For the first time, the race will run two laps to its halfway point and back. Mushers agree it’s the safest way to run the race, but it could present challenges.
“The ice was so thick flowing down the river. It was forming so fast. It was freezing so fast. Just amazing. I’d never seen anything like that," one of the hunters, Rex Nick, said.
Sled dog racing season officially began on the Kuskokwim this weekend. Listen now
Usually Aug. 7 is the midpoint of the coho run, but this year it was not until Aug. 8 that numbers at the Bethel test fishery increased, and then only modestly.
The weather may be cold, but it’s too soon to get out on the river ice. The ice is forming up better than it did two years ago, when the winter was the warmest on record, but it is not freezing as fast or as well as last winter, when conditions were near-perfect.
Shifting seasons and hotter temperatures could allow Alaska farmers to grow more abundant and diverse produce. But climate change can also bring drought, pests and permafrost thaw. Human-caused climate change is bringing longer and warmer growing seasons, but also pests and unstable weather.
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