says that the science behind human-caused global warming is unconvincing and that he resents the EPA and other federal agencies meddling in Alaska's environmental issues. Strongly conservative, he's refused to discuss whether Native women should be included in the Violence Against Women Act, and admitted on MSNBC that he hadn't read the bill that would repeal the "Alaska exemption." Though his campaign recently sent the Alaska Dispatch a statement that Sullivan would support it, the Alaska branch of the National Organization for Women still sharply criticizes Sullivan's ambivalence.
There are also the larger implications of a Republican-controlled Senate. In the current session, House Republicans passed bills that would weaken federal agencies' ability to conserve streamflows for wildlife; block EPA regulations on coal-fired power plants; and restrict the president's authority to designate national monuments. All were stymied by the Democratic Senate and will expire at the end of the year, but if both chambers gain a Republican majority in the next session — as could happen if Sullivan wins Begich's seat — similar bills could glide through Congress and onto the desk of President Obama, whose veto power only stretches so far.
Yet despite its reputation as being red as a boiled crab, Alaska is a tough place to call a race. In its last mid-term election in 2010, Miller beat Sen. Murkowski in the primary only to watch her sail past him as a write-in candidate in the general election. More than half of voters are unaffiliated with a political party, and the state's remoteness makes polling notoriously unreliable. Who might ultimately grab the Senate seat is still anybody's guess.
Krista Langlois is an editorial fellow at High Country News. She tweets @KristaLanglois2.]]>
The 2014 hunting season is being anticipated with particular eagerness on St. Lawrence Island. The residents, almost all St. Lawrence Island Yup'ik, rely on the annual bowhead whale hunt and the walrus hunt that follows – along with fishing – for the mainstay of their food supply. But last year, unusual weather patterns brought powerful winds that pushed offshore ice into huge pressure ridges that reached all the way to the sea floor along the coast, blocking access to the water. By the time the ice receded enough for boats to launch, most of the walrus had moved on, and only about one-third of the typical number were captured. The hardship prompted Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell to declare the island's two villages, Gambell and Savoonga, each with a population of about 700, economic disaster areas.
Successful hunting and fishing in the Bering Sea have always depended on weather and ice conditions. Island hunters have honed their ability to manage these variables through generations of experience. But climate change is now disrupting the seasonal patterns and threatening the food sources – and cultural traditions – St. Lawrence Islanders and other Native Alaskans have relied on for millennia. Over the past 50 years, average air temperatures have increased by 4 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit. Sea ice has been shrinking, sometimes by as much as 30 percent by the end of summer, and only gets about half as thick as it used to. Permafrost is thawing, and conifers have spread north into what was once tundra. In the Arctic, where climate change is progressing faster and more dramatically than almost anywhere else on earth, the resulting uncertainties are playing out not only in coastal communities but in inland Native villages as well.
A short walk across the frozen snow from the beach is the Gambell school, a one-story building at the inland end of the village. It's one of the newer buildings in the village, whose modest wooden houses, some weathered gray with age, are arrayed in unnamed streets. A display case inside the school features both student projects and traditional Native art and crafts. Dolly Silook is one of the school's cooks. Dark-haired, smiling, wearing an apron over her jeans, she and her two colleagues welcome me into the kitchen. "Everyone relies on native food," she says. "Store food is so expensive."
Here, as in many small, remote villages across Arctic Alaska, any food not harvested locally must be flown or shipped in at great expense. But it's not just a question of cost. Wild foods are also the mainstay of Native Alaskan cultures, which celebrate their connections to the landscape and environment. Passing on these food traditions is key to maintaining these customs. Standing by the stove where she's putting the finishing touches on a pan of macaroni and cheese for the students' lunch, Silook and her two co-workers rattle off a list of their favorite foods: Whale, walrus, baby walrus, seal, seal oil, greens, berries, and, Silook says, "the seafood that washes up after a storm," which includes clams, kelp and "sea peaches," a type of tunicate.
A typical Gambell dinner would be walrus or seal, boiled with sea veggies, says Silook. Dried fish and seal meat are also staples. But last year's unusual weather not only ruined the walrus hunt, it also spoiled the summer drying season, when villagers air-dry fish – salmon, cod and halibut – and meat on outdoor racks. "It was wet and rained, so the fish couldn't dry," Silook says. "It's a good thing I had food left over from the last year, because last spring, I didn't put anything away," she says. "If you put us back a hundred years, we would have starved. Hopefully it will be a better summer this year."
Before the advent of freezers, St. Lawrence islanders, like others in rural Arctic Alaska, cached food – often balls of walrus meat and blubber – in small storage dens dug into the permafrost. Some still do so. But thawing tundra and storm surges are literally undermining this practice.
Other local food sources include reindeer, descended from animals introduced in the 1900s and hunted primarily near Savoonga. There are also spidery king crabs, caught this spring by young men who drop baited lines through the ice not far off shore.
Silook and other islanders prefer these traditional foods. Store food, which often fills a gap now, falls short both in taste and satisfaction. "Non-native food is not as heavy," Silook says, "and makes you hungry again in a matter of hours."
While modern technology is nearly omnipresent and many households no longer support themselves solely by living off the land, tribal language, customs, art and crafts continue to be rooted in landscape and wildlife. Local geography is described by the location of family fishing and hunting camps; the year is defined by wildlife harvest seasons. Traditional foods such as walrus, whale, seal, fish – and for inland communities, caribou and moose – supply at least a third of daily calories for most Native Alaskans, and remain important to residents' health and well-being. "We live off the Bering Sea," says islander Gloria James. "We don't have chickens."
"Food security" alone doesn't adequately explain everything that access to wild foods means for Native Alaskan communities, says Carolina Behe, Inuit Circumpolar Council-Alaska traditional knowledge and science advisor. "Food security is everything around your life."
Thirty-nine miles east of Gambell sits the village of Savoonga. On a Sunday afternoon in mid-April, ATVs and snow machines zip around the snowy village, many towing sleds piled with children bundled in bright parkas. Children are sledding onto the frozen sea. Savoonga's one-story wooden homes are more closely clustered than the ones in Gambell, but here, too, the community is too small for street names. Each village has just one commercial store. Near many houses, snow machines sit parked near frames of the traditional wooden boats known as umiak.
A visit to the Savoonga store illustrates why a failed walrus hunt matters so much. Two-pound packages of frozen stew beef or pork run about $15, and two pounds of hamburger patties cost more than $11. Roasts and hams are over $40. A pint jar of peanut butter is more than $6. A half-gallon of fresh milk or apple juice costs about $10. The best-stocked cases contain frozen foods like pizza, chicken nuggets and microwaveable burritos. Most of the groceries are highly processed, long-shelf-life foods. Produce, even canned or frozen, is scarce.
About 10 minutes' walk from the store is City Hall, a two-story wooden building in the middle of town. The hallway outside Mayor Myron Kingeekuk's office upstairs is lined with cartons of canned salmon. On some boxes, family names are written in red marker. The room next door is stacked with packages of instant noodle soups and the large round crackers known as pilot bread. All are donations for village households, sent by organizations on the Alaskan mainland to make up for the failed 2013 walrus hunt. Kingeekuk, slim and soft-spoken but with a sharp glint in his eye, explains that the poor hunt meant not only less meat but also reduced incomes. St. Lawrence Island's Yup'ik community is famous for its ivory carving – museum-quality renditions of wildlife and village life that command high prices from collectors. "If we don't hunt walrus, we don't get ivory, and that is a major source of income for the island," he says. There are few local businesses, and the island's unemployment rate is nearly 30 percent.
Climate change in the Arctic is especially hard on the travel required for hunting and fishing. On St. Lawrence Island, family fishing and hunting camps are located at some distance from the village. Melting permafrost, rain and storms undercut shorelines and threaten the integrity of the island's dirt roads. "Erosion is happening along the coastline, so you have to be careful where you ride the Hondas (ATVs) along the shore road," says Kingeekuk. "This has also made it hard to bring boats up on shore," he says.
Thinning ice also threatens the safety of offshore hunts. Hunters butcher seals and walrus out on the sea ice. If the ice is too thin, they have to take their catch to thicker, safer sections – running their motors longer and using up precious fuel. Prematurely softening ice also makes spring ice fishing hazardous and, in some cases, impossible.
"If we don't have winter, we lose who we are," says Seth Kantner, a writer and photographer who was raised in Alaska's interior. "Everything to do with life here used to do with being out on the land, which in winter means the ice."
Now that snowmobiles, ATVs and gas-powered boats have replaced sled dogs and sailboats, the cost of vehicle fuel has also become a great concern. In April, it was almost $7 a gallon. "It uses five gallons of fuel to get to camp and another five to get back. Close to $70, roundtrip," says Savoonga resident and Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission Chairman George Noongwook. A full whaling crew might need 10 or 11 times that for a single hunting trip – about $700 worth of fuel, he explains. "A lot of people think we get our food for free," Kingeekuk says. "It's not free."
Alaskan Natives – Yup'ik, Gwich'in, Inupiat, Aleut, Tlingit and other tribal groups – make up about 20 percent of the state's population. About two-thirds of these roughly 150,000 people live in rural communities of less than 1,000. Most villages lack roads to major urban centers, and many coastal communities, like Gambell and Savoonga, lack harbors, ports or docks. And though median incomes are much lower here than elsewhere in the U.S.– a 2010 state survey found median household income in Gambell to be about $24,000, and just over $30,000 in Savoonga (compared to $51,000 nationwide) – food prices are far higher. Groceries in remote Alaskan villages can cost 600 to 1,000 percent more than in the Lower 48 states.
According to state government estimates, wild foods supply rural Alaskans with the equivalent of 185 percent of the recommended daily protein requirement. That amounts to about 354 pounds of fish and meat per person annually, compared to about 255 pounds per year of domestic fish and meat consumed in the Lower 48.
Relying on hunting and fishing to feed a household in rural Alaska has never been easy, and the policies that govern Alaskan subsistence harvest – the legal term for the noncommercial traditional gathering of wild foods – have always been complex. These challenges are now being compounded as Native Alaskans and subsistence management policies struggle to adapt to ecological conditions out of sync with historical norms.
Both state and federal agencies have a role in regulating subsistence hunting and fishing. For example, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages walrus hunting, while the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service regulates whale hunting. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game manages in-river salmon fishing, but NOAA and the North Pacific Fishery Management Council manage ocean salmon fishing.
Under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), most Alaska Native communities ceded their tribal land to the federal government in exchange for cash and a future share of oil and mineral revenues. The settlement act also promised that both the state and the Department of Interior would protect Natives' subsistence harvest of fish, game and other wild foods. A subsequent state law gave subsistence uses priority over commercial and recreational fishing and hunting, but did not specify which residents had this privilege. In practice, all Alaska residents now have subsistence fishing and hunting rights, thus potentially increasing competition for resources that Native communities rely on (except for marine mammals, which can legally be harvested only by Natives living on the coast). This has also resulted in legal disputes over access to fish and game (such as Katie John v. Norton, a case involving Native fishing rights that was resolved in favor of federal law and Alaskan Natives). An additional federal law, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, gave "subsistence harvest" priority to rural Alaskans "in times of scarcity."
Both Gambell and Savoonga opted out of ANCSA. The villages and their tribal governments own St. Lawrence Island, and while this gives them control over their land, it also means residents don't receive the cash payments other Alaskan Natives do. That means St. Lawrence Islanders are arguably even more reliant on subsistence harvest than other Native communities.
As economic realities change, many families have less time to hunt and fish, so that if conditions are not as historically expected, harvests can plummet. This may also mean less game and wild fish for elders and others who can't hunt for themselves. In Kotzebue, tribal council member Cyrus Harris has established a program to supply harvested meat and fish to community elders and to the local hospital's elder care program.
Losing reliable access to wild food also poses a risk to Native Alaskans' health. Traditional meats like seal, whale and walrus are rich in protein, vitamins and fats, a diet that has kept Arctic Natives healthy without many fruits or vegetables. Now, the high fat and sugar content of most village store-bought food is introducing health problems. Eating these highly processed foods has led to a prevalence of obesity, diabetes and hypertension, and associated neurological and psychological problems. Such health issues are a concern for both children and adults. Meanwhile, elders complain of gastrointestinal upset caused by the new foods.
In addition to providing food, many local animals, among them caribou and seal, yield materials for clothing and shelter. Skin and fur hats and mukluks are still central to tribal art and craft and can often outperform gear from the sporting-goods store. Handmade mittens and headbands are worn with great pride by teenagers who are as absorbed in texting friends as any of their compatriots in the Lower 48. "We're now living two ways," a Savoonga elder named Harriet Penaya tells me. "Our way and your way."
It's not only coastal villages that are being affected by shifts in seasonal weather patterns. The warming temperatures that have caused record-low Arctic Sea ice also contribute to storms that have brought unusual winds and rain to Arctic Alaska over the past couple of years. Inland river flooding has endangered villages and damaged fish habitat. Exceptionally warm summers are drying wetlands and lakes and fueling destructive forest fires, like those raging this summer in Canada's Northwest Territories.
Such shifts are creating difficulties for hunting, fishing and wild-food preservation in Fort Yukon, deep in Alaska's interior. The village of about 600 residents – mostly Gwich'in tribal members – is nestled among spruce and willow trees along the Yukon River at its confluence with the Porcupine River, about 145 miles northeast of Fairbanks. Many of the modest-sized log-timber houses are decorated with caribou and moose antlers.
Caribou and king salmon are essential local foods and central to Gwich'in culture. The Porcupine caribou herd migrates through the Yukon Flats here. But this year, rare winter rains have left ice beneath the snow that could injure caribou and moose if their legs break through the crust. The ice also harms the low-growing plants, such as lichen, essential to the Arctic food web, and seals them off from hungry grazers. Summer wildfires have also been damaging vital caribou habitat.
The salmon aren't faring well either. Yukon River kings are prized as the richest of all salmon species for the muscle and oil they build up during their migration to the ocean and back – the longest of any salmon. Since an all-time high return in 1980, Yukon king or chinook have been declining. Their management has also become more contentious, with an increasingly shortened state-permitted window for subsistence fishing, particularly upriver. This year, fish numbers are expected to be so low that for the first time ever, there may be no king salmon on Fort Yukon drying racks.
For Yukon kings to survive, a certain number of fish need to return to their spawning grounds to foster the next generation. In an attempt to ensure this, "escapement" goals have been set by estimating and modeling fish populations and return numbers. To meet the 2013 escapement goal, the state-permitted season for Fort Yukon's subsistence king fishery was reduced to a single day, resulting in "the lowest subsistence harvest on record," said Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Stephanie Schmidt, speaking at the 2014 pre-season salmon fishery management meeting in Fairbanks.
This year's forecast looks worse. In early May, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced that to meet the 2014 escapement goal, no intentional catch will be allowed, including by Native subsistence fishers.
The reasons for the decline are not entirely clear. "Some things point to the ocean and some things point to freshwater conditions and to the coastal zone," says Schmidt. Factors affecting habitat include low water, high river temperatures, tundra and bank erosion, and ocean conditions influenced by high atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Fort Yukon winters used to be much colder than they are now. "Elders used to see 70 to 80 below. We didn't see minus 50 this winter," says Fort Yukon Natural Resources Department staff member Walter Peter.
"The permafrost banks along the river are starting to drop," says James Kelly, natural resource director of the Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments in Fort Yukon. "There are now big cut banks – 20-foot cut banks where there used to be permafrost down to the sandbars." The eroding silt disrupts gravel bottoms where fish eggs are laid and destroys the fragile eggs. The river's water is also not as cold as it used to be, says Kelly. "Glaciers keep the water temperature really good for fish and there's less of that now as the glaciers recede."
At the April fisheries meeting, discussion focused on king salmon numbers, in-river fishing-gear restrictions designed to reduce salmon catch, and alternative fisheries – fishing for chum/keta salmon, sheefish, whitefish and other species instead. Many in upriver fishing communities feel that management decisions that favor Alaska's lucrative commercial fisheries, such as for pollock, are taking a toll on Yukon River kings. NOAA estimates that the 2012 Bering Sea pollock catch was worth more than $343 million, and that products made from pollock, like fish sticks, earned $1 billion. While NOAA says bycatch numbers are minimal, Yukon kings do get swept up accidentally by pollock trawlers. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council has placed "hard caps" on the number of bycatch salmon. On-board observers and salmon "excluder" devices are also used to minimize bycatch. Even so, the allowable total bycatch numbers have begun to equal or exceed the number of kings expected to return to the river in a single season.
At the same time, decreasing ice cover, particularly near shore, may harm Yukon salmon development at key stages, says salmon biologist Jim Lichatowich, who has served on scientific review panels in the Pacific Northwest and California. NOAA researchers are also beginning to investigate how ocean acidification may be influencing salmon health. While it's too early to know anything definitive about impacts on salmon, cold Pacific Ocean waters are becoming increasingly acidic as atmospheric CO2 dissolves in the ocean and forms carbonic acid that harms the shell-producing organisms on which salmon feed.
Between impacts upriver and those in the ocean, Lichatowich describes what's happening to Yukon River salmon habitat as "burning the candle at both ends." When management "focuses on numbers, it focuses on the symptoms, not the underlying problems," he says. "If you're going to close the fishery, there should be a parallel effort to protect the habitat." Thus far, there is not.
Although subsistence hunters across the Arctic still head out after fish and game as eagerly as always, and Native family meals continue to center on traditional foods like salmon, caribou, seal, walrus and whale, the harvest is becoming increasingly difficult. Empty nets, empty boats, spent fuel and energy are taking a toll economically and psychologically. "Food security existed. It doesn't now," says Clarence Alexander, former Gwich'in grand chief and founder of the Yukon River Intertribal Watershed Council.
Yet despite the anxiety and pessimism, there is also a strong sense of determination that the traditions connecting Native communities to the land will continue. "Communities are adapting," says Alisa Kelly, a family practitioner at Fort Yukon's Yukon Flats Health Center. "They always have."
Precisely how this will play out remains to be seen. Along with the direct impacts of climate change on wildlife and habitat, the warming temperatures are facilitating increased Arctic ship traffic, mining and oil and gas development. These will bring noise, pollution, and degrade wildlife habitat, all impacts of great concern to Alaska's Native communities.
Yet as they work to maintain their traditions, families in and around Kotzebue and Fort Yukon are also experimenting, planting herbs and vegetables in garden boxes and "high tunnel" greenhouses. Extensive efforts are underway within Native communities across Alaska to document environmental changes – for example, mapping populations of key plant and animal species – so residents can respond more strategically to protect precious resources. From the pre-school to the college level, educators are working to bolster language and cultural programs. In Gambell and Fort Yukon, Head Start program teachers are encouraging children to learn their Native languages and enjoy traditional foods. Maintaining connections to local wild food sources plays an important role in all of this.
It's hard to fully understand the visceral connection to the landscape that comes with eating wild foods unless you've tasted them. On my last day in Alaska, I am offered muktuk – whale blubber served nearly frozen – dried caribou, bear fat with berries and moose roast with muskox fat. The bear fat tastes like finely smoked fish, as does the muktuk. The meat is rich and satisfyingly salty. After several weeks of eating crackers, peanut butter and powdered soup mix, my tongue tingles with excitement. At lower latitudes and in urban communities, we are far less connected to our food sources, but they too are already being impacted by climate change. "Maybe if we looked at these changes through the lens of food," says Carolina Behe, "it would be easier to make better decisions."
Back on St. Lawrence Island, Savoonga's crews have already caught their first bowhead of the season. In Gambell, the day's bowhead hunt is just ending. Toward sunset, community elder Clement Ungott sits atop his ATV on the high ridge above the snow-covered beach and trains his binoculars west, watching for the whaling crews' return. Beyond the dark calm open water, the horizon is a wide band of white ice. The lowering sun casts long cobalt shadows. The Bering Sea has supplied this island with food for thousands of years. "It was only four years ago the last boats with skin sails went out and caught a whale," Ungott says from under his fur-rimmed parka hood. As we speak, at the far end of town, a school basketball tournament is underway and families in the bleachers are snacking on frozen pizza.
We are too far away to hear them, but the boats appear from the expanse of water. As the crews haul their empty boats up on shore and begin loading sleds and revving snow machine engines, the men say they saw a few whales, none close enough to catch. But Gambell's whalers will be out again as soon as weather permits.
Elizabeth Grossman is the author of Chasing Molecules: Poisonous Products, Human Health, and the Promise of Green Chemistry and High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health. Her work has appeared in many publications including Scientific American, The Washington Post and Mother Jones.
Research travel for this story was made possible, in part, by a grant from the Society of Environmental Journalists' Fund for Environmental Journalism. Additional funding came from reader donations to the High Country News Research Fund.]]>
Rise into the air in a helicopter, though, and the source creeps into view: A massive earthen-walled pond full of waste from the adjacent Mount Polley copper and gold strip mine, operated by Imperial Metals. The containment dam is rent by a steep new canyon where, sometime in the dark morning hours of August 4, a viscous slurry of pulverized rock vomited free across the dark conifer forest into adjacent Polley Lake and roared down Hazeltine Creek, widening it from 4 feet to 150 in places, before settling in Quesnal Lake.
All told, some 2.6 billion gallons of water and 5.9 million cubic yards of potentially toxic silt escaped. Combined, that's nearly three times as much waste as flowed from a Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash containment pond near Knoxville in a now (in)famous 2008 disaster that buried hundreds of acres, destroyed a handful of homes, mucked up the Emory River, and cost over a billion dollars to clean up.
Though preliminary water quality tests came back within the safe range, officials continue to advise residents of Likely, BC, population 300, and the surrounding area not to drink, swim or bathe in it until further testing is conducted, necessitating the delivery of nearly 20,000 bottles of water. And given that the tailings held in the pond were known to contain hundreds of thousands of pounds of heavy metals including arsenic, lead and cadmium, concerns remain for local residents, as well as for wildlife that may consume or be exposed to the metals – particularly the region's salmon.
That's because the spill occurred in the headwaters of the Fraser River, prime spawning grounds for one of the most prolific sockeye runs on Earth, which will peak in just a couple of weeks as the bulk of the expected 1.52 million fish pass through. The metals could kill the salmon or taint their meat, passing poisons up the food chain, or the silt could smother their gills and bury the gravel they need to spawn. "Mount Polley Mines think of how many millions they can make, that's their economy," Bev Sellers, chief of the Xatsull First Nation, told Maclean's magazine. "Our economy, the First Nations' economy, swims by in the river. Our economy walks on the land."
The disaster also does little to stoke confidence that a bevy of mines planned for northwestern British Columbia, including another massive Imperial Metals project called Red Chris set to begin operation this year, won't have similar disasters in store for river systems that cross into Alaska and host important U.S. salmon runs. As High Country News reported in 2012, the Canadian government has systematically gutted key environmental laws and fish protections to fast-track projects in the remote region. At Mount Polley, there were several incidents leading up to the breach – including a government finding in May that wastewater was too close to the top of the dam, and evidence that the company rejected a consultant's request for a review of its structural integrity – that suggest it could have been prevented with more vigilant oversight and regulation.
Alarmingly, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, the company that designed the tailings dam is the same that has been working on those that would hold back waste from the proposed Pebble Mine, a much larger open pit operation that many environmentalists and fishermen fear would devastate rich salmon fisheries in Bristol Bay. This is unlikely to be lost on salmon advocates queuing up to testify at an August 12 -15 public hearing on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's proposal to steeply restrict mining in that area. Ironically, the mine developer, the Pebble Limited Partnership, in 2010 claimed the Fraser system as a shining example of how heavy mining and healthy salmon runs can coexist in harmony. Fortunately for the company, the ad has vanished from its website. But scrubbing embarrassing things from the Interwebs is pretty hard, so here it is on someone's Facebook page for your viewing pleasure.
Update: As of Friday Aug. 9, the drinking water ban was partially lifted.
Sarah Gilman is a High Country News contributing editor. She tweets @Sarah_Gilman]]>


text:
David Aikman is professor of history and writer-in-residence at Patrick Henry College and wrote for Time magazine from 1971 to 1994. Among his books are Jesus in Beijing and A Man of Faith: The Spiritual Journey of George W. Bush. His column, "Global Prognosis," ran from 2006 to 2007.
Browse our Full Library of online archives, including past issues of CT magazine.
John Darnielle's fierce sobriety.
Sarah Coakley on sex, desire, and the Trinity.
A new novel by "the best-kept secret among contemporary American writers."
10 things to remember from church history when you're discouraged in ministry.
A case study in leadership discernment
Estudiar el libro de los Hechos cambió mi perspectiva en cuanto a compartir las buenas nuevas.
Church employees may receive tax-free reimbursements—if certain steps are followed.
Budget for unexpected ministry opportunities.
Plus four other trends, tips, ideas, and stats to help church leaders manage well this week.
I have a dream—that we can work toward racial justice together by tearing down the walls of colorblindness.
Seeing God's goodness in our very existence
How Joshua Becker and his family's shift toward minimalism helps them live out the gospel
© 2014 Christianity Today
About Our Ministry |
Blog |
Donate |
Careers |
Terms of Use |
Privacy Policy |
Advertise |
Ad Choices
To unlock this article for your friends, use any of the social share buttons on our site, or simply copy the link below.
To share this article with your friends, use any of the social share buttons on our site, or simply copy the link below.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The median home value in Coronado, CA is $1,389,800.
This is
higher than
the county median home value of $1,133,600.
The national median home value is $170,100.
The average price of homes sold in Coronado, CA is $1,389,800.
Approximately 37.73% of Coronado homes are owned,
compared to 41.73% rented, while
20.54% are vacant.
Coronado real estate listings include condos, townhomes, and single family homes for sale.
Commercial properties are also available.
If you see a property you're interested in, contact a Coronado real estate agent to arrange a tour today!
Learn more about Coronado Real Estate.
This brand new home was constructed in 2014. Quiet location in great family neighborhood. NOT on the busy part of 3rd. Close to Tidelands and Ferry Landing. This charming 4 bed 2.5 bath home is family friendly with a covered patio that opens to a private good-sized yard. Great for kids pets BBQs and entertaining. Wood laminate floors in common areas give the feeling of a spacious living area while warm cozy carpeting appoints all bedrooms.
Come spend your vacation in the comfort of this stunning beach-town home. With 5 bedrooms and 4 full bathrooms this home has plenty of space for family and guests. In the heart of Coronado Village close to shopping parks and beaches this newly remodeled home is warm and inviting with a gorgeous kitchen hardwood floors tons of outdoor space and elegant furnishings. A brand new backyard BBQ installed for great outdoor entertaining. Garage not included.
Charming 101 yr old 2BR/2BA furnished cottage with small private front patio in the heart of Coronado Village. Beautiful classic dark oak/glass built in cabinets. Includes range/oven refrigerator washer/dryer area carpets over hardwood floor. Private rear yard with many fruit trees. Term: Month to month Tenant pays Gas/Electric/Cable/Phone.
Remodeled second floor condo features a large balcony overlooking your boat slip. The condo was recently remodeled and features bamboo floors plantation shutters granite countertops stainless steel appliances large closets and two hallway skylights. The two car garage is located closest to the condo and is labeled with 62 above the door. The Coronado Cays is a resort style community featuring tennis courts pools and a boating lifestyle. $3500/mo 1 year lease required Pets ok w/restrictions.
L-O-C-A-T-I-O-N! This highly desirable neighborhood is just the ticket for your new place in the Village of Coronado. This one-of-a-kind ranch style home at 7th and J is ready to move in or you can give it a little love and it will be even better! Located on one of Coronados finest avenues you are centrally located for everything - schools shops beach bay restaurants parks you name it! Amazing opportunities abound at this home - come and visit and youll agree!
Enjoy the perks of living bayside in Coronado. Off street parking laundry BBQ beautiful Blue Ribbon garden with front and back yards. Located 1/2-block from San Diegos beautiful skyline where you can watch fireworks on summer nights while listening to the San Diego Symphony Pops. Light and bright nautical d©cor with hardwood floors and shutters throughout. Utilities Internet HD flat screen TVs Maid service Gardener provided. Sleeps 6. Rent due 60 days prior to move in.
Sophisticated Uptown Charm. Contemporary urban..rarely for sale gorgeous single level home in prime Village location in intimate newer (2007) low-rise w/ full city & bay views from 200+ sq/ft terrace. Unique custom floor plan 3BDRs each w/ en suite bath pwdr rm high ceilings/tall windows stream tons of light MBR sitting room premium finishes incl all hardwood/stone flooring black marble fplc granite slab countertops/backsplash marble vanities..steps to Ferry shopping dining beaches &parks
This charming home is snuggled nicely in the comfort of Port Royale village. 3 bedroom / 2 bath single level living with an additional loft for an office or an extra bedroom. Offers hardwood floors throughout stainless steel appliances in kitchen the vaulted ceilings add to the brightness and open feel of this home. The large private backyard is perfect for entertaining. Port Royale village offers a community pool clubhouse and tennis courts.
Great country club location just a few blocks from the # 1 Beach Sunset Park & Dog beach. Single level home features 3 bedrooms 2 baths on a spacious 7600 sqft lot! Hardwood floors fireplace. Endless potential...Perfect opportunity to buy now and build later or make it your perfect home.
Airy third floor condo with plenty of natural light at this price point this 2 bed/2 bath condo is a rare opportunity to own in the beautiful Coronado Village. Complex features gated parking pool spa and rooftop deck with panoramic views of San Diego.
Real Living Napolitano Real Estate
939 Orange Avenue
Coronado, CA 92118
Email Us | Visit our Real Estate Website


text:
|Gottschalk: Piano Music, Vol. 8
'Quite early in the 14-year period that covers these eight volumes the Dublin-born pianist matured into becoming the pre-eminent Gottschalk interprete ...
'These are sympathetic performances, glowingly recorded' (BBC Music Magazine)» More
|Gottschalk: The Complete Solo Piano Music
With his idiomatic and graceful style, pianist Philip Martin has established himself as the foremost exponent of Gottschalk. The composer had a unique spontaneity and individuality which Martin's performances bring vividly to the fore. The complet ...» More
|Songs to Shakespeare
'Grips the attention from beginning to end. Splendid stuff' (RAM Magazine)» More


text:
Jan 29, 2014 9:55 AM
Sure, the market is packed with products that promise to help us reduce our fine lines and wrinkles, instantly making us look like the hot twenty-nine-year-olds we still pretend to be in low-lit situations. But who wants to wait weeks or even days for results?... [More]
Jan 27, 2014 10:20 AM
Trying to cut back on your coffee intake during the day? Keep a pump bottle of Erbaviva's Awaken Body Lotion ($18) on your office desk and use it each time you feel the urge to refill your mug with tepid break room fuel. You'll still... [More]
Jan 27, 2014 9:50 AM
We can't say this about many of the moisturizers we've used over the years, but the Quercetin & Oak Antiageing & Antiwrinkle Mattifying Fluid Texture Lotion* ($50) from Korres is the complete package. The creamy lotion goes on smoothly and clears up our dry patches... [More]
Jan 27, 2014 9:30 AM
While the price tag on the When 10:00 PM Essence Mask ($28) is a bit high for a single-use product, it's still cheaper than hightailing it to your esthetician every time your skin has a freak-out. Keep one or two on hand to use at... [More]
Jan 27, 2014 8:15 AM
Nobody wants to look into a cosmetic mirror and freak themselves out with the crags and uneven surfaces they encounter (except maybe at Halloween). Smooth out those scales with the Visionnaire ($69) serum from Lancôme. It leaves skin softer and refreshed (and less scary even... [More]
If you've got a product or service that you'd like to promote on Outblush, click here to find out about our advertising opportunities.
Jan 26, 2014 8:25 AM
For bearers of sensitive skin, changing up a beauty routine can be disastrous. Your skin gets all freaked out and starts to hide behind breakouts and rashes. Ease the redness by using a few Bear Naked Wipes ($12) from Josie Maran to clean your face... [More]
Jan 25, 2014 8:30 AM
That pesky needle phobia make Botox a no-go for you? Never fear: this La Crème Superior Organic Bee Venom Overnight Mask ($195) is a natural alternative. The genuine bee venom in this formula penetrates your skin to create a tightening, collagen-boosting effect without the use... [More]
Jan 22, 2014 8:55 AM
It's good to have options, especially when it comes to lip balm flavors, and while we could point you in the direction of our personal favorite, we're instead going to highlight the fact that Herbivore Botanicals sells a trio of lip butters ($28). You can... [More]
Jan 22, 2014 8:03 AM
From decades of teeth brushing, we're all pretty hard-wired to think that minty fresh equals clean. It doesn't always hold true, of course, but the Fresh Mint Natural Hand Soap ($20) from Field Aesthetic delivers on both a crisp scent and a squeaky clean feeling.... [More]
Jan 21, 2014 9:00 AM
Ah, city living. A world where designer shoes are available around every corner, where we can choose a different restaurant to eat at every night, and where parking spaces cost more than our annual income. But our wallets aren't the only things assaulted by urban... [More]
Jan 20, 2014 9:05 AM
Essence of rose, orange blossom and lavender sounds much nicer than the unpronounceable chemicals derived from god-only-knows-what that we've been using to preserve our youthful looks. That's why we're thinking of tossing out the old and giving this Tata Harper Hydrating Floral Essence ($65) a... [More]
Jan 19, 2014 8:30 AM
Hands weathered, cracked, and generally looking like you've just spent the last hundred years living in the Witch's Narnia? Yep, we hear ya. Give the Resurrection Aromatique Hand Balm ($27) from Aēsop a try. The gentle moisturizer can be used frequently, so feel free to... [More]
Jan 17, 2014 9:40 AM
Kick your Clarisonic routine up a notch with their Opal Sonic Skin Infusion System ($185). The Opal Sonic is designed to improve the elasticity and overall appearance of your under-eye area. It comes ready to use with a vibrating sonic brush, extra tips, and a... [More]
Jan 17, 2014 9:30 AM
Blargh! It's halfway through winter and our skin is not happy with the cold, dry weather. But all hope is not lost. The price tag may be on the high end, but we think it's time to invest in the Echium & Amaranth Age Confidence... [More]
Jan 17, 2014 8:30 AM
We're super big fans of the Glow Sugar Scrub ($38) from Beautycounter because it's gentle enough to use everyday. The bright lemongrass scent lifts us out of our sleepy state and the brown sugar granules buff away dull skin and leftover dirt and debris from... [More]
Jan 15, 2014 10:20 AM
Lush and floral, the Tuberose Hand Cream ($18) from Soap & Paper Factory is just the tube to keep tucked into your purse during the winter months. Break it out when your hands start feeling dry and itchy for a bit of quick relief. It's... [More]
Jan 15, 2014 8:30 AM
LUSH rarely disappoints us with their ridiculously delicious-smelling products, and their new Popcorn Lip Scrub ($10) is no exception. In fact, we have a hard time resisting our inclination to eat the scrub when we unscrew the lid and get a whiff of the buttery... [More]
Jan 13, 2014 10:10 AM
You've already experienced what GlamGlow does for faces. It was gritty. It was dirty. You try not to remember the sight of your nose covered in oozing black filthy extracted from your own naughty pores - but oh, the results! You skin was clearer than... [More]
Jan 12, 2014 8:15 AM
Sounds like our entire breakfast is in this Petitgrain Facial Milk Cleanser ($26): sugar cane, maple sugar, orange, lemon, cranberry, and, of course, milk. We could have just stuck our faces into our oatmeal.... [More]
Jan 7, 2014 8:40 AM
You're probably not lounging around a tropical beach at dusk, but when you slather on a bit of Finn & Co. Black Sand Body Cream ($48), you'll swear you just walked back to your timeshare as the sun set behind you. The body lotion is... [More]
Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50
Outblush is a blog for girls who love to shop. Our staff digs up the best clothes, home stuff, beauty items, and more. New items are posted every day — bookmark us, sign up for email updates, grab our RSS feed, and check out:


text:
Cochran Street, Simi ValleyStreet Fair, Emergency Expo, Kids Area, Beer Garden and Food. 19,000 attendees expected. ** Estimated start time Please confirm **
Westlake Village fairs festivals events
Simi Valley Street Fair
Saturday, May 9 10:00a
A Taste of Encino - 28th Year
Sunday, Oct 11 10:00a
Ventura Blvd. between Balboa and Amestoy, Los AngelesCome join the fun! Sponsorships and applications will be available soon on our website www.tasteofencino.com
California Strawberry Festival
Saturday, May 16 10:00a
Oxnard Tamale Festival
Saturday, Dec 6 10:00a
Plaza Park, OxnardFrom strawberry sweets to savory chicken and pork delights, the event will host the best mouth-watering tamales on the central coast...
Santa Monica Pet Expo & Pet Adoption December 7th 2014. 10am-5pm
Sunday, Dec 7 10:00a
Santa Monica Beach, Santa MonicaSanta Monica Pet Expo & Pet adoption is a FREE and exciting day-long festival for the entire family - dogs/cats and their owners, dog lovers -, friends and visitors from town and surrounding areas,...
New Media Film Festival Call For Entries - ALL Categories
Tuesday, Jun 9 7:00p
The Landmark, Los AngelesHonoring Stories Worth Telling CALL For Film & Media Submissions The 6th Annual New Media FIlm Festival Each submission is considered for Screening, Competition ($45,000...
6th Annual New Media Film Festival
Wednesday, Jun 10 7:00p
The Landmark, Los AngelesAn International Festival based in Los Angeles, the New Media Film Festival celebrates the ever-changing world of new media...
Summer Fest at Venice Beach
Saturday, Jul 25 10:00a
Venice Beach, VeniceSummer Fest In Venice Beach is here, and will be extra special with special performe opening with a march for homeless. Kids location, carnival and beer garden...
Hometown Country Fair
Saturday, Apr 4 10:00a
Crescenta Valley Park, San FernandoCommunity Event, including carnival, craft booths, car show, food, entertainment, dog parade. 4,000 attendees expected. ** Estimated start time Please confirm **
Fiesta Broadway
Sunday, Apr 26 10:00a
Downtown, Los AngelesThe largest Hispanic event in the nation's largest Hispanic market in the Country; marketing, exhibiting, selling and sampling opportunities. 300,000 attendees expected...
Murder Mystery Dinner Train
Saturday, Dec 6 10:00a
Fillmore & Western Railway, FillmoreEmbark on an evening train ride with a first-class three-course dinner, served while actors commit mirth and murder...
Santa Clarita Swap Meet - May - Opening Day
Tuesday, Dec 2 10:00a
Saugus Speedway And Swap Meet, SaugusOne of Southern California's oldest and largest open air markets. Open every Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday from 7:00 am - 2:00 pm. Average attendance is approx 7,000 per week...
Downtown Burbank Fine Arts Festival
Saturday, Apr 18 10:00a
Downtown Burbank, BurbankBrowse thousands of works of art for sale, participate in interactive art projects and enjoy nonstop live entertainment at this four-block outdoor street event held on San Fernando Boulevard betwee...
Ojai Valley Lavender Festival
Saturday, Jun 27 10:00a
Libbey Park, OjaiArtisans and Crafters, Plants, Various lavender products, Live Music all day, Speaker area with presentations on Lavender, aromatherapy, permaculture-sustainable agriculture, growing food in our Me...
Jhene Aiko with SZA, The Internet
Friday, Dec 12 9:00p
Club Nokia, Los Angeles
Westlake Village fairs festivals Related Topics
fairs & festivals | broadway festival los angeles | fillmore train murder mystery | market | encino street festival | carnival | egg hunt | jazz | festival | top fortypop<br> | christmas | new year's eve | breakfast with santa in whittier | costume contest | craft fair | oxnard tamale festival | new year | festivals | free events | saugus swap meet | food truck | family shows
Hot Tickets More »
Sun 10/11 10:00a
Sat 12/6 10:00a
Fri 12/12 9:00p
Sat 1/10 7:30p
Sat 1/24 10:00a
On Sale: Fri 11/28Sat 1/31 5:30p
Upcoming Holiday Events More »
A John Waters Christmas
Thu 12/4 9:00p
Brooke White
Thu 12/11 7:30p
An Irish Christmas
Sun 12/21 2:30p
Satwiwa Winter Solstice Art Show & Sale
Sun 12/7 10:00a
Horse Tales
Sat 11/29 10:00a


text:
I just installed MPC 184.108.40.206, Real Alternative 1.48 and
Quick Time Alternative 1.69 and all seem to work fine,
unless I try to open any of the *.swf flash files I
have stored on my 'puter.
Whenever I try to play a flash (swf) file, MPC gives an
error inside its bottom black rectangular window,"Can't
create shockwave control." I looked all over and there
are no FAQ/HELP pages that discuss this one here, on
the web, or on Usenet, so it must be a new problem.
Otherwise I wouldn't bother you guys.
Any ideas how to fix this?
OS: Win XP Pro, Firefox 220.127.116.11 (I haven't tried to
open any flash files through Firefox, yet.)


text:
- Cooking Time:
- Servings:
- Preparation Time:
- 3 cups canned pumpkin puree
- 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
- 4 cups white sugar
- 6 eggs
- 4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
- 1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 9x5 inch loaf pans.
- 2. In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin, oil, sugar, and eggs. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves; stir into the pumpkin mixture until well blended. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.
- 3. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour. The top of the loaf should spring back when lightly pressed. Mini muffins should bake 17 to 20 minutes.
NotesThis is a great recipe. It makes about 3 loves and 24 mini muffins, so be prepared to share! You can nuts, chocolate chips or even raisins if you like. Top it off with cream cheese frosting and you're in heaven! WOW! It's a wonderful recipe. Enjoy!
Presented by
Holiday Meal Planning
Wine Pairing Chat
Cupcake Recipes: Allison Robicelli Cupcake Chat
The Lizz Delicious Cookbook Vol. 1
What to serve unexpected guests {and look like you planned it all along}.
Austin Personal Training RecipesSee More
Holey Moley Dark Mexican Chocolate Dulce De Leche Brownies
Walnut-Basil Pesto
Sweet, Salty, Frito CandySee More


text:
Already a Bloomberg.com user?
Sign in with the same account.
Don't have an account?
Sign up.
Help! I can't access my account.
Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg's Sheila Dharmarajan and Bloomberg Industries director Paul Sweeney discuss the potential impact of the payroll tax hike on consumers as Wal-Mart records its worst monthly sales in seven years in January. They speak on Bloomberg Television's "Bloomberg Surveillance.
On Air Now
Bloomberg Surveillance
Watch Now
In The Loop with Betty Liu
©2014 Bloomberg L.P. All Rights Reserved. Made in NYC
Ad Choices


text:
Find our favorite homemade candy recipes on our Christmas Candy Pinterest Board.
Learn new tips, tricks and techniques from the Test Kitchen experts. Save $5 with code ONLINE at checkout.
Perfect dinners in a pinch with 316 quick-and-easy recipes!
Esther Danielson
"I am a freelance writer, an artist and an avid gardener. My husband, Ed, and I are active in our church and sing in the choir. We have been married 53 years, and have two grown daughters and four grandchildren.
"I love preparing traditional American food as well as American versions of Chinese and Italian. A few years ago, I edited a church cookbook. I've had several recipes appear in newspapers and magazines, and once won $100 in a magazine contest.
"I've been reading Taste of Home since it was first published, so this (win) is an honor."
Category: Serves 2
Recipe: Asian-Style Baby Back Ribs
Finalist: Esther Danielson, San Marcos, CA
Please sign in to post
Please enter a valid email
Please Select Username to appear on public areas of the site like community and recipe comments.