Study of the 212 mile segment of the Porcupine River from the Canadian-US border to its mouth on the Yukon River. The whole segment is eligible for inclusion in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. It meets the criteria as wild from the border to the confluence with the Sucker River and as scenic from that point downstream to its mouth.
The rich tapestry of Alaska is threaded together by 365,000 miles of waterways, from cascading mountain streams to meandering valley rivers, from the meltwaters of glaciers to broad rivers that empty into the sea. This guide profiles a wide variety of rivers from all over Alaska, concentrating on trips for intermediate boaters, and including a few major expeditions for the experienced river-runner. A section on gear outlines what to take into the backcountry.
His story begins with the arrival of his father, Howard Kantner, to the remote Arctic of the 1950s and ends with him as a grown man settled in the same landscape. Through a series of moving essays and vivid photographs, ranging in subject from family histories to hunting stories, celebrations of people and places to a lament over a majestic wilderness rapidly disappearing, Shopping for Porcupine provides a compelling, intimate view of America's last frontier -- the same place that captivated so many readers of Ordinary Wolves.
RAISING OURSELVES is a gritty, sobering, yet irresistible memoir filled with laughter even as generations of Gwich'in grief seeps from past to present. But hope pushes back hopelessness, and a new strength and wisdom emerge from the lives of the native people of the Yukon River in Alaska.
"Long and sympathetic watching, radio tracking, chemical analysis are all part of this naturalist's ingenious and peaceable arsenal of inquiry into the lives of porcupines."--Scientific American
Tucked away in the northeastern corner of Alaska is one of the most contested landscapes in all of North America: the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Considered sacred by Indigenous peoples in Alaska and Canada and treasured by environmentalists, the refuge provides life-sustaining habitat for caribou, polar bears, migratory birds, and other species. For decades, though, the fossil fuel industry and powerful politicians have sought to turn this unique ecosystem into an oil field. Defending the Arctic Refuge tells the improbable story of how the people fought back. At the center of the story is the unlikely figure of Lenny Kohm (1939–2014), a former jazz drummer and aspiring photographer who passionately committed himself to Arctic Refuge activism. With the aid of a trusty slide show, Kohm and representatives of the Gwich'in Nation traveled across the United States to mobilize grassroots opposition to oil drilling. From Indigenous villages north of the Arctic Circle to Capitol Hill and many places in between, this book shows how Kohm and Gwich'in leaders and environmental activists helped build a political movement that transformed the debate into a struggle for environmental justice. In its final weeks, the Trump administration fulfilled a long-sought dream of drilling proponents: leasing much of the Arctic Refuge coastal plain for fossil fuel development. Yet the fight to protect this place is certainly not over. Defending the Arctic Refuge traces the history of a movement that is alive today—and that will continue to galvanize diverse groups to safeguard this threatened land.
Boreal forest Indians like the Kutchin of east-central Alaska are among the few native Americans who still actively pursue a hunter's way of life. Yet even among these people hunting and gathering is vanishing so rapidly that it will soon disappear. This updated edition of Hunters of the Northern Forest stands as the only complete account of subsistence and survival among the Kutchin, capturing a final glimpse of a way of life at the crossroads of cultural development.
"The Yukon River is 2,000 miles long and the longest stretch of free-flowing river in the United States. In this riveting examination of one of the last wild places on earth, Adam Weymouth canoes from Canada's Yukon Territory, through Alaska, to the Bering Sea. The result is a book that shows how even the most remote wilderness is affected by the same forces reshaping the rest of the planet. Every summer, hundreds of thousands of king salmon migrate the distance of the Yukon to their spawning grounds, where they breed and die, in what is the longest salmon run in the world. For the people who live along the river, salmon were once the lifeblood of commerce and local culture. But climate change and globalized economy have fundamentally altered the balance between people and nature; the health and numbers of king salmon are in question, as is the fate of the communities that depend on them. Traveling down the Yukon as the salmon migrate, a four-month journey through untrammeled landscape, Weymouth traces the fundamental interconnectedness of people and fish through searing and unforgettable portraits of the individuals he encounters. He offers a powerful, nuanced glimpse into indigenous cultures, and into our ever-complicated relationship with the natural world. Weaving in the rich history of salmon across time as well as the science behind their mysterious life cycle, 'Kings of the Yukon' is extraordinary adventure and nature writing at its most urgent and poetic"--Dust jacket.
