Last summer’s unusually warm weather fueled an explosion in the western blackheaded budworm, leaving masses of browning trees in many areas of Southeast. The worm, which is the larval stage of the budworm moth, is known to feed on the new growth of trees, leaving them with a brownish-red appearance.
There were 4,500 lightning strikes in Alaska Tuesday — the latest in a run of days with thousands of ground strikes. There were also another 13 new, primarily lightning sparked wildfires in the state Tuesday, mostly in the Interior. The lightning storms have coincided with very dry conditions.
Hunters in Central Southeast Alaska have reported a record harvest of 141 bulls during the month-long moose hunt, surpassing the previous record of 132 bulls set in 2021, with the majority of the harvest occurring on Kupreanof Island. A couple decades ago, there were very few of them in the region — and the hunt was almost entirely relegated to the mainland. But over the years, he said he’s seen more moose cropping up on remote islands.
It’s one of only four mammals in Alaska to contract the virus, and the first brown bear to be found with the disease.
In an unusual event, a pair of beluga whales swam about 60 miles up the Kuskokwim River to Bethel. After word got out, boaters pursued the belugas and took at least one of them. Now, an official is working to collect samples of the animal to better understand where it came from.
The sunken scallop boat, Saint Patrick, remains a pollution hazard off the coast of Kodiak, Alaska, decades after sinking in 1989, bringing up memories of a devastating fishing disaster in 1981 that claimed nine lives.
Carmichael pointed to a tree that fell across one of the riverside campground spots, taking out a fence. There’s another on the opposite side of the path, branches strewn across an open patch of snow. They’re among the 1,000 high-priority trees the city wants to remove due to safety concerns.
Entomologists confirm the report of the world's largest hornet — a worrisome invasive species that originates from East Asia and Japan — by a person in a rural area near the Canadian border.
Safeway on Mill Bay Road is the only large grocery store on the island. And store management expected the barge to bypass Kodiak after its last visit, with a resupply stop scheduled ahead of this past weekend. But snowstorms and gusty weather, including hurricane-force winds, scuttled those plans. “In my entire career, I’ve never seen two successive bypasses,” said Mike Murray, the store director of Kodiak’s Safeway.
The booming Bristol Bay salmon run has broken the record set just last year, while on the Yukon River, Chinook are too scarce to harvest.
The roof collapsed at a South Anchorage gym during a fitness competition. The Anchorage Office of Emergency Management cautioned residents that the city has had near-record snow conditions this winter, and residents should consider the snow load on their roofs. Officials also warned that property owners should exercise extreme caution if removing snow from their roofs themselves.
The repeated run-ins with the bear were part of the reason that one children's camp decided to move out of Russian Jack to another park.
A fishing crew near Prince of Wales Island recently made an unusual catch: a Pacific green sea turtle. This not only excited the crew, but has also caught the attention of marine biologists.
Extreme winds and cold temperatures have affected the areas. At one point over the weekend, 20,000 households in Mat-Su lost power.
State Veterinarian Dr. Robert Gerlach says the Mat-Su case confirms that migrating birds have brought avian influenza to Alaska.
“Whatever led up to the situation where all the sudden we don't have any fuel in the dead of winter, and with all these storms coming through, is beyond me,” said St. George resident Victor Malavansky. “I would like to say this is totally unacceptable.”
Iditarod teams faced a challenging first quarter with bare ground damaging sleds and a dangerous encounter with an aggressive moose that injured a dog.
The man was buried between 5-8 minutes before two other skiers in his group located him with avalanche transceivers.
It's cold. And those frigid temperatures aren't going away anytime soon. The cold has set in across most of Alaska and set daily record lows in places like Homer, King Salmon and Bethel. It's relatively early to be seeing such cold.
The Yukon, Tanana, Koyukuk, Kuskokwim and Susitna basins all have more snowpack than usual — and some are well above normal.
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