The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy is the leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people.
Seeing the Forest for the Flying Squirrels
Flying squirrels glide through the trees with the greatest of ease — but only if they have a big enough patch of forest.
But just how much forest does a flying squirrel need?
Tongass Second Growth Wood Guide
Students at Sitka High School are building furniture that’s truly Alaska grown. The wood in their furniture projects has come from red alder trees harvested in young-growth forest in the Tongass National Forest.
A new guide published by the Sitka Conservation Society profiles a variety of projects – including two at the Sitka High School – that are testing the limits of how young-growth can be used.
In Alaska, Giving Wild Salmon Is Tradition
On a September morning, a coastal lagoon in Alaska glistens like smooth glass. The Tlingit village on the shore is still quiet.
But a delectable aroma in the air reveals something at work: salmon were hung in the smokehouse with care.
Heavy Lifting in a Salmon Stream: Alaska’s Tongass Forest Restores Habitat
A Volvo 480 crawler excavator is a big yellow machine. Weighing in at well over 50 tons, it will move just about anything, such as a 17,000-pound log.
Massive logs like these are key ingredients in restoring salmon streams but only if they’re put in the right place.
How to Make a Salmon Print
At Salmon Camp in Bristol Bay, young people from across the region gather for a fantastic summer experience.
Here’s a simple lesson in how to make a salmon print — with non-toxic ink — before you prepare your salmon for the table.
Field Biology, Models, and Alaska’s Caribou
A scientist named Melanie Smith recently drew up a map of a particular tract of public land in Alaska’s far north. Look closely and you’ll see villages: Nuiqsut, Wainwright, and Atqasuk. You may notice, too, that though this map covers an area the size of Maine, there are no roads that criss-cross it. The roads and pipelines of oil developments at Prudhoe Bay lie to the east, far beyond the flat horizon of the coastal plain. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is even farther east, more than 100 miles from here.
Bringing Light Back to the Forest
This spring a crew of carpenters will sweep the last of the winter snows from their sawhorses, ready for Alaska’s building season to begin. Though days are long, the summer is short – there’s no time to waste.
Bill and Carolyn Thomason, who own a small sawmill in the rainforest of Prince of Wales Island in the Alaska panhandle, are resuming work on a log cabin in a picturesque little town in Alaska.
Restoring Salmon Streams in Alaska’s Tongass
A Haida elder named Viola Burgess made history on this day. We were on the banks of a newly restored salmon stream in Alaska, where dozens of people had come from near and far to celebrate as wild salmon splashed their way upstream in crystalline water. Viola had renamed the stream, once so damaged it was thought to be beyond repair.
