What's it like to fly with eagles?

Flying over a glacier on my way from Anchorage to Cordova to Yakutat

Bear track on the beach

So my first hike in Alaska was on a trail that hasn’t been completed yet but is in a gorgeous location. I went with my supervisor Susan and her boyfriend and their sweet dog, Lexie. The trail follows the beach with a breathtaking view of Mt. Saint Elias and many other snow-capped peaks and a view of Yakutat Bay.  We hiked past a tree almost chewed entirely through by a beavers, watched numerous bald eagles fly overhead, and enjoyed the rare 100% sunshine.  Part of the trail loops down onto the beach where I saw my first bear tracks….. and they.were. HUGE.  They were large not only just for my standards (my standards being ANY bear is a big bear), but for the others whom actually have bear experience.  We hiked out to the Ankau bridge and then looped back on the road- about a 3 hour hike altogether, but no elevation changes here- too flat!

That night a group of coworkers and friends and many dogs had a barbeque at one of the campsites on Cannon Beach overlooking the vast Gulf of Alaska. I tried some wonderful cooked salmon and even some moose! We eventually moved down to the beach and built a fire and cooked some smores while watching the sunset. The dogs started going crazy and everyone reassured eachother that the dogs always do that, but sure enough they started to run up to the trees and there was a bear poking its head out of the woods! A big one! Brown bear, which I learned is the same as a grizzly, only bigger because of its rich diet of fish from living on the coast. So while browns are not quite as big as Kodiak bears (which are also another type of grizzly), they are big enough.  People started packing up all the food to get ready to leave, and the bear circled back and took another run at the campsite, so we got out pretty quickly.

Sunset on Cannon Beach

On the short drive home from the beach we caught a glimpse of the Northern Lights, though they were faint.  During all of these moments I couldn’t help but think how wild and amazing this country is- this whole world is! Even more than the sense of awe and wonder about nature that I get while canoeing the Westbranch of the Penobscot I get here. In my journal from that night I wrote, “I now get what Grandpa lived for, and now I know more than ever that it’s in my blood”. Maybe that's cheesey, but it was how I was feeling at the time.

The day after I went on another 3 hour hike with another coworker (Teresa) and her husband, Brad, and two dogs.  We hiked along Tawak Creek and once again saw too many eagles to count, a sea lion out off the beach, some tracks from bear and moose, and the remains of ancient Tlinget villages.  I believe Teresa said it was the oldest known village in the SE Alaska region.  So humbling to think about the lives of people before and their history, and consider what the landscape looked like when they lived. Cool to be walking the same land that they once did so long ago!

I learned about Devil’sClub- a terrible annoying plant that has thorns that stick into your skin and give you little painful red bumps for a while- as well as Skunk Cabbage, a pretty yellow flower.

On Wednesday I went out with Nate (my other supervisor) and a man from Alaska Fish & Game to do an aerial survey of hooligan (smelt) and stellar sea lions. That meant we went up in this little 5 person float plane and gained a spectacular view of the glaciers, mountains, rivers & estuaries, and ocean. We saw lots of sea lions but apparently there are usually even more than that in certain spots. 

Our float plane

The guys spotted a bear which just looked like a little black dot but they told me it was definitely a big one.  I told them that I’m noticing a pattern here… it seems that every time we see bear tracks or a bear… someone claims that it’s a big bear. Didn’t see any hooligan, (except for the ones in the plane! Haha).  One of the best parts of that excursion was watching the eagles soaring below and right next to our plane.  We were flying WITH the eagles! So majestic. I keep telling people here that I know I make a big deal of seeing the eagles and they aren't a big deal here, but I certainly won't be getting sick of seeing them any time soon.

 

One view of the mountains from the float plane

Later that night a girl I met who is an Americorps volunteer working in the school and I helped a fish and game biologist who flew in to do some bat monitoring. We counted 255 bats flying out of this abandoned building in town between 930-11pm! Very cool device called an Arabat that detects them, but once they started coming out we just counted/estimated the best we could.

Thursday was one of the most jaw-dropping days EVERRRR and that will be next to write about!

Sea lions from plane

North to the Future: The Last Frontier

Aerial view of Yakutat

Yakutat, Alaska!!!!
Now, I'm thinking (and secretly kind of hoping) this blog won't be as thorough as my last one, considering all of the things that I plan to be spending my time doing that don't involve sitting in front of a computer. But ultimately a blog is quicker than sending lots of individual emails out.  It also is a quick way for me to post journal entries (even though there is something wonderful about writing in an actual journal, and I will still continue to do that) and include some pictures!

As most of you know, I took a position with the SCA (Student Conservation Association) to be a Fish & Wildlife intern with the US Forest Service (USFS) in the Yakutat Ranger District of the Tongass National Forest.  The Yakutat Ranger district (District 10) is the most remote district. My funding comes through the USFS and I am also affiliated with Americorps as I plan to receive an Americorps Education Award at the end of my service, as long as I complete all the hours.

Yakutat is in Southeast AK, between Anchorage and Sitka/Juneau, and has a population of about 600 people. It is heaven for fishermen and apparently a big surfing destination too.  I am working mainly with one fisheries biologist and one wildlife biologist but will be working alongside many other people in the USFS in Yakutat.  The Tongass National Forest is the nation's largest National Forest, covering 500 square miles. The area I am living in is incredibly flat but surrounded by massive mountains which are probably about 10-20 miles away (as the crow flies, but I don't think they are possible to get to without a plane, helicopter, or boat (or a very strong pair of legs and lots of bear spray). Mt. Saint Elias (one of the largest mountains in North America) and Mt. Fairweather are both visible depending on the visibility and where you are in Yakutat.  The Tongass National Forest, a temperate rainforest, is bordered by Glacier Bay National Park to the south, the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the Southwest, and a Canadian National Park to the east. It encompasses mountains, islands, fjords, and glaciers.  Yakutat is home to the Tlingit (Kling-it) people, an Alaska Native people, who named it the "place where the canoes rest".

Tlingit art

The main purpose of this summer was to work with the River Ranger and educate people about ethical fishing practices and bear safety, and answer any questions that fishermen or anyone else have out on the Situk River, but as of yet no River Ranger has been hired (my bosses are having lots of problems with the hiring process and government red tape).  So we shall see. There will be plenty for me to do but it may not go as planned (I'm learning already how similar Samoa and Yakutat are, despite how distant they are from one another!) Things move slow here, a lot of what does get done is done by just a few people, and in some respects there is a divide between the locals and government employees or volunteer teachers from elsewhere (Americorps).  I'm already learning SO much about where our tax money goes- the good and the bad.

Thus far I've done a fair amount of just shadowing my superiors on trail surverys or wildlife surveys. But everyday is a new adventure.  I don't feel super useful yet, just getting my bearings and doing a lot of training- bear safety, defensive driving, cpr & first aid, more to come.  The first few days here were BEAUTIFUL, sunny, and warm, but since that ended it's been fairly cloudy and very cold (fore me)!  But we desperately need rain; the rivers are incredibly low.  The Cleavers know what it's like to have angry fishermen around so we can't have that!

My next few posts will cover the adventures I've gone on so far and all the wildlife I've been fortunate enough to see (and keep my distance from) :), just wanted to get this up and running!

If anyone needs my address up here my mail gets sent to the USFS office:
Sara Cleaver
C/O Yakutat Ranger District
PO Box 327
712 Cape Ocean Road
Yakutat, AK 99689